Push-ups?

i've always heard people talk about the importance of push-ups to prevent muscle imbalance in climbing. But I've bouldered for 4 years never doing one push up and im fine. (on mostly steep, hard terrain) But now i wonder, maybe i should start before i may be forced to. tendonitis is something i would like to avoid.
so what is the MP community's experience with the benefits of push-ups (and other non-pulling exercises)? Is it really that important?

Yes. Chest exercises are important if you don't want to look like a hunchback.

Depends a lot on your age I think. I didn't do any "opposing muscle group" exercises through my 20s, 30s, or 40s. Then I hit 50 and blew out my shoulder capsule stemming out behind me in a 90* corner. I couldn't do a single push-up for months afterward. Then did 'em on my knees, and finally normally. Been more consistent to do them ever since (among other things).

Hunchback posture, so common among climbers, can eventually lead to injuries in the shoulders or neck. As I can attest. I

Elbow tendonitis is pretty common among hardcore boulderers too, but finger injury is probably the #1 injury among this group. Pretty simple to balance out the elbows - reverse wrist curls and reverse curls once in a while. I wish I had done more shoulder exercises (and been a little smarter), as I'm 4 months into a 10 month recovery from rotator cuff repair.

Age certainly accumulates one's imbalances. ;)

Working opposing muscle groups is a great idea in general. As far as push ups go though I would consider a strong chest an asset on any compression problem and not just a supplementary exercise. If you want to prevent injury bouldering I would do things to strengthen your ankles! I've blown out both of mine from bouldering.

dude definitely start doing opposing muscle workouts... I'm 27 as of last week, I've been climbing for 3 years pretty hard and in May I got rotator cuff tendinitis. basically anything overhanging and my shoulder aches for days... if I don't exercise it properly (therabands) it aches for days... if I do any repetitive motion it aches for days... get the idea? I'm going to have to take 5 to 6 months off this winter to let it completely heal HOPEFULLY. I went from leading 11b's to 10a's because of this. The last couple weeks I've been happy just climbing- meaning only really easy stuff- <5.9. One thing I've learned after having a lot of different injuries over the years, tendon injuries are worst because they take FOREVER to heal.

My professional opinion is that just telling someone to work the "antagonistic" climbing muscles is way too simple.
I've worked on pros that sent V10 the day before but failed a basic Latissimus muscle test when I saw them.

One thing to keep in mind is that even when you bias the shoulder to function in a pulling situation (climbing)it's still got to recruit all of those antagonists/synergists to control and stabilize the joint... so you'll use those muscles while climbing and they'll have to get stronger as you get stronger at climbing.
Certainly a good lifting routine will aid in keeping the shoulders balanced out better than not lifting. But generally (this is completely anecdotal)I've found that if you can boulder much harder than V2/3 then push ups aren't going to be much of a stress on the shoulders... you'd be better off grabbing some heavier dumbbells or loading up a bar and pushing a weight that makes you try about as hard as you have to when you're bouldering near your max.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the shoulder relies heavily on the spine as a foundation. Most of the muscles of the back that control the scapula use the spine as an anchor to pull against, which means that the thoracic spine and the shoulder girdle are intimately connected. You can clear up a lot of shoulder issues by making sure that the thoracic spine is mobile and healthy. Climbing forces us to generate a ton of spinal stability or core tension... more often than not I spend a lot of the time I do body work on climbers focusing on getting more mobility in the Thoracic spine. A frequently used foam roller can do wonders for shoulder problems.

Hope that helps someone out there,
BA

That hunchback posture is due to overly developed and powerful pectorals pulling the entire upper body forward. Doing pushups will only make this worse. In addition to making offwidth harder, puffing up your chest isn't going help the shoulders all that much anyway.

I've probably got more than triple the mileage on my body as most of you folks here, and my shoulders are still holding up. Everyone is different, so just because something works for me doesn't mean it will work for you, but just for the record I haven't done any pushups since high school and that was fifty years ago.

When I was younger, I did a lot of hand-balancing, but drifted away from that as I aged. What I did keep doing regularly is two sets of twenty arm rotations with dumbells, and three sets of 8-12 dumbell presses on an incline bench, one set with the bench a bit off vertical, and the other two sets at various bigger angles with the vertical, but none lying flat on my back, which would be the pushup position.

My reasoning about the dumbell presses, for whatever it might be worth, is that the opposing muscle exercises ought to be done at the same angles as the pulling I was doing. With weights chosen to stay in the 8-12 rep range, the dumbell presses involve higher loads and pushups.

These aren't really specific rotator-cuff exercises either. If I had it to do over again I'd probably add some theraband-type exercises that are more specific.

I've lived with occasional mild shoulder pains for many years, but I've never had anything bad enough to stop even one day of climbing. Knock wood...

P.S. Unlike the previous poster, who knows what he is talking about, this is a thoroughly unprofessional opinion and should be taken as such.

Declining pushups ftw!

rgold wrote:That hunchback posture is due to overly developed and powerful pectorals pulling the entire upper body forward. Doing pushups will only make this worse.

This was my initial thought. My understanding has always been that if you are hunched over you need to strengthen your back more. However, some people seem to be saying the opposite. Which is it?

Taylor Ogden wrote: This was my initial thought. My understanding has always been that if you are hunched over you need to strengthen your back more. However, some people seem to be saying the opposite. Which is it?

I had overdeveloped my back from the past several years of climbing and I was starting to look like a hunchback. Then I started doing some lifting to strengthen my chest muscles (bench press, chest flies, and other similar exercises) and the problem has completely gone away.

I used to think similarly to your line of thought and agree that a stronger chest doesn't really make sense to reduce the hunchback posture. However, in my case it has worked superbly to go the opposite of what sense would tell me. Do what works for you.