All About Those Legs?

When I stepped into Stone Summit, I saw many types of people. Some men had huge muscles, and many of the women looked fit and strong, but not so buff. After my first climbs, I thought that rock climbing was all about strength considering the difficulty I had keeping myself on the wall. I decided that I would research what exercises you could do outside of the gym to improve your strength which would improve your climbing. I found two articles (Training: 10 Exercises for a Complete Core and New Workouts to Refresh You Gym Training) that provided great information on how to strengthen the muscles that will help with climbing. I expected arm strength to be the most needed, but it's actually your legs that power a climb. It is common to think that climbing consists of pulling yourself up with your arms, but climbing is actually pushing up with your legs so that your hand can reach the next hold. This common mistake was one that I made when I went climbing which explained why my arms became exhausted after a short time of climbing. These exercises are helpful for climbers that can't find time to go to an indoor rock climbing gym.

However, I came across another article that offered the question, "why get stronger when you can get better?" Andrew Bisharat argues that technique is more important than strength. A climber needs to understand how to take advantage of their equipment and use their own body in the most efficient way possible. What good would being strong do you if you don't know how to utilize that strength? I realize that no matter how many overly buff men and women there are at the gym, it was mainly their technique that got them to the top. Even children that don't have half the strength of an adult can make it higher than many unskilled adults at the gym. I've found that there should be a balance on the time spent on technique and time spent on building strength in order to become the best climber you can be.

Next week, I'll be looking at the disadvantages of rock climbing.