Climbing: Stay Light or Get Strong? 

If you add the time stamps for the questions to the description, us viewers can see them in the videos timeline. Then we can skip questions if they dont apply to us :)

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="40">0:40</a> Q1 How do you balance muscle mass and climbing performance? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="647">10:47</a> Q2 How can you help your partner with their climbing, and what can you learn from them? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1185">19:45</a> Q3 What is your favourite crag drink? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1348">22:28</a> Q4 How do you manage food on a day out climbing?

Damn.. that dog is more VIP than i've ever been.

As a male teen climber recovering from an eating disorder, I think this was very helpful.

Love how they let the doggo sleep on the couch.

I lost 10kg from 78kg - 68kg and the difference is night and day, if I pick up a 10kg weight now and take it up the wall I will be at least a grade or two lower. Getting your weight as low as you can without being unhealthy is the most important factor and it also helps with wear and tear on the hands / body = injury prevention.

My natural bodyweight is 86-89kg (10-15% fat). Years i spent trying to get lighter, (and stronger), but not anymore. You must recover good, if you want to get any gains and stay healthy. Good recovery let you gain power, flexibility and learn moving patterns much easier than in prolonged fatigue, even you are few kg heavier.

Loving Tom's Hair in this.

LOVE the focus on body image, not just a "you should be like this", especially when you can back it up by that your own body tells you what is right: need more strength on your regular moves -> muscles build... you need more nutrition -> cycle becomes irregular... You're already strong enough for the moves you do regularly -> muscles don't grow so much...

Great video! I’ve progressed a lot over the last two years just from climbing. Meaning I’ve built up some muscle just from climbing in the muscle groups I’ve used a lot. I feel muscle gain is good but you don’t need to be bulky, I’ve started to train the muscles groups that I’m noticing a lack of power in. Therefore preventing me to do a move or making it more difficult. I like seeing myself looking more fit but I’m nog actively working for that. Practical muscle mass increase. In most cases I’ve noticed finger strength is way more important. That and a good technique and just taking my time and not forcing it when I’m doing something new or pushing my comfort zone.

I am 5'6" (1.67m) and 168 lbs (76 kg). 20% body-fat. Years of weight-lifting and heavy squats mean big, heavy legs. I boulder at the V3 level right now with an occasional foray up to a V5. If I don't warm up properly, my hands will complain for up to a week.. a dull ache down to the bone. A proper warm-up + great recovery and I find I can come back strong in a couple of days. I have found that warming up on an easy bouldering problem is not good enough as the problem is usually short.. unless I do several laps. A much more involving warm-up for me is to start on an easy (5.6 or 5.7) sport climbing wall using an auto-belay.. where I can use my legs as well as my hands. This allows me to engage my lats, abs and glutes earlier on in the climbing session without taxing my hands. So that when I transition to bouldering, I am using all the muscles I possibly can to move and not just pulling purely using grip.. which is both forgiving to my hands and also wires my mind early in the session for implementing the proper techniques.

Heavier I get, the fingers struggle. Funnily massive shoulder moves aren't as common outdoors as 8mm crimps.

immediate like for sleepy boi on the couch

amazing content as always ! Wolud you make a video about elbow tendonitis or joint injuries in general when climbing?. Ive been a climbing for the past 3 years and have suffered from both tennis and golfers elbow.

It's great to hear from Ella, especially on muscle building. Everything I have heard about training for climbing has come from a male perspective, I definitely don't build enough muscle just by climbing... I'm keen to understand this better so I don't make unhelpful comparisons with my male climbing friends. What are the key things female climbers might benefit from doing differently than male climbers?

I think specificity comes into this conversation. Not just “mass” but useful mass

My favorite part was when you gave me permission to drink as much coffee as i want! Yaaaaasssss!!!!

Put on some muscle mass... it looks great and it helps a lot... i can tell you that as a female boulder girl! It is also a techniqule perspective which helps with climbing... a good mix and combination is best i my opinion!

