Personal trainer looking to start training rock climbers in strength and conditioning

I have been a personal trainer for the general population for about a year and have a solid understanding of strength training. I began climbing about 6 months ago and I feel that I understand a lot of the movements that need to be trained. I would like to know if anyone has any good resources where I can get some ideas or inspiration for once my clients began to advance. Currently, I have them training the basics and moving them towards heavier weights in the squat deadlift and pressing movements but I would like to learn more.

You should probably spend a few dedicated years working through grades and training yourself. People can get seriously injured training incorrectly and it can even end climbing careers.

Check out, study, and understand the following,

Steve Bechtel’s “logical progression” and “kettlebells for climbers”

Dave MacLeod’s “nine out of ten climbers make the same mistakes”

Dr. Kelley Starrette’s “becoming a supple leopard”

And binge power company and training beta podcasts.

Always be a student.  

Running water never grows stale 

1/10

Eric Horst authored a few books about training for climbing that I found helpful. 

My opinion is that you are not ready to train climbers. I say this as someone who was trainer for many years (degree in the field, CSCS certification in the past), and I've been a climber for 16 years. Neither your time as a trainer nor your time as a climber is long/deep enough to create the knowledge base or foundation required to program informed, effective climbing training. For example, working heavier toward squat or deadlifts isn't going to do much for most climbers unless they do a lot of alpine. And if someone is an alpine climber, they would already know so much more than a climber of 6 months' experience that you couldn't teach them much of anything aside from general conditioning.

Donovan Allen gave good advice when he said You should probably spend a few dedicated years working through grades and training yourself. 

What certs and qualifications do you currently hold? 

If I were you, I'd contact the owner of BlocFit Brixton in London. I think he started like you and is now a full-time PT for climbers. He'll probably be able to give some tips.

James Tate wrote: I began climbing about 6 months ago and I feel that I understand a lot of the movements that need to be trained.

No you don't, and the fact that you think you do is evidence that you lack the judgement to be training other people. As many people have said, improper training for climbing is something that often leads to injury. There are loads of training materials out there. Spend a few years (yes years) training yourself with resources like Eric Horst, Power Company Climbing, Steve House/uphill athlete, Justin Sjong or others. Most importantly you need to understand that there will be infinitely more improvement in climbing from learning good technique than "getting stronger". 

Deadlifts won't help anyone become a better climber. Nor will any press exercises.

H Lue wrote: What certs and qualifications do you currently hold? 

Nasm and im currently in school for kinesiology

Donovan Allen wrote: You should probably spend a few dedicated years working through grades and training yourself. People can get seriously injured training incorrectly and it can even end climbing careers.

Thank you for these resources and I understand your concern but I do not see why basic weightlifting routines are going to put a climber in more danger than actually climbing. I am a trainer and my job is to make sure they perform these movements safely and with good form so unless I was totally negligent how would training a climber be any different from training a high school kid wanting to put muscle on. Strength and conditioning is just an added benefit to any athlete and I was wondering what exercises would benefit climbers more. I AM NOT TRAINING CLIMBING, I AM TRAINING CLIMBERS IN WEIGHT TRAINING.

Jon H wrote: Deadlifts won't help anyone become a better climber. Nor will any press exercises.

Weighted resistance of hip extension will create more power and explosive strength as well as strengthen the end position of hip extension which is responsible for keeping your hips closer to the wall while you are climbing. Pressing and rotator cuff exercises will improve shoulder stability and if you think that won't aid in climbers hanging and swinging off holds then you should hit the books again. Obviously, strength isn't going to magically make anyone better at a given sport but it will help make them a better overall athlete and more capable when performing athletic movements.

James Tate wrote:

Are med ball front squats going to lead to injury? Are Squat stance deadlifts going to lead to injury? Is working on shoulder mobility and rotator cuff stability going to lead to injury? Is improving hip range of motion and glute strength going to lead to injury? WIll hip external rotation training lead to injury or will it allow the climber to activate his glutes more in order to keep his hips closer to the wall? Maybe I'm a total f***ing idiot or maybe you are assuming that anything other than the typical climber workout routine of planks and sit-ups is going to lead to injury. I know I am not qualified to teach climbers how to climb but I have been lifting weights and seriously studying strength training since I was 15 so if 5 years of strength training experience is not enough to at least start training athletes then I do not know what to do with my life. My job is to teach good weightlifting form and I have taught 75-year-old women and 12-year-old boys how to perform the basic strength training movements so why are climbers so much more likely to get injured and geriatric clients are totally safe under my care and make steady improvements that lead to better quality of life and performance in daily activities.

so 5 years of experience and your 20?

Pass..... Not trying to be a dick, but thanks for your post! I find it is most useful to glean knowledge from those who have had real world application. An analogy would be tanking a brilliant person on paper, hiring them and then finding out they are terrible employees. happens all the time.

