How long did it take you to transition from Gym to Outdoors?

Yes,
The link that rgold added

and the standard ten sets of ten of every thing, in the gym.
A twenty five min. Nonstop full cardio, workout three times a week till you are old ,like
seventy
right ?

Climb every day even day dreaming about climbing while pantomiming the moves;
Visualizing . . .
Helps. . .

Also
Seriously ,

Play up the upper body, there is an exercise, Neck Bridge, a move that is the last thing a wrestler can try to avoid getting pinned(losing)

The move involves lying on ones back and rolling up on to the crown of the head ,bridging the body up, feet down ,head down, the body held up off the ground.

The training would the add a body on top of the bridged, climber,then up and down it was or sounds
A bit suggestive but bridging to build neck strength . . .

Also in the bridge pose one would spinning, move side to side and roll over as well as just flex up with full weight on the chest.
Also:
rowing, swimming,
To build foot strength long bare foot work-outs on sand,a beach.
running with three pound dumb-bells, in each hand,
stairs,
skipping
pull down,and Push down, exercises (for practice mantling)
and way,sweeping dance moves holding light weights,
The time on the couch should include squeezing tennis balls
Holding your arms out at 90degrees until the burn is 'good' and stretching with lots of water.

adrianna melody wrote: Any specific workouts someone could recommend to building strength for climbing?

OMG, the internet and climbing world in general is awash in conflicting schemes and heated arguments over this. There isn't anything anyone can say anywhere that someone else isn't going to disagree with, and that includes not only the type of exercise but whether supplementary exercise is needed at all.

I do think there may be some modest agreement that beginning climbers will do better to focus on developing technique and body sense rather than leaping into any specialized training. The main reason for this is that things that at first seem to require Herculean strength turn out to be not all that strenuous in the presence of proper technique, and building strength first retards the development of technique.

What we are speaking of here is not targeted strength-training for climbing, but rather general body conditioning for injury prevention, and specifically conditioning for the vulnerable shoulders. The rubber-band rotator cuff exercises I posted are probably more important than any classic weight-lifting moves (considering how many weight-lifters end up with rotator-cuff injuries). Still, supplementing with some seated dumbbell presses at various angles and other pushing muscle exercises is a good idea.

One thing to remember is that injuries often happen when you're tired. Not only are the muscles holding things together weaker from fatigue, but your technique is probably sloppier. So all those crossfit-style boogie-till-you-puke training notions notwithstanding, don't climb to exhaustion, don't put in too many consecutive days, and try to vary the types of things you are doing. And when something hurts (this is going to be radical)---stop.

Thanks for posting the rotator cuff link, rgold. Much appreciated.

As usual, rgold has great advice, well stated.

Regarding guides at the Gunks....

rgold wrote:So I'd say, if you can swing the bucks, that starting out with a guide in the Gunks is the way to go. The guides and guide services that are authorized to climb in the Mohonk Preserve, where most of the climbing is, are listed on the Preserve web page at mohonkpreserve.org/climbing… .

I know you said you don't have the cash now. But if you do wind up deciding to hire a guide, and go on the cheap, BEWARE! I would strongly recommend NOT going to the Gunks with a cut-rate guide. Instead use one from rgold's link (those certified by the Preserve). There are a number of guides who operate under the radar at the Gunks, and I've seen them doing very sketchy things. Their clients didn't know any better, so they were none the wiser. But this is an area where you get what you pay for.

I'm going to go ahead and answer the OP's original question, since she does seem to be going the route of gym-to-crag, and that's what I did.

It took me roughly a year to get out of the gym and onto the crag. My biggest issue were that 1 - Like you, I didn't know anyone who climbed outside, or at least not at a lousy level like I did. And 2 - I knew I had only a rudimentary idea of how to climb outside safely. When the little gym I went to offered a chance to go to a local crag, I jumped at the chance. I soaked up all the info I could, and within a few months after that, I had enough info (I read some good how-to books) and found a couple of people to start going outside with.

The first thing my buddies and I did outside was set up topropes. This is a little scary until you know that you are doing it right, but it's a great way to get started. You and your partners can be totally self-sufficient in a very short amount of time.

Note - if you skip that step, and start just tagging along with people who are way stronger and more knowledgeable than you, you may develop the habit of counting on other people to lead you around. I've seen climbers who go down that path, and this is the worst possible thing for a budding climber. Some people wind up perma-beginners this way.

I'd say the best would be if you had stronger people to climb with sometimes, and other people more at your level, where you are sharing the excitement and learning all the little things together. I was lucky enough to have both most of the time, and it worked out perfectly for me.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

GO

Not entirely on-topic, here is a piece by Neil Gresham about transitioning from gym to outside. He isn't addressing beginners, but rather experienced climbers who have spent the winter gym climbing and are heading outdoors. Even so, there are perhaps some lessons for folks just starting out.

rockandice.com/lates-news/r…

While on the subject of training, if I could turn back the clock and do something differently, I would stretch EVEN more, particularly palms on the floor '90 to arm and backbend bridges. Along with all the leg/hip/torso stuff I actually did think to do.