I'm a naturally lean build but I can put on muscle mass relatively easily if I specifically train in that way. Something I have learned through experimentation is in the past when I was really specifically targeting aspects I felt to be weak such as pull strength or explosive power in the gym these were times where I actually started to hit a bit of a plateu in my climbing. The training I was doing was correct for the perceived weakness I had but what was happening is I was over simplifying my struggles on the wall and actually missing the combination of weaknesses (often technique due to core weakness I wasn't aware of) that was limiting my progression. For me I really started to progress when I completely stopped targeted gym training and focused my time entirely on climbing. This doesn't mean I wasn't doing drills, just when I was doing drills I was doing them on the wall on the kinds of climbs I was finding hard / was avoiding completely. It was nice to see this brought up in this video, as there are so many resources and so much information on youtube on how to train for this and that... but honestly I have found the best training for me is to find climbs that incorporate aspects of movement or strength that I find really hard and just really work on those climbs. I'm not some amazing climber, in my gym on a try hard day if I'm performing well I'll lead a 7b - most of the time I stay in the 6s and outdoors is a different story, but I firmly believe in just getting on the wall and putting the miles in. When you find a route in the gym that really tested your limits and took everything you had to get to the top this is an absolutely brilliant find - this route should now be in your schedule to hit every time you are at the centre and really what you want to do is focus on efficiency and repetition. Finding a route that was an absolute monster to defeat and taking it to a place where you can repeat it 2 or 3 times in a row is undeniable progression on lead. It's a bit different with beta focused boulders but the movement and muscle memory is all positive progress. Finding climbs at your limit and repeating them for me has progressed my climbing tremendously. That and finding climbs that look like they have holds or sections that you naturally want to avoid, if progression is purely your aim then if you steer into these things consistently you will see improvements. Bit of a massive message there, what I was trying to say was probably lost in the rambling... I hope that made some sort of sense anyway. TLDR; just getting on and climbing difficult things over and over is an absolutely excellent way of training, unless you are already an extremely strong climber I would always suggest spending more time on the wall over any other type of training if climbing performance is all you care about. I think guys especially tend to add workouts to their routine as it's difficult to have such a physical hobby and *not* start to care more about body image, I think a comparison you could draw here is the stereotypical elite boxer with the huge pecks... those pecks aren't needed to throw punches, but if you are that fit and strong as a guy you want those pecks so you train for them anyway. Maybe I'm talking shit I dunno, but there's my thoughts anyway :)

There’s a balance. And it’s different for everyone. For me, I’m doing my best climbing at my lightest weight. I do pull ups, weighted pull ups, & various other body weight exercises. Climb 4 days a week. So far, the lighter I get, the better I climb. But that’s for ME. (Btw I’m a healthy male in my healthy weight BMI)

Coming from someone who's main sport is BJJ at a mma gym it's weird how many guys Including myself I consider skinny but compared to many climbers would be bulky.

As you mention gymnasts, I met an ex gymnast climber aged 60 at Water Cum Jolly. He was working on Caviar. He said that even people like Moffat were weak compared to gymnasts. He suggested we shake hands and he was about 35 % stronger than me while only about 6kilos heavier. Boulderer John Gill was a gymnast first as was Lynn Hill. Moffat and Moon both trained on boulders to do their sport routes,as well as in Sheffield cellars,and both were strict with their diet.If you train for trad you have to train for the extra weight of the gear plus 2 ropes sometimes.If you regularly feel like you don't have the energy to attack a hard route,then you need to eat a bit more,and don't forget to build resting into your program.

great topic!

