Hey All,
Discovered all this incredible wealth of information a few weeks ago and....jeez this is amazing stuff - the depth and abundance stunned me. It's also confusing me a bit, so I just wanted to say hi, tell folks a bit about myself and my goals, and try to get some help moving forward.
I am a carpenter by trade so my work day can vary from physically taxing to fairly mild depending on the activity. This throws a bit of a curve ball for me in terms of figuring out how to train. So the first part of my goal is to become generally strong for work - strengthen my lower back, and avoid repetitive use injuries in the hands and wrists as well. I started doing some yoga a while ago and this has helped immensely and now I am feeling good and want to increase strength in all areas.
Additionally i'm a rock climber, and would like to orient my strength training towards this sport. I am also interested in gymnastics and am really enjoying the rings I put up in my room, so I think it makes sense for my climbing to work towards gymnastics goals as well.
SO here is what I have gleaned generally and what i'm up to: after browsing the forums for a while I realized I could do it forever without getting started, so I decided to start doing the beginner warm up posted by anthony king (viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5265) Basically:
60s plank
60s reverse plank
60s perfect hollow hold with hands over your head
60s arch hold in the superman flying position
60s Parallel Bar support (I don't have parallel bars or dip bar, so I have been doing this on the rings at home, and the dip bar at the rock gym when I climb)
60s chin up grip dead hang
I am able to do three sets of these. I have been on it for two weeks now, 6 days a week with a rest day. I have also been climbing about 3-4 days a week too. On climbing days I put this "warm-up" at the end of my climb. In just two weeks I have seen increased strength and my climbing has gotten better. I also throw in some ring push-ups through-out the week but am not systematic about it, and have once done a bit of handstand training which was really intense on my wrists.
So here are my questions and I apologize if they are numerous - I have spent hours browsing these forums and got the building a gymnastics body book but am still quite confused about putting together a decent routine.
1. Where do I go from here? I am all for taking things slow here, and very much like what folks say in these forums about doing 6-8 weeks of a routine before adding anything to it at all. I also see the direct impact of strength training on climbing, and Coach Sommers approach to strength being a base for skill really rings true for me in climbing - especially bouldering (which I really enjoy) puts an immense amount of force on my hands, wrists, and forearms. So I would be willing to scale climbing down a bit (2-3 days instead of 3-4 perhaps) while I build good strength.
2. Is this "warm-up" balanced all on its own? I am getting a sense of how important all-around strength development is and I would like to make sure I am starting on a right track right from the start here. What I have gleaned is that it is important to balance push and pull exercises, but I being such a beginner I am not really sure what to make of this information.
3. I have gathered that handstand training is very important. How should incorporate this? I like the approach of just doing as much handstanding as possible in a ten minute span.
4. Like a lot of people, from what I have seen, I have been completely neglecting lower body exercises. What is a good, simple exercise that I could do and how would I incorporate it into my routine?
5. I have been thinking of building some parallettes out of pvc and possibly some stall bars - are these worth it at this time or should I wait some months/years before bothering? The parallettes seem cheap and easy, the stall bars a little more time and money.
6. Sorry if these questions are all kind of part of one big question that is basically: how do I do all this shit right lol - and I know that that question doesn't really have one answer, which is why this stuff is actually resonating with me. I am basically still quite confused about how to go about developing a good all-around routine, work, and climb at the same time without overworking myself and moving along at a good pace. I am thinking.. climbing 2-3 times a week, continuing the gymnastics warm up 6 days a week, and adding a workout after the warm-up twice a week (?). Thoughts? I am also thinking of adding a small, maybe 15 minute run each week to try to reduce my fat % for climbing. Not really sure how to make an all-around workout to met my needs.
So...I know thats a lot already but its just a small portion of the questions I have lol. Generally i'm really stoked to be getting started down this path - this is really opened my mind to how messed up my fitness has been throughout my life and how I basically have just been injuring myself over and over. I realize that there will be a lot of time spent figuring all this stuff out on my own and asking questions, but I would also like to get offline a bit more and just do this stuff - I have spent significantly more time in the forums than doing it and i'm a getting a bit burnt out figuring this stuff out. Any help is appreciated and would love to hear from other climbers in the forum too. Also, anybody in Santa Cruz California?
Thanks in advance everybody!
Your Newbie
Jacob