Exercises to complement rock climbing for general health?

Rock climbing is great for all around fitness. What exercises are you adding to work muscle groups or heath items that may be underworked with climbing?

How about  light weights for upper body and core including exercises that hit antagonistic muscles and cycling for aerobic capacity? I competed for 25 years in the latter and I really notice the aerobic base it has given me during steep approaches with other older guys like me who haven’t the same background. (Although cycling took away a lot of upper body strength and transferred it to my legs, something I’m trying to reverse.) I’m trying to get in one or two of the above mentioned weight workouts per week. I feel so much better when I do… just generally feel better walking around, doing daily tasks, as well as climbing. 

I've had some sort of lifting routine for longer than I've been climbing, and to be honest I've never noticed any correlation between any exercise and my "success" climbing. MAYBE my max weighted pull up, but that's a hard maybe. Or the single leg squat, which can come in handy when a high foot needs to stood up on. 

Cardio like Daniel mentioned might be better for non elite athletes, since I'd say most challenges I face seem to be about having enough energy rather than the physical strength to execute the moves. Better hip flexibility seems to enable me better than strength as well. Those high feet placements help! 

If you're looking at underused muscles, climbing is very pull oriented. So doing some extra push work like press type lifts would be ideal. Bench press, shoulder press, dips, etc. Or even some leg work like squats. 

Server stretches, compu-squats, and hard drive hangs should be at the top of your list. They don't work for me since I'm human, but YMMV.

You need strong rotator cuffs to crank down on holds.  Even pros are limited by their rotator cuffs as you can see their elbow lift away from the wall when pulling hard.  When your elbow lifts up, it creates a less favorable angle with the hold and you slip off.  "Chicken winging" also creates poor body mechanics which lead to injury like climber's elbow. 

So work the hell out of your rotator cuffs - scap pull ups, scap pushups, wall angels.  And let the gains begin. 

*Note on the scap pull ups and pushups: Elbows should be slightly bent.  Go like you're starting a pushup or pull-up, but just pull with your scaps.  Or do one rep of a pull-up or pushup to get those muscles engaged first.  If you do it with dead arms, it might hurt.

I've lifted weights for about 6 decades and climbed for over 4.  The best year climbing I ever had was when I added Ashtanga Yoga to my training.  I think it addressed my biggest weakness - which in my case was not strength but flexibility.  Addressing your personal weaknesses should help more than anything.  So spend some time analyzing what "you" are lacking and fix it.  Resistance training is (can be) very good for balancing strength across your joints - something climbing alone doesn't address. 

Most important heath item is the shrubbery. 

Monkey tug of war is good too

It’s nice to see that bots think about these kinds of things.

Chris Rice wrote:

I've lifted weights for about 6 decades and climbed for over 4.  The best year climbing I ever had was when I added Ashtanga Yoga to my training.  I think it addressed my biggest weakness - which in my case was not strength but flexibility.  Addressing your personal weaknesses should help more than anything.  So spend some time analyzing what "you" are lacking and fix it.  Resistance training is (can be) very good for balancing strength across your joints - something climbing alone doesn't address. 

I think I ran across a YouTube video that proposed that the quickest way to improve your climbing was by increasing your flexibility. Can’t find it at the moment. Good point, Chris. 

Daniel Joder wrote:

I think I ran across a YouTube video that proposed that the quickest way to improve your climbing was by increasing your flexibility. Can’t find it at the moment. Good point, Chris. 

Agree. Yoga is really helpful to improve climbing.

Yoga is huge for mobility and creating a better mind body connection that has improved my sense of what my body is doing on the wall. Off the wall, knowing what's worked, what's actually injured, what's going to get injured if I keep going has been very helpful to stay healthy.

Unilateral overhead press has been the cure for elbow pain for me and a couple of my friends. I have seen people go from unable to climb because of elbow pain to completely pain free after a couple of sets. Using a kettlebell or dumbbell is good for shoulder stability and I think the overhead motion is more applicable to opposing climbing moves than bench press.

In general I think climbers (anyone really) that have no lifting background would really benefit from a doing a cycle or two of a beginner's powerlifting program. Yes, you will temporarily be worse at climbing, but you will come back stronger, more powerful and injury resistant.

Are you guys enjoying talking to this bot?

People just enjoy spraying their thoughts in forums, no matter what the source was.

Lattes and artisan bakers stuff

Cardio. Climbing is heavily strength to weight ratio. Even losing 5 lbs will make climbing noticeably easier. There is a reason why all the manufactruers spend late nights trying to figure out how to shave grams.

20 kN wrote:

Cardio. Climbing is heavily strength to weight ratio. Even losing 5 lbs will make climbing noticeably easier. There is a reason why all the manufactruers spend late nights trying to figure out how to shave grams.

I gained 30 pounds since I started doing cardio...

I saw a T-shirt the other day that said, “Gelato is my cardio”. Was that you, Eric?  ; )

Creed Archibald wrote:

Most important heath item is the shrubbery. 

I find kayaking to be a good complementary exercise to climbing.

Cory B wrote:

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Can you come up with a better topic?