What was touched upon but not explored here is the importance of recruitment and neural pathway development (engram training). Follow up any hypertrophy cycle with power training and dynamic climbing (bouldering) as well as skill sets development (practice various moves aiming to attain perfect technique - repeat these in greater and greater states of fatigue to stress proof the technique). Concentrate on your weaknesses. An Olympic weight lifter discovered that he could still attain his PB after two years of no training with much lower muscle mass - this was solely due to his neural pathway development and high recruitment. So bulk up first then strip it down again through the recruitment phase that should follow your hypertrophy phase. Each phase of an overall macro cycle will compromise other aspects of the training - it's unavoidable. You build up overall gains by repeating the macro cycles over the years - just remember to vary the training as much as possible to avoid plateaus.

Strength training does not equal hypertrophy. Ask any power lifter that has to stay in a specific weight class.

Sometimes I think being really tall means I don't have much choice with bodyweight. I'm very slim but still weigh 80kg+

I was just listening and just noticed around 17 minutes that there is a dog on the couch XD

I do 7 sessions of weight lifting for every session of climbing, obviously I'm a little heavier as a result, but the extra strength makes up for it I think. (Assuming you can keep your bodyfat down). The only issue is that big heavy legs make campusing pretty hard. Like they said in the video, being heavier and stronger makes powerful moves easier, but makes slow crimpy stuff harder.

Great insights, thank you! Being the stereotypical lanky build who excels at small crimps but lacks power and struggles on thuggy boulders, I've long been looking at adding some weight training to my routine. Do you have any particular set of exercises you would recommend that translate well to bouldering?

so far my experience with myself. the ligther i weight the better is my weight to strenght ratio.

As a female that’s been body building for several years, transitioning into climbing, I definitely feel “bigger” than most of the female population at the climbing gyms. Now I gotta transition into using this “muscle mass” into improving my performance on the wall..

I'm 5'9" 195lbs (1.75m 88.45 kg) and generally a v7-v8 gym climber. 5.13a/b Outdoor lead climber. I don't really boulder outside, but those grades make sense to me from a comparability standpoint. My point is, however, that I'm a pretty heavy climber for my size, and that is mostly muscle, although in the winter, when I compete in another sport, I do gain some extra fat. For me, the most beneficial thing that I do every year is to lose weight and lean out. I'm already much stronger then climbers who climb higher grades though by any standard measure. Such as the number of pull-ups, max extra weight pull up, max dead hang open hand, and max pinch weighted lift.

Quite an interesting first q, I'm a guy and quite skinny, don't tend to train intensively or go to the gym but I have been climbing since I was quite young and while I'm not super strong my strength matches my body weight pretty well, and I'm also much more flexible than most male climbers I know. I often end up feeling that I should improve my strength more, I'm not really sure whether I do actually need to though or if it's just a result of often being around guys with much more obviously muscular body types - I usually end up feeling that my body type is more similar to some of the women I climb with than the men. (not something I have an issue with, just something that I find interesting)

That intro beat really slaps

Caffeine can hinder your body's ability to regulate heat. I found this out the hard way. I had drank an energy drink before kayaking, then a caffeinated beverage during, and and energy drink after, I also drank copious amounts of plain water throughout the day, and ended up with heat stroke, and quite ill for a few days. The doctor told me the caffeine blocks the body's ability to self regulate body temp. So as I watched this my thought was turned toward climbing often times done in the heat of the day, be careful with the amount of caffeine, You do not want heat stroke, it was horrible!!!!

It's well documented that elite rock climbers have lower %BF, BMI and weight. They are also predominantly ecto/mesomorphic. In brief, they're lean with no heavy musculoskeletal development. Source: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1665579617300418 But another point need to be considered: a heavy and big-sized climber will have difficult to "fit" in some places on the rock. They'll dispend more energy cost in a single movement and will show lesser mobility, what can compromise the overall perfomance, mainly on long stamina routes

the muscle mass question was what I was waiting for, I am a 85kg climber, let me tell you crimping is pretty hard for me even though I train a lot

just look at pro climbers like Meatball

You should release this as/start a podcast.

The answer is easy when you see 35kg kids climb in 8 grade, light is more important. But stay light at adult mean close to anorexic, and i prefert the sean mccoll style than romain desgranges style (i'm fan of both), that's why i do lot of street workout.

