Push, Pull, Hinge, Squat, Plank (and maybe Lunge)

It’s pretty universally accepted in the CrossFit/Mobility world that these five (or six if you include lunges) movements are the foundational movement patterns required to be a strong and healthy athlete. I’m wondering what the most climbing specific exercises are that fall into these categories. My ideas:

Plank: Front Levers. While this seems the obvious choice, I’m wondering if Peter Pans (I.e. climbing on jugs and cutting your feet on purpose after every hand movement) might be more applicable. Peter Pans seem more like a drill that a climbing team would do though rather than a specific exercise.

Push: Dips. Seems like it would translate to mantles or lock offs. 

Pull: Any kind of pull up variation but especially those that focus on one arm or lock off strength (I.e. uneven ring pull ups). The gimmekraft folks seem to be fans of the row.

Hinge: Deadlifts are the obvious choice here but I think there is an argument for kettlebell swings or cleans. That said, I wonder if there is something more climbing specific.

Squats: Overhead Squat. I say this because overhead squats limit how much weight you can use (I.e. you’re not going to do crazy heavy overhead squats like you would a back squat) and overhead squats require high levels of shoulder and ankle flexibility. Goblet squats could also be useful due to how much they engage the core.

Ultimately, I’m hoping to put together a quarantine workout that can be done at home as a general fitness for climbing routine. You can only hangboard so much...I know there are PTs, kinesiologists, and other experts on this site who likely have better ideas than I do. Any suggestions as to exercises that fall into these categories but are also climbing specific are welcome.

You can go through self-assessment tests and check yourself out at https://test4climbing.com

You should be able to find the analysis informative.

So you just ignored the question and posted a link to your own website?

TheBirdman Friedman wrote:

It’s pretty universally accepted in the CrossFit/Mobility world that these five (or six if you include lunges) movements are the foundational movement patterns required to be a strong and healthy athlete. I’m wondering what the most climbing specific exercises are that fall into these categories. My ideas:

Plank: Front Levers. While this seems the obvious choice, I’m wondering if Peter Pans (I.e. climbing on jugs and cutting your feet on purpose after every hand movement) might be more applicable. Peter Pans seem more like a drill that a climbing team would do though rather than a specific exercise.

Push: Dips. Seems like it would translate to mantles or lock offs. 

Pull: Any kind of pull up variation but especially those that focus on one arm or lock off strength (I.e. uneven ring pull ups). The gimmekraft folks seem to be fans of the row.

Hinge: Deadlifts are the obvious choice here but I think there is an argument for kettlebell swings or cleans. That said, I wonder if there is something more climbing specific.

Squats: Overhead Squat. I say this because overhead squats limit how much weight you can use (I.e. you’re not going to do crazy heavy overhead squats like you would a back squat) and overhead squats require high levels of shoulder and ankle flexibility. Goblet squats could also be useful due to how much they engage the core.

Ultimately, I’m hoping to put together a quarantine workout that can be done at home as a general fitness for climbing routine. You can only hangboard so much...I know there are PTs, kinesiologists, and other experts on this site who likely have better ideas than I do. Any suggestions as to exercises that fall into these categories but are also climbing specific are welcome.

I am far from an expert, but some thoughts-

Plank-The trouble with front levers on a bar, is that the hand and shoulder positions don't vary. You are always training the same joint angle and the same orientation of one arm to the other..

The trouble with Peter Pans is that you will tend to put your shoulders into whatever joint angle is their strongest, then bend your hips and knees to get your feet onto the target hold. So you don't train the weaker joint angles. You also tend to perform the movement with momentum, which is arguably more specific, but isn't as good for building strength in the full ROM. Kind of like kipping pull-ups.

But seems like front levers on climbing holds on a horizontal roof might address these issues. I'll give it a try when I feel comfortable going back to the gym.

Push- I find dips very hard on my elbows. I think more specific is the following (sorry if my description isn't great.) 

On a universal machine or the like, set up as if for a standing one arm lat pulldown. Start with your hand at about chest level, elbow tucked back close to your side, then push directly down until your arm is fully straight at your side. You can also start with your hand at about the level of the top of your head, pull your elbow back until your hand is at chest level, then continue to press straight down. Don't start with your arm fully extended upwards (like in a pull up), as you will get too much momentum from the initial pull.

This doesn't mimic mantles so much as the motion (similar to campusing) of pushing with your trailing arm. A motion that is very helpful as climbing moves get longer and harder. And a lot more common than mantles.

Pullups - I agree, one arms or offset are the way to go. If doing lat pulldowns, I like to lean back about 45 degrees as this seems more specific than pulling straight down. Kind of moving the pulldown in the direction of rows.

