Indoor Training Essentials to Improve Your Climbing
Indoor training ? WTF ?! Every year, more and more climbers are installing climbing training gear at home. Some climbers are looking to avoid the guilt of skipping the gym, while others are looking to complement their training routine by adding some short and intense sessions of pure strength.
Some climbers find it easier to concentrate on their training while at home alone, but many lose focus when the washing machine beeps or when they use their two-minute rest time between sets to water the plants. In either case, we are here to give you some tips to maximize your effectiveness while training at home to increase your strength and power.
Skill, endurance, and technique are difficult to train at home and should be prioritized for your sessions at the gym or, even better, by outdoor climbing. When planning for training at home, we need to select the right gear as well as determine a proper training program.
Indoor training gear
Gear selection is crucial. Your first piece of gear will likely be a hangboard. A hangboard should, first and foremost, coordinate well with your home’s decor. But most of all, it needs to be useful. By “useful” we mean that your training gear should be designed to allow you to perform a large variety of exercises. Look for boards that have variable angles, pocket sizes, and when possible, variable tilt. A high-level hangboard will give you unexpected possibilities to perform a wide range of dynamic moves.
Hangboard size
If you are just starting and don’t have any training gear at home yet, not even a bar, you should start with a hangboard. A hangboard provides the opportunity to perform almost all the essential exercises. Not just only dead hangs on different sized crimps and holes, but also pull-ups on different sized pockets, slopers, and jugs for warming up. It is also perfect to develop endurance.
Don’t think only about developing incredible finger strength by choosing a hangboard with the smallest crimps ever. Large pockets will be helpful for performing Front Levers and Muscle Ups which are important for training your core and back muscles. Larger pockets are also helpful when trying to move into one arm dead hangs and pull-ups.
Customization
There are several options to customize your hangboard. Can you add suspension training gear? Some hangboards include eyebolts at the bottom for hanging balls, pinches, and other suspension holds. Even if the hangboard is already filled with all the pocket sizes possible, you will notice the difference when using a fixed hold and a swinging one. You will be forced to utilize all your abdominal muscles, including laterals and obliques.
