The Reason You Can't Hold Body Tension

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A common misconception in climbing is that body tension is primarily generated by tightening the core. When people hear “stay tight!”, they take that as their cue to flex their abs as hard as they can, often times cutting feet and front levering through a sequence. Climbers will religiously train their core through all types of exercises but still come off the wall during moments that require high body tension. So what gives?This video will cover the primary components that are required to create body tension in climbing. We’ll separate them into the categories of leverage and pressure.
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0:00 Intro
1:00 Creating Leverage
1:22 Counterpressure
2:10 90 Degree Rule
3:13 Applying Pressure
4:07 Mind Your Feet
4:42 Training Body Tension
5:08 Open vs Closed Chain
6:02 Extended Traversing Feet
6:50 Common Weaknesses
7:21 Outro

[EtaiDvora]

Cool way to explain it! One phrase I always liked from a coach I know is "Your core is every part of your body between your fingertips and your toes". Perhaps technically untrue, but it helps a lot to think about creating tension not just by tightening your abs, but thinking about tightening and positioning your whole body in certain specific ways to help yourself stay on the wall.

[Motodidakt]

How hard was it for this guy to pretend he couldn't hold body tension on those problems? He probably maintains his core tension while sleeping and does pull ups to get out of bed when he wakes up at 3am.
Basically I'm jealous of the fitness level, haha.

[AmirNickname]

On "mind your feet": I have a background in martial arts too and I've considered making a video to explain how the principles of a punch also apply to climbing movements. When I see beginners throw a punch, I can see them move their centre of gravity up as they throw the punch, thus they are no longer rooted and lose power. It's similar in climbing: even though you want to go up to the next hold, you'll want to stay rooted by staying low at the same time.

[minnietammie]

Your explanations of climbing techniques are so easy to understand. One of my favorite educational climbing channels!

[Cavery]

I've been climbing a long time but the closed chain explanation of training was really excellent. I've been doing that extended traverses on a board intuitively for skill building since I've returned to climbing and was really pleased to see it depicted here. I will make the effort to think through my feet while looking at the hand, great way to put it!

[sandybuttcheeks]

Found this channel a couple days ago, and have found all your videos super useful. While I have been climbing for a while, and have come across the techniques and methods used - I didnt have them formulated or put into words. So to get that from you has been great. Thankyou so much, keep doing what youre doing.

[philyskes]

You make the most in depth short videos, that are so insightful.

[fabios]

Great explanations in this video! It's so bizarre how in so many disciplines people think core strenght is a magical thing that will solve all their problems. Handbalancing might be the most annoying example. I guess it's just easier to say "tense you core" than to give a complete and comprehensive explanation like this one 🙌

[RyanDaMannn]

Counter pressure is such an integral part of climbing. It’s awesome that he highlighted this first. It’s the difference between advancing as a climber and being stuck on your grade. Helps those 5.10 climbers become 5.11+ climbers

[tomlloyd]

throughout this whole video I was having realisations of "I make that exact mistake" which I would not have realised without it. Thank you so much.

[RielleOlivo]

I learned more in those last 7 min than in the past months ; thank you!

[TrebleWing]

I really enjoy your teaching style. Thank you for putting these together. They really help a lot.

[RossPotts]

Man, can LITERALLY recall each of thos problems from previous sessions. I think I know what to do now.

[SamanthaSegan]

Wow, incredibly helpful and clear. As an educator, I am impressed by your pedagogy.

[functionallyyou]

This is one of my favorite topics in climbing, amazing job covering it!!

[GuidoSausage]

Yes, the zen climber is back. Keep up the good work my friend! 👍

[johnshipley]

Mate you make the best videos!
I watch loads of YouTube but probably only absorb 10% of the information but I seem to absorb much more information the way you put it out and I appreciate you dude, thank you.

[dalmirogranas]

Seriously this one of the best climbing channels out there

[mitchellhintzsche]

This is probably my favorite video on your channel so far! I couldn't agree more with every point you make.

[JesusRobledo]

Glad to see new videos out, and I hope you liked the problems set at Momentum.