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Prop's to whomever made this vid. Nice choices on complimentary footage, smooth, great song and placement. Really a pleasure to watch. Congrats on the send!
I started climbing a decade ago and have always been so inspired by how he's always out there getting after it, seems like there is never an off season for this guy, keep crushing it Zeke, you're my hero!
I’m curious how much work has gone into being able to breathe that well on a 2 minute power endurance sequence. Every time I watch this man climb it reminds me how much I need to work on breathing.
High volume/increasing volume is a super common cause of climbers getting injured or sick, but folks often seem to have a hard time with this. Taking something away seems to be really challenging mentally for many, but is often the right choice.
Well done; that was a long one 😳 The feet looked good but it looks like you were having to do full crimps on some of the hands…that will get you gripped I imagine! Again; good one mate.
Probably the most well informed channel in line with current science on strength training for climbers I’ve seen so far! 👏 I’m just not a fan of how the preparation periods are broken up into such blocks; current S&C literature tells us that microdosing high velocity/ ballistic outputs is as effective - if not more - than an entire block - also has the benefit of an athlete not detraining the other more robust qualities induced by high force bilateral training, and the athlete is accumulating coordinative properties. Also “sport specific” strength training for me is always a problematic concept - because it promotes the idea that if it “looks” like the sport it’s “good” strength training. When the reality is that it could fall into training purgatory - neither heavy enough to induce true strength adaptation, nor enough like the sport to have any benefit either from a coordinative capacity or power production. Based on how literature available, and results from other well researched sports, I think it’s more relevant to speak about developing general force/velocity production properties per demand of the sport, and getting them to do the sport as much as possible in tandem with that. Which is to say a standard strength session could be bilateral force production + stability + velocity, twice a week in tandem with usual climbing load. Then in preparation for peak season, you can monitor force production times and increase/decrease load depending on the athlete and the timing they need to get them peaking correctly - just like any other sport.
How do you guys feel about bar exercises? I honestly prefer doing floor core as I feel like the bar exercises can strain my elbows a bit but that's just me personally. Do you see bar core as being beneficial for simultaneously training lock off strength?
I tend to agree with you Peter. Lots of hanging can be hard on fingers / elbows/ shoulders for some people...but the bar is also an excellent tool. Totally a personal preference.
@Steve, I'm curious if you can simply skip the first category of abdominal training (#1 stability) if the athlete is conditioned enough. Why not go straight to dynamic stability if someone can hold a plank for 3 minutes?
For sure. Probably 90% of climbers are solid here, but we've made the mistake of assuming that just being a climber meant you were strong enough in the midsection. This is not always the case.
Thanks for all the good advices, especially the one on giving equal importance to everybody's projects, no matter the grade. By the way, is there a frozen sitting bear in the trail at min 12:12, or is it a dog?
Hey Steve. I’m planning a trip to the Lander area starting 10/7/24 (I actually grew up in Riverton) and discovered your channel. Very cool information. I’ve been watching all your training vids and have applied a few aspects. I have a background in personal training so it’s all very familiar to me already. My #1 bio-hack hurdle by a thousand miles is recovery. I feel like I can theorize all day long about what sort of training I’ll be doing, but if I’m too sore to put my socks on my feet in the morning, that all just becomes a pipe dream. I’ve learned a few things along the way and have seen great improvements in the reduction in recovery time but this is still my main focus. I don’t drink alcohol, I stretch every day, lots of water, cycle creatine, sleep well!, rarely overdo training or climbing, eat good foods, include cardio, ice bath when I have the courage… anything you can think of that I’m missing? I’ll be up there in October so hopefully we can meet. Thanks for putting this info out there even if you get some odd-ball comments like this on occasion. All the best Ben
I have never been convinced that core exercises were a good use of a climbers time/energy. It seems to me that almost all of the markers of poor core strength are actually markers of poor coordination. Obviously there is some strength component, as I can feel a lot of fatigue in the midsection if I haven't been climbing in a while. However, my intuition is that climbing itself is sufficient training for this area of the body. Am I completely off base here?
