You may be worried about overworking your fingers on a hangboard or not using it enough to strengthen them properly. It is a balancing act to make sure you are getting enough out of the tool without stressing the joints and tendons in your fingers. In this article, we provide information on what hangboards are and how to use them safely.

So, how often should you hangboard? Hangboards are not for beginners, but they are an excellent tool for intermediate and advanced climbers. Unless you are training for sports competitions, you should use a hangboard 2 or 3 times a week. Scientific research has found that it is a great way to increase finger and hand strength even with minimal training sessions per week.

Page Jumps

• Should You Hangboard Every Day?
• How Often Should You Hangboard Per Week?
• What is Hangboarding?
• Modern Hangboard Materials
• Are Hangboards Worth It?
• How Do You Hangboard Safely?
• Should You Hangboard as a Beginner

Should You Hangboard Every Day?

Hangboarding every day would result in injuries to your fingers and hands due to overstressing the tendons, pulleys, and bones. The maximum number of hangboard sessions per week for an advanced sports trained climber should be five.

For intermediate and beginner hangboard users, two times a week is plenty, but you can do up to three as long as you stop at the first sign of finger pain. Pain is an indicator that you are overworking your fingers and hands. Exercising through the pain could lead to a pulley tear, microfracture, or tendinitis. Be conscious of what your body is telling you, and do not go past your threshold.

How Often Should You Hangboard Per Week?

So, can you hangboard every day or most days of the week? The short answer is no. You can develop osteoarthritis from overworking your hands and fingers. A study by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee looked at how experienced climbers were affected by doing an exorbitant amount of training sessions. You can read the research here. In this study they “conclude that intensive finger training (e.g., campus board training) can lead to early-onset osteoarthritis of the hand.”

Research conducted by the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Castilla La-Mancha University in Spain has shown quite clearly that even a few weeks of hangboarding can substantially increase finger strength. They compared maximum dead-hangs, which involved added weight, intermediate dead-hangs, where they used a minimal edge depth and combination of the two. What their results showed was that “the intermittent dead-hangs training method seems to be more effective for grip endurance development after eight-week application in advanced sport-climbers.” You can read more about that study here.

In the study listed above, the results were obtained with only three hangboarding sessions a week for eight weeks. The “grip endurance gains and effect size were 34%” for the advanced sports climbers who took part in the study. In the end, hangboarding is a fantastic way to gain strength, but it needs to be done in moderation. Two sessions a week for four weeks is enough to see significant improvements.

What is Hangboarding?

Below we go over what hangboards are used for and the different types that are currently used by sports and hobbyist rock climbers.

Hangboarding History and Design

Experienced sports and hobbyist climbers were finding new ways to train their upper forearms, fingers, and hands in the late 1900s when the first modern-looking hangboards were created. They were made of boards with drilled out finger holes and ledges. By the early 2000s, plastic and wooden hangboards were available for purchase and sold by workout gurus.

These boards are made with ledged areas where you can hold yourself at a dead-lift by your fingertips. They are meant to build up the tendon and muscles. Research has also shown that routine use can thicken the bone as well.

The boards are highly flexible in terms of design with many different types and sizes of ledges and handholds to help train specific climbing position strength. Any hangboard you purchase should have open and closed handed holds in a variety of sizes.

Modern Hangboard Materials

There are many different designs for hangboards and materials that they can be made out of though the two most popular materials are wood or plastic.

Many climbers also create their hangboards using wood and hand tools, or they buy kits. This is useful in that it allows for climbers to design boards and grips that will train the part of their hands or fingers that are weakest. However, any possible finger training you might need will have a hangboard available on the market to buy.

Is Plastic or Wood Better?

The two primary materials for hangboards are wood and plastic. The plastic versions with texture are more comfortable to use for people who tend to have sweaty fingers when they work out. Wood is usually better if you are a climber who wants to use added weight during training as there is a little give to the material, so it does not bite into your fingers as plastic would. Both elements work perfectly fine, but they have their pros and cons.

