We asked 5 Elite Climbers about Weightlifting

Today we are asking several important questions about weightlifting and resistance training to a range of elite rock climbers.

It’s widely accepted amongst coaches, physios and professional climbers as a powerful tool to enhance sports performance 🦾 and reduce the risk of injury 🤕.

Therefore it's no surprise elite rock climbers are using this form of training to supplement their on-the-wall practice.

But we still get many questions about which exercises are best, how often and how much we should be strength training, and if it's even worth our time ⏱️.

No one answer is the same, so try to take inspiration from each of these climbers and decide what is right for you! 🫵

0:23 - How much S&C do you do?
4:14 - How does it benefit you?
7:42 - Favourite Exercise?
11:06 - Overrated S&C?

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[harperm]

I think one thing to note is that these climbers are from the UK. I think it would be interesting to see how answers would differ amongst different climbers particular japanese climbers as in Emils recent video with Tomoa and Meichi they said that they do almost no resistance training or fingerboarding as part of their training, and yet these are two of the strongest boulderers on the comp scene.

[theflaggeddragon]

Listening to Aidan rediscover the facepull is hilarious 😂

[plastikmaiden]

Aiden has rediscovered the face-pull!

Seeing the climbing community as a whole getting into strength and conditioning is really i teresting.

[ComputerManDanMiller]

My biggest takeaway so far is that Ollie's shirt is gorgeous.

[RFLXSNPR]

It's always important to think of the genetic outliers with these questions. The strongest 1% are likely hyper-responders, and are much more likely to get very strong and explosive from doing little-no supplementary training. The further down on that spectrum, the more you'll need to build it.

[sergiogonzalezcancela]

I feel stronger, healthier and free injury since I do it, so I think is great doing it regularly, maybe not focusing too much on hipertrofy, but pure strength.

[gball]

At the end of the day, being a strong human is always better than being a weak human. Lean muscle mass is one of the key predictors of longevity and it protects the body from injury. If you don't lift, you should strongly consider adding at least a little to your training.

[adamhaas]

I like the format of this video. Please do one on technique! I think it's really valuable to see multiple perspectives on the same issue.

[lisasnotes]

Please a technique specific video with these athletes! Specially techniques for rock climbing would be highly appreciated! Thanks for the hard work!

[kooovin]

I really liked this video. Interviewing these athletes separately lets us into their candid thoughts on these topics. I've found in my own climbing that resistance training helps my body feel more resilient and solid, whereas just climbing with no resistance training leaves me feeling brittle.

I would love to see a video of this format focusing on technique training. Other topics like finger strength training and mobility would be cool to see too.

[Lockon]

I'm currently spending 50% of my time on the wall and 50% of my time off the wall. I've been slowly getting stronger and slowly climbing harder. I'm certain I would have plateaued a while ago if I just followed the common 'just climb' advice.

[LuLzezRoflcopter]

Surprised deadlifts and squats weren’t mentioned much. I feel they helped my climbing. Specifically in jumping higher for dynos, and the amount I can pull through a heel hook blows the minds of guys I climb with. I think having strong hamstrings and quads makes these moves feel easy.

[slapthesloper]

I did weighted pull ups before I was a climber and got to about 160% body weight.

After 5 years of climbing and consistently become stronger across the board my weighted pull ups are almost completely unchanged because nothing I do on the wall stimulates my pulling muscles enough to cause the top end to increase (fingers are almost always more limiting than pulling power)

The only way I could really train it on the wall I think would be campusing on jugs so I’m looking to start training pull ups off the wall again and I bet being stronger at them would help me on the wall a bit.

[Korky]

Thank you! Really enjoyed the video. The concept is great. Please continue with this format.

[connordavidson]

Great vid! As a sports physio there was a lot of great advice, I would however suggest most climbers would benefit from lower volume (reps and sets) with higher loads (weight) as it will not fatigue their reserves for more climbing as much (if fatigue conditioning is not the the goal). Additionally, higher loads (within safe ability) will increase the working structures capacity better (think ligaments and tendon integrity) which will better reduce risk of injury than lower loads high reps, AND higher loads of lower rep sets improve strength gains more over time and most tricky climbing manoeuvres that require a large amount of strength don't usually involve more than 1-2 reps on the wall anyway.
Final unsolicited advice, would be range of motion should never be compromised for load in climbers because of the positions you may end up in are more extreme, so for example a great leg strength exercise (no leg exercises were mentioned) would be hip abducted and externally rotated to the side on a stable box/surface facing close to a wall (mimicking the rock over) then basically doing full range pistol squats in this position at load you can only do around 5 reps/set. It's super sport specific and if you can't pistol squat you can jump yourself up to the top and then try to control the negative eccentric of the movement until you can do a full pistol squat yourself.
Just getting into bouldering and getting a lot from this channel, would be keen to contribute in or see a physio/climbing conditioning coach specific video in the future

[KarstenThoughts]

Wearing a Hawaiian shirt benefits Ollie's climbing more than weightlifting.

[AuDazzity]

Illuminating! Can't wait for the technique training video to drop!

[roberttveit]

Thank you for a great video, really enjoyed the format.

[queasybeetle]

If you are a amateur who doesn't climb as much should probably be doing some weights as it is more time efficient.

[natebussard]

For me resistance training is more about keeping my body fit for climbing. Working full time, less emphasis on diet, and what it does for me mentally. Not gifted strength wise but lifting helps and it makes mind muscle connections which can be applied to the skill based sport climbing certainly is.