Now ask yourself why someone who can make large reaches and lockoffs between tiny holds look painfully easy on vertical surfaces would appear to have "poor coordination" on ceilings.
@@erikkeever3504 that is a classic profile of a finger strength dominant person with a prominent shoulder strength deficit. Probably 50% of my clients.
@@erikkeever3504 everybody who is more into the "core strength" science knows, that its very misguided and just few people know about the high activation levels of the abdominal wall in traditional strength exercises. Its not more effective to train them in isolation.
I feel like this was probably the best information, by far, that I have ever gotten on core training. So glad this came up as a recommendation on RU-vid.
Move your elbows away from the center or come up to your hands and try to go overhead til you can't go any further and hold. Really impressive if you can hold that for longer than 10 seconds ;)
Really interesting shift in perspective away from core training as endurance...all those long plank holds and crunch repetitions lol But I'm curious I don't think you mentioned TRX etc which I assume can be good core work while also training shoulders and grip and can increase intensity/weight
The climbing IS the resistance - weight lifters don’t lift weights in the off season; climbers “off season” is indoor climbs or another activity. Climbers should allow proper dietary habits and long hikes to keep weight appropriate for the task, lifting is not worth the possible extra weight gained, “possible”, for what it does NOT payoff for climbing. This is incorrect that lifting prevents injuries, what is true is that lifting plus climbing creates more injuries from CNS fatigue, mechanical fatigue in areas requiring hours of fatigue in climbs etc.. Allow the activity of climbing itself to be the resistance - this balanced with walking and hiking is all one needs in life for pure movement freedom, it’s unsexy but true.
Something tells me that we won't have a productive discussion moving forward from this comment. Don't you find it a bit strange though that virtually all elite athletes in other sports that also require high strength to weight ratios spend significant amounts of time in the weight room? 🧐🤔
People who say weight lifting adds a lot of muscle weight don’t understand the science of hypertrophy (and have likely never actually tried to build muscle mass to see how frustratingly difficult it can be); they also have a lack of understanding of how diet plays into the equation (hint: you can’t build extra tissue mass if you’re not consuming excess calories) People who argue weight lifting creates excess risk of injury are ignoring that all sports where injury risk is the highest (due to the excessive forces involved - sprinters, gymnasts, football players, wrestlers, etc.) must incorporate it into their training plans if they want to be elite. Also, the argument that lifting increases injury risks would suggest body builders and power lifters experience abnormal injury rates and I don’t think any evidence suggests this. In the end, a genetically advantaged person can climb strong without a formal weight training routine. But I think the point here is anybody who wants to maximize their climbing potential should consider weight training as a compliment to their other training activities. Learning good technique and appropriate diet and recovery principles for weight training (likely a bit different than when one is focused on pure functional training) is part of the process too.
I just looked up the weight and height of top Natural bodybuilders, many of them are 5'11" and 190 lbs. . . I know a lot of climbers who are scared of lifting because of gaining extra weight. . . I was one of those climbers for 20 plus years. . . now that I'm lifting weight I'm now seeing how hard it is to gain muscle.
Absolutely, many climbers are worried that they are going to "get huge" and this is just not the case for most folks. However, many climbers could actually see benefits from putting on some muscle - be more resilient, powerful, etc. In addition many climbers likely undereat (not necessarily intentionally) especially with regards to protein intake, and could benefit from some attention to their diet along with the strength training.
@@ClimbStrongTV 1. which of your training plans implements this combination of stability-load training? 2. Are all your plans climbing specific? 3. and which plan who you recommend for a 6b climber? 4. adding a struggle with dynamic moves?
There's no high-quality research to indicate overall core involvement or recruitment is higher in unilateral movement when compared to bilateral variations of the same movements. Why are you suggesting this is the case?