Concerning that comment about menstrual cycle. Muscle mass isn't the important factor, but rather the amount of fat, as fatty tissue is in fact hormonaly active. Just wanted to clarify :)

Strong girls are amazing ladies don’t worry about that muscle mass

You can only increase neural recruitment so much. To progress, you’ll have to gain muscle mass

I have been cycling for about a year now and am 185lbs very bottom heavy. Problem is idk how to lose leg muscle or if I even should, since I feel fit and healthy with slightly beefy legs

I haven't gone through the whole video so apologies if that doesn't apply to all of it but as a non-native english speaker, I sometimes have a hard time understanding what Olly is saying. Could you maybe try to pace yourself and articulate a bit more? I trully enjoy the videos and the format, it's just a friendly advice from a non-native speaker! Keep killing it! And the tape is fantastic btw

Sounds really simple, but can you go into detail on how to build muscle mass? I'm training quite hard - but it doesn't seem to happen. You mentioned hypertrophy phases, can you expand on that please?

Id recommend a bit more quantitative analysis. The BMI of top climbers is on the low side, around 20 for men, this can tell you something about your target muscle mass

Cousin and I are the same height. I'm 83kg and muscular from years of crossfit. He's 70kg. We have the same grip strength. He's consistently two grades higher than me.

So my body image being skinny is something I’m struggled with for a long time. With life stuff and just poor education and guidance, poor diet, sleep and training habits have led to quite embarrassing progress since first lifting like 6 years ago. Getting into climbing 2 years ago, I have slowly built some muscle just based on needs of climbing, but I’ve prioritized climbing progress and technique so much, my body has just become too efficient being skinny. Continue to make strength progress but minimal hypertrophy. Ik that’s advantageous for climbing, but just for the sake of vanity, I’ve been wondering a good way to integrate/balance climbing with some sort of routine that allows me to gain muscle mass, particularly shoulders and arms, which was mentioned as primary movers of climbing anyway, so it would still benefit my climbing. If anybody has input I’d appreciate it. I still wanna progress in climbing but I’m not concerned with the “ideal” or fastest gains in climbing persay

offtopic: can I borrow your cute dog for a year or five?

i'm a 70kg tree climber with high muscle mass, but i don't freeclimb much i just ascend rope a lot.

As a middle-aged guy, I appreciate the suggestion that the mass hanging over my belt might be "muscle." 😆

Hey, a late comment here! Would it really be smart to train for hypertrophy and not strength? I'd think it'd be better with explosive strength training to have lighter stronger muscles. Are there advantages to having big muscles?

come to listen to Indonesia

Well, I build muscle like crazy but my strength gains are always mediocre.. my joints hate me for that, lol

Get strong

I'm from Spain and I'm always watching different videos in english, but for me it's impossible to understand you Oli... So sorry because I love your topics : /

There is a dilema I have had a couple of times and struggle with. Let's say you are climbing around your max level and you are in a potentially dangerous situation (i.e. : backcliped the previous carabiner, potential leg sweep etc ...) do you want your belayer to tell you about it tell them and risk breaking your concentration or do you prefer them to let you focus so that you have a higher chance reach a more confortable and safe position a couple of moves later ?

If you can do all the moves isolated, but you cant link them all together (in routes) does that mean you should consider building muscle? Or is that just an endurance problem?

🐲 I try to stay at nearly same weight (losing a bit fat) and increasing strength. For climbing that makes really more sense than training like a body-builder to blow up the muscle mass. Everything is to get more efficient muscles. .

Im a powerlifter and an intermediate climber ( all power, less skill) and the weight/power/strength issue is KILLING ME.

Actually, it is very easy for me to build muscle mass (i'm at 96kg (~211lbs)). Thinking of my joints i want to drop at least 10 of them.... :-/

I'm 18.5 stone and an older climber. Easier to get strong than light. And no, being heavy doesn't hold you to the rock more firmly. Not without gripping harder somewhere else. Equal and opposite forces plus force vector triangle......