I come from a gymnastics and dance background, and I always wanted to keep flexible even if I'm never going to do a flip again. Climbing has made that a hard promise to keep to myself: my resting hand position is a claw (at the rare yoga class I attend, the teacher is always trying to smoosh my hands flat), and my bridge is low to the ground and hideous.

So in additon to the leg and lateral torso flexibility work I did, I wish I'd worked more on forearm/hand (important for some dance) and the backbend (important for...I don't know). I try now, but it's an uphill battle.

My advice is to stretch while you watch TV, fold laundry, drive. Stretch stretch stretch. (Don't do static stretches when your muscles are cold, though I do and always have, but that's with decades of care).

Edited to add why you would care about flexibility to begin with (i.e. the point I should have made first).
As a woman, possibly shorter than most men and with less upper body muscle mass, it can be an asset in climbing to be flexible, and women tend to develop this aspect of fitness easier--to be able to put your knees in your armpits, or hike a heel up high, or do a torso twisting mantle a millimeter from the rock face. Of course, there are flexible men and inflexible women out there, so I'm just talking in generalities. And men should work on flexibility and woman should work on strength...etc. I guess what I am saying is that as a woman, flexibility can be an ace up our sleeves, so I encourage it's development.

Michael Schneider wrote: many good points have been made but I think that you should lift and train for climbing before starting climbing .

I think your post has a lot of helpful points, but I would disagree with the statement above. I think you should tailor their fitness/climbing schedule to their ability. If someone male/female has a decent baseline of fitness, and no preexisting injuries, I think climbing, supplemented with some exercises to strengthen weak points (which with climbing is usually the upper body) is ideal.

Climbing technique makes muscular and powerful moves less taxing on the joints/tendons/muscles, and therefore should be the most important concern. Also by starting on easier terrain and learning technique, perhaps they will have time to develop stronger tendons to decrease the chance of finger injuries.

I do believe your statement could apply to hang boarding and/or campusing, or doing particularly tweaky pockets or awkward shoulder movements. I personally came from other sports that emphasized muscle and power, so I don't do much supplemental strength or power training with weights. Instead, I spend my extra time doing stretches and lifts to prevent golfers and Tennis elbow, and rotator cuff problems,

Also, a periodization schedule is also proven in research to help prevent injury (though most of the research is in other sports). Look up rockclimberstrainingmanual.… for more information related to a periodization schedule.

Sorry for information overload, though I am only 3 years into climbing, I have an extensive exercise science background.

Joe Coover wrote: Also, a periodization schedule is also proven in research to help prevent injury.

Seems unlikely. Citations please?

All this talk about the physical aspect, but what about:

- not parking your rope unused on or at the bottom of a route for 45 minutes
- having a rope up unused and seeing that another pair of climbers is looking for a route in that grade and not offering them a ride on it
- not yard-saling your shit all over the place so that my grigri ends up under your pack
- not being able to clean anchors
- not being able to read a fairly simple topo to find a route
- not being able to somewhat accurately estimate the difficulty of a route ie looking at a route and thinking it's about 2 number grades easier than it actually is
- not keeping your voices down when it's obvious a leader is trying to communicate w his belayer or vice versa
- thinking that taking various upside down, headfirst, near groundfalls is just a normal occurrence on a day climbing outside
- not being able to accurately estimate how far you'll fall when the bolts are not 4 feet apart

Mark E Dixon wrote: Seems unlikely. Citations please?

See below for quickly found citations.
-Joe

Periodization and the prevention of overtraining
Can J Sport Sci. 1992 Sep;17(3):241-8.

“It may be essential for the athlete to train in cycles in order to induce optimal improvements and prevent overtraining. Without sufficient recovery time, adaptation may not occur and the athlete may develop the symptoms of overtraining due to continuous and/or excessive exposure to training stress. Training in cycles provides guidelines for the times in the training programme when regeneration should be complete, and therefore the times when the athlete can be screened for overtraining without confusing the fatigue of overload training with that of overtraining. A periodised training structure provides guidelines for conducting research into the mechanisms of training adaptation and overtraining.”

The Team Physician and Conditioning of Athletes for Sports: A Consensus Statement. Joint ACSM, AAOS, AOASM, AOSSM, AAFP, and AMSSM statement
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 33(10): 1789-1793, October 2001.

Pg 179 “Periodization training is planned variation in the total amount of exercise performed in a given period of time (intensity and volume of exercise.) All periodization terminology describes either a certain type of training, a certain portion of a training cycle, or a certain length of time within a training cycle. Research supports periodization as an important corollary to the principle of progressive overload, as this type of planned variation is key to optimal physical development. Periodized training has shown greater improvements compared to low-volume, single-set training. Such training programs have been shown to be very effective during both short- and long-term training cycles, while reducing the risk of overtraining. Several combinations of variables may be manipulated in order to produce an adaptation specific to training goals.”

Periodisation and the prevention of overtraining.
europepmc.org/abstract/med/…

“Periodization of training can reduce overtraining potential and injury potential while optimizing performance by variation of volume, intensity, and exercise selection during a training program.”

