Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

the mass of climbers. You can safely employ most of the exercises contained in this book. Most of your limitations relate to dynamic, forceful training exercises, which become increasingly dangerous with advancing age. Climbers over fifty years of age would be wise to not engage in the most dynamic forms of campus training, One-Arm Lock-Offs or One-Arm Pull-Ups, frequent lunging, and steep V-hard bouldering. Of course, every climber possesses different generic encoding, experience, and physical capabilities, so there are surely a few senior climbers who prevail through the most stressful endeavors. But for the vast majority of older climbers, dynamic training is dangerous training. Otherwise, your fitness-training goals are similar to those of every other climber: optimize body composition, improve aerobic capacity and stamina, and increase muscular strength and endurance.
    Preplanning workout and rest days is of great importance for the older climber. Too many back-to-back workout (or climbing) days, too little rest, and poor nutrition over just a few consecutive days will crack open the door to possible injury or illness. Compound this over several weeks and it will fling the door wide. Once an older climber is injured and sick, reduced immune efficiency and changing hormone levels mean slower recovery and a faster drop-off of physical conditioning than for a younger climber. The bottom line for over-fifty climbers: Train, rest, and eat on a calculated schedule that will reduce injury risk, and do nothing to tempt injury.

     
    A climber for life, the master of rock John Gill still enjoys pulling down at age seventy. ERIC J. HÖRST
     

TECHNICAL AND MENTAL MASTERY
     
    The best older climbers are usually Zen masters who leverage the fact that climbing performance is two-thirds technical and mental and only one-third physical. By exploiting superior skill and wisdom, and bringing many years of experience to the table, older climbers can become true masters of rock by climbing very near their maximum capacity. Whether that top capability is 5.8 or 5.13, you can spot these elder masters by their measured approach, smooth sailing through scary terrain, and even the occasional calculated lunge or grunt that shows they are still willing to pull out all the stops to send.
    Developing such mastery takes many years; in fact, in a complex sport such as climbing you can still acquire and refine mental and technical skills even after ten or twenty years’ experience. So while your physical capacities may be steady or waning, you can often compensate by improving mentally and technically. Consequently, you should strive to strike a balance between fitness training—still an important part of the equation—and going climbing at one of the myriad wonderful crags around the world. And, after all, isn’t that the bottom line? Simply by moving over stone, you tap into the life force that climbing provides, which transcends ability, gender, and age. That’s the power of climbing!

Training for Junior Climbers
     
    Kids can unquestionably learn complex sports skills more rapidly than adults, and in recent years we’ve seen numerous “wonder kids” take the sport-climbing world by storm. Clearly these young, generally pre-pubescent climbers possess the slight physique ideal for difficult climbing. There are numerous other physiological traits that work in their favor to enhance function and rate of recovery. Unfortunately these young climbers often lack the maturity, self-awareness, and life experience to transfer their sport-climbing prowess to a wide range of climbing pursuits. They are also not prepared for the rigors of serious sport-specific training as outlined in this text. Let’s take a look at the appropriate type of activity and training for youth climbers of different ages.
TRAINING FOR YOUTH CLIMBERS (UNDER AGE THIRTEEN)
     
    Preteens are much better off simply climbing for fun over performance. Climbing indoors or outdoors up to four days per week will allow their natural ability and strength to surface. The coaching emphasis should be on skill training and the fundamental aspects of the mental game. No strength training is advised other than basic body weight exercises such as pull-ups, push-ups, dips, abdominal crunches, and basic free-weight training with very light dumbbells. Special attention should be given to performing antagonist training (push-muscle exercises twice per week) to maintain body balance,