Never will I ever say: "Oh no, I'm just too jacked."

What do you think about supplementing Collagen and Creatine?

Hm their suggestion that small crimps are harder when you're heavy and burly overhangs are easier contradicts my experience. I'm a heavier climber who puts on muscle easily (F, 5'1,130lb, 20%body fat) but I naturally excel most at crimpy, slightly overhanging lines

Getting light and remaining strong🤣! Light is less contraints on fingers and tendon.

Id rather too much muscle than fat

I'm 19 yrs old, 6'0, 185 lbs (83.9) kg, and started climbing four months ago. Right now I can climb V4s, and am pretty close to completing a couple V5s. I started weightlifting last summer, and built significant mass in my upper body and arms pretty quickly, but I am still very much bottom heavy; I grew up playing soccer every single year up until two years ago, and I was a mid-distance runner for track all throughout high school... so because of my freakishly massive legs my strength-to-weight ratio isn't superb: it's quite difficult for me to do pull-ups consistently with good form. These past couple of months I have really fallen in love with climbing, but I also want to somewhat maintain this physique and strength I've created through weightlifting. Would it be smart to do 3 days of climbing, 3 days of weightlifting (push, pull, legs), and 2 days of rest every 8 days? I haven't done much finger training, and am hesitant to do so at such an early stage in my climbing journey... instead I've been spending 3-4 hours at the climbing gym projecting boulders the entire time, with the occasional top-roping sesh (my best is a few 5.11 routes so far)

Best thing I can do to help my partner is to keep my mouth shut. (Also the best thing I can do for me lest I want to lose my partner. ;) )

Haven’t heard the whole thing yet but in my experience just put on enough muscle to be able to do a one arm pull up. However much that is. That’s all the body strength you’ll ever need, and staying as light as possible with that baseline pull strength is optimal. Don’t do any chest work leg work or abdominal work for hypertrophy. Just mobility

love the inclusive language w.r.t athletes who menstruate. great stuff as always! hope you're all well x

Wihout watching the video, the answer is easy: - Both!!! stay light and get strong - add strength that benefits climbing and no more than necessary

1.80 cm 64 kg v10 (outdoors

2 years ago, this social distance media is hilarious

Not sure I would call gymnasts "petite" :P

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="971">16:11</a> I just start complaining that I'm hungry

My problem is just getting light...

Took me a while to figure out why the sofa is only used by the dog 😁

So... The dog wasn't dead the entire time?

I almost closed the video when she said "those who menstruate" until she discussed women not being able to menstruate due to poor health, which is a serious and underdiscussed topic.

ok

FYI, to most guys, strong fit women are very attractive.

2kg of muscle a year? I wish lol, not even bodybuilders / powerlifters add that unless they are on gear.

I can't stop looking at his hair around his neck!

Top 400 climbers weight

second :D

so you sit on a chair and a dog is on that sofa..?? why??

Imo women cannot put too much muscle mass on.

Why did you talk about a climbing partner for 15 min when this was supposed to be about strengthening training lmao

"People who menstruate" - I despise this Newspeak.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="277">4:37</a> - "athletes who menstruate", woke is here now too

Stay light :'D For that I'd have to stop eating this chocolate cereal (read: cereal where you melt chocolate to use in place of milk...) /facepalm

My question is, why do you two get the chairs while the dog gets the whole couch?

first :3

Not sure why this argument exists, because there aren't any large good climbers. Strong good climbers exist, but no matter how much you flex in the mirror, if you are a great climber, then you aren't as big as you think.

woke as fuck vid, harry potter lady wouldnt be happy

Augh..... vocal fry has reached the UK. Can't listen!!!

I don´t trust people who bleed for a week and don´t die.

"Athletes that menstruate" - Critical Race Theory Cloud alarm!