Monitoring Injuries on a College Soccer Team: The effect of strength Training:
Journal of Strength and Conditioning

College players with no history of weight lifting adding lifting with a year long schedule, with the lifting stopping during the competition part of the schedule showed a decrease in injuries.

A Framework understanding the Training Process Leading to Elite Performance
Sports Med 2003
pgedf.ufpr.br/downloads/Art…
Pg1121

Slighting paraphrased form their avoiding overtraining. If you want more, read through and look at their references because they review all the research.

6.2 Avoiding Overtraining:
Training strategies for avoiding overtraining for endurance athletes include: low intensity endurance training necessary platform for higher intensity specific training; alternate hard and easy training; training based on 2-3 hard sessions per week; training intensity as the key to success; and rest and recovery as necessary before competitions. These themes go hand in hand with common features of struction training programmes as summarized:

• Longer term performance goal for the season forms the basis upon which the training programme is designed
• There is a progressive and cyclical increase in training load
• Logical sequence to the order of the training phases
• There is emphasis on skill development and refinement maintained throughout the training programme

I so wish that I, like others that are still pulling much harder than me, had trained religiously .

The proof is in the longevity of the mere mortals, I am not talking about the Lynn Hill Type mutant
Humans, but regular work a day for ever to get three weeks off every two or three years in ten years,
a regular suburban life as a sheeypel.

Before life closed In, the climbing life style, climbing all the time was enough, to stay hardened ,in sending shape.
Then when life's big changes came, I did not have the discipline to stick with a power fitness program.
Seeing Joe Coover's posts, I am already commenting above my pay scale as I said .
Thanx for the information and Joe, in the fitness sciences . . .
Yeah, man, you got this!

Christian wrote:All this talk about the physical aspect, but what about: - not parking your rope unused on or at the bottom of a route for 45 minutes - having a rope up unused and seeing that another pair of climbers is looking for a route in that grade and not offering them a ride on it - not yard-saling your shit all over the place so that my grigri ends up under your pack - not being able to clean anchors - not being able to read a fairly simple topo to find a route - not being able to somewhat accurately estimate the difficulty of a route ie looking at a route and thinking it's about 2 number grades easier than it actually is - not keeping your voices down when it's obvious a leader is trying to communicate w his belayer or vice versa - thinking that taking various upside down, headfirst, near groundfalls is just a normal occurrence on a day climbing outside - not being able to accurately estimate how far you'll fall when the bolts are not 4 feet apart

Oh that was easy. . .(push quote,duh) sorry Christian ,I was not highlighting what you said to make Any point, I just had not tried the quote function . . .in a while.

The thing is that not one of the above complaints has changed in thirty years,
There is more rock than the Gunks, so if any or all of the entertainment is beyond your tolerance
Go Climbing some place else.
Connecticut or New Jersey or south or north adding four hours of driving, farther north or west ?
Five or more hours, if two take turns doing the driving, you can find an adventure.
The thing is that when juggling a full life of family work and climbing the extra driving can literally kill you.

The things that you listed are what some consider just another day at the Gunks,

It is an acquired taste until it is not in your back yard then it sounds like the nectar of the gods.
The Gunks Are Great, not climbed out and easy to enjoy.

adrianna melody wrote: Any specific workouts someone could recommend to building strength for climbing?

Yep, it works for everyone hands down.

Climb.

P.S. Not trying to be a sarcastic ass even though it will surely come off that way =)

Choss Chasin' wrote: Yep, it works for everyone hands down. Climb. P.S. Not trying to be a sarcastic ass even though it will surely come off that way =)

calling it how you see it..i like it..good advice haha

I'll mention that a big thing that helps me get better is to project everything I do. So at most times I'll have like 3, maybe 4 items that I'm going to work on every session until I finish them, and those projects will then be replaced by new projects. This is especially important in bouldering because of how easy it is to pick up all your crap and move to another boulder. I find that this doesn't tend to happen as much when doing rope climbs because your partners usually won't want to spend the time just so you can attempt a climb that you got shut down on before.

The most important thing to take away is to try to not completely avoid everything that gives you a challenge. So lets say you can't even do the first few moves, maybe the holds are too small for your strength level, okay maybe try it again later when you'll undoubtedly be stronger. But if you find something that you can at least start, you should definitely project it until you finish it.

In bouldering I think it can be difficult to map out a smooth path of progression in terms of the routes you do, at least in my area, the majority of the boulders here are all V0's. In rope climbing, its definitely easier to map out your progression. Part of bouldering is walking around and looking for shit that looks climbable, and you will certainly get good at it.

This just hit my E-mail! talk about on topic, I have not read it, yet,

rockandice.com/lates-news/r…

Michael Schneider wrote:This just hit my E-mail! talk about on topic, I have not read it, yet, rockandice.com/lates-news/r…

oh awesome!
perfect timing!
Today i might hit up some local boulders for a little bouldering fun :)

I gave this link already, and actually it isn't entirely on-topic, although the title is. See my post above.

Oops, Sorry about that rgold,
I did not click your link, so did not recognize it,
Just pasted the link. . . .;)
I need a link to how to transition
From rock to plastic, I always strain or tweak
Something when I climb indoors.
I am also Thinking about tomorrow ?
But just now I have to run ...