Deadlifts- have you tried one legged deadlifts?

Squats- pistol squats seem most specific to those high step rockovers 

Anyway, hope to get a few more responses to your question

TheBirdman Friedman wrote:

So you just ignored the question and posted a link to your own website?

It might be helpful to define weaknesses so why the hell not?

ab wheel is the best core exercise I've ever done. This or plank variations are more specific than front levers. They prepare you for generating tension through your feet, which is a more valuable element of core strength than being able to hold yourself in positions with your feet disconnected from rock.

I’m not sure what the purpose of your exercise routine is... is it something you see doing INSTEAD of climbing, when you can’t get to the rock or climbing gym? Or is it something to do IN  ADDITION to climbing?

The first one would be longer, done 3-4 times a week, and should include a larger variety of exercises. The second one would be a short 20-30 min thing that can be tacked at the end of gym climbing session couple times a week, and should focus more on the muscles that aren’t worked by just climbing. So they would be kinda different things.

but regardless of the idea you have in mind, it doesn’t seem that it would be beneficial to narrow things down to ONE exercise for each group/category, no matter how beneficial the exercise. Instead, you want to switch things up. Deadlifts are great, but if you do deadlifts and overhead squats for ~4 weeks, it’s time to switch to a few weeks of something else, like kettlebell swing and Turkish getup. And it doesn’t mean that deadlift is better than kettlebell swing, or vise versa.

I agree that pistol squats are good for climbers, but not sure you want to do them 4 times a week indefinitely, without changing things up.,.

Your list seems to miss any twist motions, seems like windshield wipers would be as beneficial as front levers, though I’m not sure what category you’d put it in. “Core”?

Also, while not classified in CrossFit terms of exercise groups, pretty much all climbers need chest openers, and shoulder mobility/stability exercises. I’s, Y’s, and T’s, for example.

@Lena Chita: This is meant to be done during my hangboard cycle. I've found that my hangboard cycle is much more productive when I don't do any additional climbing. Hangboard, 2 days off, hangboard. Supplemental climbing on the off days (even easy, ARC style climbing) seems to water down the hangboard workouts and inhibit forearm/finger recovery. I know some people swear by "active recovery" and it's entirely possible I just lack the discipline to stick strictly to "easy" climbing, but I've found it best to skip all other forms of climbing during the hangboard phase. FWIW, I do eight hangboard workouts per cycle and the cycle last a total of 22 days if I stay exactly on schedule. This workout is intended to supplement other areas that are not "climbing specific" but support climbing fitness generally. 

Another thing to consider is that I work from home, so I've opted to do 5 sets, one set every hour, on the hour. I've refined the list and am pretty happy with the results in terms of improving general strength and fitness.

1) 10 rollouts on Ab Wheel

2) 10 Pull Ups on 18mm edges

3) Pseudo Planche Push Ups

4) Romanian Dead-lifts to Failure

5) TRX Lunges (10 on each side)

6) Pistol Squats (5 on each side)

7) I rotate this last exercise and it's intended to be more of a "pre-hab" exercise: Front Raises, Scapula Pulls, Around the Worlds, I-Y-T's.

2 cents:

• Planks: I personally like dynamics/mouvements for core (the front lever is good, but pretty static). I like sidekicks on a bar (e.g. grab a bar, pull feet up alternatively left to right). I don't know what it's called, but there's also the extended 4 points of contact (e.g. extended hands & feets, wider to make it harder) and then you bring alternate hands & knees to the belly.
• Push: dips are nice. They get a little bit easy after a time IMO (though I guess you can add weights). I like push-up variations - wider vs narrower stances, hands more forward or backwards actually works slightly different muscles. Pike push-ups are interesting too (think downward dog, then nose to ground), with similar opportunities for variations. I discovered recently the Arnold Press (if you have free weights or kettlebell). I like it because it engages more the deltoid muscles.
• Pull: lots of good obvious choices. You could consider working just the downward part - e.g. with a bench to a bar, add weights so that controlling the downward part is possible but hard. So a way to work the excentric part of the mouvement.

Another thought - which is kinda what I've been doing more of lately, partly due to injury (not climbing related but still impacting it). You might want to focus on antagonistic (to climbing) muscles groups. So pushes are good, anything that works triceps, anterior deltoid, dumbell row and excentrics.

Finally, I suppose that's somewhat climber specific, but once I've done the same routine ~20 times, I tend to plateau and not get much more out of it. So having a few options to work on the same thing is good, you always workout somewhat differently and it seems I get a better response from that approach.