Plastic

There are now patterns for 3D printers that you can augment to your desired size to make sure it has everything you want and will fit your hands exactly. If you do not want to spend the money on custom made boards then there are plenty of ones available online and in stores that sell workout gear. They are usually made of polyester resin or polyurethane. There is no actual difference between the materials though some trainers have claimed that polyurethane is lighter. Plastic is cheaper and easier to find.

Wood

Unless you make your wooden hangboard at home, they are the more expensive option. Usually, they are made of high-quality wood, and they are a lot easier on your skin than the harder plastics. There are plenty of patterns for making your wooden hangboard at home, so if you feel confident in your carpentry skills, you can save some money and build a board to your exact size and needs with a board and some power tools. Wood boards are expensive but more comfortable.

I’ve tried many different hangboards over the years, and I’ve definitely found my favorites. Because of this I’ve got an article on my best hangboards that can save you time and money.

Are Hangboards Worth It?

You will see an improvement in your grip strength within a short time if you follow proper hangboard guidelines. You should always speak with your doctor before starting any new workout routine, but hangboarding is a relatively low-stress exercise that yields significant results.

What Science Says about Hangboards

A controlled scientific trial by Jerry Medernach, Heinz Kleinöder and Helmut H H Lötzerich found that when they had 23 advanced bouldering men try four weeks on a hangboard, the results were positive. “[Fingerboarding] is highly effective in increasing grip strength and endurance in competitive [Bouldering].” You can see all the study findings here.

Why Hangboards are Useful

Here are just a few ways that hangboarding can help you with your climbing.

• It is highly controlled so you can strengthen the grip positions where you are weakest.
• You can add or subtract weights so there can be precise resistance training.
• This form of exercise makes it easier to work-out without having to worry about accidents or injuries.
• The boards are easy to access and very portable, so they are incredibly accessible to almost anyone who might need one.

How Do You Hangboard Safely?

If you ever experience finger or hand pain when doing hangboarding, stop immediately. You should also not use the board when you are injured and the advice of medical professionals. Rest after training to allow your body to use the exercise you just completed to grow stronger.

Warm-Ups

You want to do about thirty minutes of warm-ups before you start to avoid any possible injury. You can start with a full-body workout such as jogging or jumping jacks. Then get your upper body ready for the dead-lifts with some pull-ups or rotator cuff warm-ups. Stretch all of your fingers and your forearms before you begin. Then, once you get started, do a few quick rounds on the holds you intend to practice. Doing all of this will keep your body from cramping and will help you be able to hold your positions better. Do a few light stretches when you are done as well to keep the muscles from cramping.

Hand Position

There are multiple hand positions depending on what part of your hand you are trying to strengthen. A basic boarding exercise involves using four fingers to create an open and grip on matching holds on either side of the board. Forms for building strength in specific areas of the hand can be found in online video tutorials, where professional climbers can give examples of each. Never use a full-hand crimp when using the board.

Shoulder and Body Position

Your shoulders should always be down and relaxed rather than high and bunched together. Your chest should be out and your knees only slightly bent so that you can engage your core.

Dismounting Safely

Always slowly lower yourself to the floor. If you drop suddenly, it can damage your tendons.

Should You Hangboard as a Beginner

If you are new to the sport, then you may be wondering when you should start hangboarding. It is important not to start immediately. You should wait at least 6 months of rock climbing training as a beginner before you attempt to use a hangboard. This will get your forearms used to building up some initial grip strength and proper form so that you do not injure yourself when you start hangboarding.

Rock climbing is an excellent sport both for fitness and enjoyment. You gain strength, balance, and reap the rewards of views usually reserved for birdlife along with the contentment of having defeated a mighty structure. But does that mean you should climb any day and at any time? No! While it may be fun, rock climbing comes various risks as well. One risk factor is the weather. If you climb during unsuitable weather, you may put your life in danger due to the risk of falling.

So, what is the best weather for rock climbing? The weather associated with fall (aka Autumn) is best for general rock climbing. It shouldn’t be rainy; the weather should be sunny or cloudy. Rain can make the rocks slippery and hinder the process of climbing, no matter your experience. However, sunny doesn’t mean extremely hot temperatures. If it’s too hot, you’ll sweat a lot and your hands won’t be able to grip effectively. The temperatures should be cooler if possible, typically below 70°F, to minimize sweating and increase friction between the hands and the rocks.

