Training: Pull-Up's w/ weights.

Winter training season has pretty much arrived, and I've been prepping for the lack of real climbing. I have been a lot of pull-ups, chin-ups, core exercises on the pull-up bar, etc.. and just started adding weight.

I have been just wearing my harness and putting 10-15 pound dumbbells on each side of the harness to total about 20-30 lbs added. I have hitched them to a short sling and clipped them to the gear loops (one on each side). It works, but it is super ghetto, and awkward. After 20 reps, the combination of being pumped and the dumbbells clanking against my thigh prohibits further reps. Any cheap suggestions?

hang them down from your belay loop, but keep them far down, almost to your knees or shins.

Go to Play it Again Sports and get a used scuba weight belt. That's what I use.

Just be very careful doing lots of pull-ups.

i think that once you can do 10 or so in the row you are better off spending the time on other finger strengthening or special training than adding more pull-ups.

I used to do hundreds of the damn things and I doubt it helped my climbing much and it certainly damaged my shoulders.

John, you think it would be more beneficial to stick with hangboard training, lock-offs, and the like?

Yep, hanging from the belay loop works. I second John's comments on pull ups. It sounds like you have abundant pulling strength. I would spend more time on the hangboard working finger strength. Have you read much on train theory? If not, a good starting point might be RockProdigy's article on rockclimbing.com.

E

Thanks for all the suggestions! This is the 1st time I've ever really trained primarily inside, and I haven't done my research. I think I am going to re-direct my training to focus on finger and core strength, as suggested. E, thanks for the article, I believe one of my major problems is that I haven't been proactive enough in doing my research. Thanks all!

Are all pull-ups bad, or just pull-ups on a fixed bar? I'm worried about my shoulders, but would really benefit from more upper body strength. Would doing pull-ups on something that can swivel (i.e. rock rings, etc) make them okay, or should I just do something else entirely?

I go to the gym/fitness center and do pull-ups holding a dumbell between my toes. I do my sets with a 70 ibs dumbell at the moment.... it works great! :)

When doing weighted pull-ups be carful on the down motion. You should not lock your elbows forcefully. You can damage you elbow quickly. They just won't be used to the extra force.

The downward motion should take 2X's as long as the upwards. Slow and controlled, it is the more beneficial of the 2 motions.

I am a big fan of weighted pullups. Over all I think they have increased my strength the best which helps with endurance on the rock. I use a backpack with weights in the pack. Just don't over do the weight. I really hurt my shoulder doind three reps with 90 lbs.

Pull ups may help with endurance, I think where it may be good to be careful is that we men often try to power through climbs. On single pitch climbs with long reaches or dynos this may be benficial. May I suggest however that when bouldering, you practice resting. While practicing resting, you will see which positions are most comfortable and this is where your endurance will shine. Many good climbers are not necessarily über strong, but they have acquired, perhaps subconsciously, the use of body positioning in sending. Moving from rest to rest may be better for your long-term health, as well as build finger strength, and may help you remain calm and composed during awkward clips.

Thoughts?

I tend to go the opposite route. I can do around 12 standard pull-ups with my normal body weight, but I like going to the gym and using the assisted pull-up machine to do sets of 25 at ~75% body weight.

I save the added weights for static hangs on hangboards and campus boards.

Whether pullups or fingerboard stuff is the most beneficial is entirely personal. If you have great finger-strength already, finger-board may be a waste of time. If you can already to 40 pullups, those may be a waste of time.

Think about why you are falling off of routes/boulders. Do you pump out and let go or can you not pull up through crux moves? I'm in category #2 and thus have focused on pull-ups.

I always emphasize on slow motion and form when doing pullups, never speed or overall number of reps, so thats not an issue.
I never thought about loading a backpack w/weight, seems so obvious though.
Eric D- I would say that pumping out generally comes before actually being able to do the moves. I can work out the individual moves relatively quickly, but linking them is the crux. Any suggestions?
Good input everyone!

When doing Pull ups for training do them slowly. This will increase your strength better and you will avoid damaging you joints.

A lot of time can be wasted if you are jerking around while doing pull ups, you are using more momentum than strength and you are damaging your joints at the top and bottom of the movement.

As you mentioned the weights you use are clanking around and against your legs.(Too much swing) Slow down ,tighten your core and you just solved your problem.

For what it's worth,I feel pull-ups are of limited use in training for climbing. I wouldn't recommend doing sets of more than 10 at a time and with weights, no more than 1 to 3 of maximum effort. Any more is probably redundant and the time would be better spent climbing. As a number of sources note, pull-ups and hangs should be on first-joint edges, no smaller.

The best option is training by climbing. Pull-ups are not sport-specific enough as they train movements that climbers rarely use, i.e. foot-free pulling with both arms. Their primary use is either finger or biceps/forearm training and therefore the most useful and efficient objective for this exercise is power through low-rep high-stress sets. The idea that somehow because pull-ups are hard work, climbing will feel easy by comparison is mistaken. Climbing will feel easy because you are becoming a better climber on top of being stronger. Better endurance comes through lots of climbing. No short-cuts there.

It is also important to consider oppositional exercise and lots of stretching to counter the negative side-affects of this type of very physical training. Injuries induced by hard one-dimensional physical training are all too common.

still dont understand how you use weights with the pull-ups training???

If I read the OP correct, you're capable of doing 20 pull ups with 20 to 30 pounds of of weight added? That's 20 in all or 20 reps in a set? If you can do the latter, you're already a stud and the weights probably aren't doing you any good.

edit: I know a lot of people love to hate on weighted pull-ups, but I think for some people they give that extra bit of "oomph" needed to progress to the next grade.

Jacob Krenn wrote: Any suggestions?

I wholeheartedly believe in the "weakest link" theory. Improving your weakness improves your climbing the fastest. Lead head vs. strategy vs. core strength vs. forearm strength etc. So if it's the pump that causes you to fall the most often, that's the thing to work. If it's a bad lead head that makes you hesitate and not fully commit, that's the key. I don't think that we can say that certain exercises are bad and some are good. Each of us needs to work what we are bad at.