Training material for the beginner

I'm a busy family/working guy, approaching middle age, who started climbing this summer, both outdoor and indoor. As winter is coming on I make it to the indoor wall 2-3x per week.

My motivation is simply to enjoy the combined physical and mental challenge of eventually getting on and climbing something that was initially impossible for me. My goal for now is just to become a solid/safe 5.10 sport lead climber, as that opens up a huge amount of local crag routes.

I have a low skill level and while my strength is improving (up to about 12 pull-ups in a set), I'm 20 pounds overweight and working on that. I'm mostly top roping moderate 5.8/5.9. I can generally on sight V2 and am only starting to finish the occasional V3 problems with plenty of work. I do have some Metolius rock rings at home and try to do dead hangs and pull-ups daily.

That all said, I do not have any real strategy behind what I am doing each day I go and climb... I just get on stuff. While I'm not out to build a super intense training program, I do want to be more smart about how I spend my limited time when I do hit the gym.

I am under the impression that a lot of training material out there is designed for the higher performance climber and might be dangerous for my unconditioned fingers.

So, what I am wondering is what would be some good training material (book/dvd) for me at this stage that might focus mostly on movement/technique and some careful hand conditioning?

I'm afraid I don't really have a specific recommendation for you in terms of resources, but it might be useful for you to think about your climbing as "practice" instead of "training." You are most likely to see quick gains in ability by improving your technique and expanding the library of moves you have stored in muscle memory. Climbing a lot and watching how better climbers do certain moves/boulder problems/routes and then trying to copy them are both good tactics.

Sounds like your physically strong enough to climb 5.10 already, so getting more mileage and technique practice in should get you to your goal. Have fun!

Do you lead in the gym? If not start doing that. If you already are start trying harder routes and taking some falls.

You're right that most training materials are written for climbers at a more advanced level, but you will still be able to glean good tips from these materials, and there's no magic grade where the info suddenly becomes relevant. RCTM as linked above is a great book and one that I would also recommend, if you only buy one.

Hangboarding works great and can actually protect you from finger injuries if done properly, but does take a certain amount of commitment and time, and isn't the most exciting form of training. The earlier you start, the better, IMO.

At this stage, you would do well to spend a significant portion of your gym time on the following:

1. ARC training, including traversing and down-climbing. Auto belays are great, if available. Don't worry about the grade, just concentrate on your movement, being efficient, managing your forearm pump, precise footwork, etc. If you do some 20-30 minute ARC sessions a couple of times a week, you will see improvement right away, in both endurance and technique.

2. Climb with people that are better than you. Climbing is such a technique sport.. You can figure out the movement through trial and error over the course of years, but learning from others is much faster.

3. Push yourself on lead in the gym, where the risks can be mitigated and the mental game might be less of an issue. This will translate to your performance outdoors.

The most successful piece of advice I've ever seen/heard for people just getting started is this:

CLIMB SLLLOOOOWWWWLLLLYYY.

I would focus all of my energy on maintaining absolute control on every single movement. Move your hands slowly, and PLACE your hands on each hold (don't blindly slap). Then, move your feet slowly and silently; don't let them skate or bounce up the wall and don't randomly plop them onto footholds. Stare at your toes as they make contact with the exact part of the foothold you want to use. (I've even seen some coaches put little bells on kid's shoes)

Now here is the hard part that will take time: With every movement you make, ask yourself: "am I off balance?" If the answer is yes, turn your hips or move your feet until you aren't. In some cases, feeling balanced is just one more hand/foot movement away.

You will find yourself getting tired a lot faster doing this, but your technique will improve, as will your endurance.

Welcome to climbing. My recommendation is that you initially focus of climbing technique and movement; forget about strength training but keep working on your weight.

Use your gym sessions to try different ways of doing cruxes and introducing new movements such as flagging, side turns, etc., along with learning new handhold positions such as underclings and gastons.

The Self Coached Climber is a very good reference for an introduction in climbing movement and training exercises that you can do in the gym on your own or roped.

Also invest in a good pair of comfortable, but tight fitting shoes and pay particular attention to your foot placements. Learn how to edge and smear, use outside edge, heel hook, etc. Get used to initiating movements from the feet up instead of the common practice of seeing the next hold and reaching for it without thinking on how to properly position the feet, the knees, hips and core. It is not about pulling up from hold to hold.

Climbing is three dimensional and not only on the coronal plane, the sooner you learn how to move in all planes the better. This is the door to higher grades well beyond 5.10.

John Marsella wrote:Use your gym sessions fully. Climb until you can't do your 9s then drop down to 7s and climb until it burns and do a few more laps. Climb stuff "above your pay grade" and fall off, but try pulling the hard moves. Climb juggy overhung routes. Climb thin slab by routes. Climb climb climb!

I'm going to quibble with the idea that you have to climb until you're completely thrashed. Steve Bechtel (who's got the credentials, for sure) says that your body remembers more recent movement patterns more than ones early in a session, so once you can't coordinate your movement well/are getting sloppy you should stop. Otherwise you risk ingraining bad movement patterns instead of good ones.

I totally agree with the rest of the advice, though!

The rock prodigy methods linked above are a great starting place, and the recommendation for doing some hangboarding is probably a reasonable one as well. I think what hasn't been suggested which most climbers (of all skill levels) benefit from is addition of a reasonable helping of core work and some work on supporting muscles. Initially this might just be pushups and some basic shoulder and forearm workouts, and can get as intense as you want them to be.

This:
dpmclimbing.com/articles/vi…
is a great general arm workout that can be done at home and will help to prevent injury.

Pushups should be done in relatively low reps to avoid aggravating elbows (10-20 reps/set) where form is maintained as the primary focus.

Core work can be done any number of ways, generally the more climbing specific the better, planks are ok, various leg lifting excercises while hanging from a hangboard or pull up bar or rock rings would be better. there are also some good pilates (i think) inspired floor workouts that are good.

When at the gym, its good to go in focused, so planning what you want to do is most crucial, but lots of good advice further up regarding technique drills and the like.

Last: some cardio work is never bad, doing some time on the bike or the treadmill is a good thing.

Check out "The Self Coached Climber"

Thanks for all of the encouragement and good recommendations!

I worked on ARC training Monday night, just climbing/down-climbing/traversing as continuous as possible, for the most part ignoring routes and just getting in mileage. I happened to wear my HRM just for fun and was surprised to see just how much work was being done, with a higher max HR than I've ever measured, and average HR for the 50 min session was about 20bpm higher than most runs I do. Just an interesting side note, as I never would've expected that based on perceived effort.

I received a copy of The Self Coached Climber last night. I read through the first couple chapters and watched a few DVD chapters already and it definitely seems to be providing some of that fundamental movement training and exercises I was hoping for. The other rock climbing books I've picked up talk a lot about gear and such but little about actual climbing. I'll work through this material and then plan to pick up The Rock Climbers Training Manual as a follow up.