 I AM NOT TRAINING CLIMBING, I AM TRAINING CLIMBERS IN WEIGHT TRAINING. 

That wasn't clear in your original post, I thought you were going to toss a bunch of novice climbers on a hangboard and snap some pulleys. It sounds like you know what your doing. I'd say climbers in general don't want get to bulky, always want stronger cores, and our backs are WAYYY stronger than our chests. Plus anything you can do to prevent injuries is great.  

James Tate wrote: I have been a personal trainer for the general population for about a year and have a solid understanding of strength training. I began climbing about 6 months ago and I feel that I understand a lot of the movements that need to be trained. I would like to know if anyone has any good resources where I can get some ideas or inspiration for once my clients began to advance. Currently, I have them training the basics and moving them towards heavier weights in the squat deadlift and pressing movements but I would like to learn more.

You're probably getting many of the responses you are because your initial post is ambiguous; it could certainly be interpreted to say that you intend to train climbing movement in particular, not classical lifting movements as a buttress to climbing. So, perhaps edit your original post a bit for clarity? (And also, the scene here can be a bit rough.)

There was plenty dropped upthread already for further reading--books, website, podcasts, specific trainers/coaches. Go check those out. You might notice there's not too much weight training mentioned, though it's not entirely absent. This is because climbing is indeed largely a skill sport, which should probably dominate training time for most climbers.

The most specific text I could recommend for your particular question is probably the Climb Strong Deadlift Manual by Bechtel and Manganiello (haven't actually read it, but familiar with Bechtel's general philosophy and recommendations). Otherwise, there have already been recommendations for more general resources.

Finally, bear in mind that a climber needs to keep the goal the goal. Deadlift is probably useful. Pressing will help shoulder stability but is only necessary to a point. I typically substitute box steps for squats. There's already plenty of pulling in climbing, so probably not much extra is needed unless they're just not that strong. But trying to hit very heavy loads on any of the basic lifts likely detracts from one's ability to train in more specific ways and would ultimately be detrimental.

Aside from that, calf raises or maybe jump rope can be useful for slab climbing and/or ice climbing (I find them helpful for calf endurance). Reverse curls, hammer curls, and wrist curls make their way into my training for ice season and aid climbing (this helps me prevent extensor fatigue when gripping a handle such as an ice tool or ascender while climbing). You're not clear when you mention your clients "advancing." If you mean in climbing, they probably won't need the work I just mentioned except in very specific cases. If you meant in lifting, again, keep the goal the goal. If they hit 2xBW on a deadlift, that's probably good enough. Maybe better to help them learn things like breathing, body tension, radiation, etc. from their lifts at that point.

Ah. Ok man, apologies. Like many others I definitely assumed you were looking to train climbers. I would highly, highly recommend looking at the book Training for the New Alpinism. Steve House and Scott Johnson do an excellent job of looking at the whole picture of what climbers need. Wishing you the best of luck dude!

Jon H wrote: Deadlifts won't help anyone become a better climber. Nor will any press exercises.

But you need press exercises to offset the heavy emphasis on pulling or live with constant injuries. 

"Weighted resistance of hip extension... "
this isn't the bottleneck. training is useless.

"Pressing and rotator cuff exercises will improve shoulder stability... "
wrong direction. this is valid for chimney, but not for classical climbing.

your weight training does not sufficiently account for climbing even as supplemental. general weight training proves to be detrimental to most aspects of climbing. notice the performance of weight lifters and body builders at climbing.

you could defend your stance from an academic perspective. if you are well read, feel free to comment on bio-availability or radio labeled amino acids and the PRJs cited. if your training is not founded scientifically, there will understandably be more concerns.

there are more concerns specific to climbing. for example, muscles are the least of everyone's concerns. instead tendon injuries are the primary concern. because of its complex nature, aerobic and anaerobic capacities are a gradient. recently, it's been shown to be hyperbolic. a weight training regiment would simply drain resources that could be invested in climbing skills instead. as a result opportunity cost becomes a factor.

James Tate wrote:

Weighted resistance of hip extension will create more power and explosive strength as well as strengthen the end position of hip extension which is responsible for keeping your hips closer to the wall while you are climbing. Pressing and rotator cuff exercises will improve shoulder stability and if you think that won't aid in climbers hanging and swinging off holds then you should hit the books again. Obviously, strength isn't going to magically make anyone better at a given sport but it will help make them a better overall athlete and more capable when performing athletic movements.

Er… um... it sounds like you know it all already.  Jeeze...

Rough crowd!

I’m a trainer and a climber - I’d avoid this market for one reason

99% of climbers I know would not pay for training, climbing specific or no, the ones that would will gravitate towards the Pros that are well established

Why be a small fish in a tiny pond filled with other big fish - difficult business proposition