Page Jumps

• The Best Weather for Rock Climbing With Ropes
• The Best Weather and Temperature for Bouldering
• The Best Weather and Temperature for Ice Climbing
• Best Weather and Temperature for Mountaineering/Alpinism
• How to Boulder or Rock Climb Safely in Any Weather
• Is It Bad to Climb in Weather That’s Too Hot?
• Is It Bad to Climb in Weather That’s Too Cold?
• What Equipment to Take with you if You’re Bouldering in Winter
• Rock Climbing Techniques for Different Weather Conditions

The Best Weather for Rock Climbing With Ropes

The best weather for rock climbing with ropes (sport climbing, top rope climbing and trad climbing) is determined by the following factors: whether the cliff in the shade or sun, whether the area humid or dry or whether its summer or winter? Low temperatures are suitable for rock climbing using ropes. Rock climbers often covet low temperatures since there’s more friction in the cold, which gives them a better grip on the ropes and shoes compared to warm temperatures. Your body will also lose less water, reducing the need to rehydrate as frequently. Also, you won’t get sunburnt during lower temperatures. The best temperature for rock climbing with ropes is between 32°F and 80°F, which makes fall and some parts of spring the best time.

The Best Weather and Temperature for Bouldering

For maximum fun and potential when bouldering, you need lots of friction. This means that you need cold rock and the least amount of moisture, sweat, and hand grease on your hands. Bouldering is not ideal during the hot summer sun because, again, you’ll be sweating a lot, and the surface will be very slippery. The hot summer sun also increases the rate of exhaustion and dehydration. Fall is the best time for bouldering, and spring coming in as the best alternative weather to fall. The best temperature for bouldering is generally cooler than roped climbing. This is because lower and intermediate grades when roped climbing do not require as much friction considered to bouldering. Temperatures between 32°F and 50°F are the most ideal when bouldering, however anything up to 80°F shouldn’t affect you too much.

If you want to know more about bouldering, I’ve included pretty much everything in my bouldering 101 article.

The Best Weather and Temperature for Ice Climbing

Any weather with freezing temperatures is ideal for ice climbing. Ice climbing in temperatures closer to 30°F or more is precarious because of the melting and unstable icefalls. When it comes to ice climbing, it’s best to climb in temperatures lower than 2°F, but you’ll need lots of layers to keep you warm. Also, remember that too many layers restrict mobility and add weight. Most ice climbers prefer climbing in the dead of winter. This is when icefalls have completely solidified and thickened, reducing the probability of breakage.

I’ve written a very detailed article about ice climbing, including what is it, the basics, where you can practise it and what gear you’ll need.

Best Weather and Temperature for Mountaineering/Alpinism

Just like ice climbing, practicing alpinism when temperatures are above freezing point exposes you to dripping ice and other dangerous conditions. That’s why alpinism is generally practiced in freezing temperatures. Alpinism needs temperatures that are stable enough to hold the ice in place so that you don’t fall accidentally. However, it shouldn’t be too cold to prevent the risk of hypothermia. According to a study published on NCBI, weather, especially extremely cold weather, is a crucial factor in mortality rates. Climbers are prone to die from hypothermia if they don’t take the right safety measures.

Therefore, for your own safety, mountaineering needs temperatures sustainable by the human body. The best weather for mountaineering is during summer when the weather is friendly, and the temperatures are not extreme. And if you feel the weather isn’t that friendly, take the necessary precautions.

How to Boulder or Rock Climb Safely in Any Weather

Staying safe when rock climbing is crucial and climbing safety depends on your own judgment. Sometimes, weather conditions will be against your expectations, that’s why understanding the severity of the weather condition and making the correct decision is vital. According to ScienceDirect, when the weather gets bad, climbers start rushing and hurrying. This is more likely to cause accidents than the weather itself. Therefore, being aware of changing weather can mean a lot to your safety – you won’t need to rush to get away from the stormy weather.

Another thing is that you wear appropriate clothes and equipment before venturing on any climbing expedition. And don’t forget to prepare for your climb in advance, and have tips on how to deal with unexpected bad weather. Just like exposure, recognizing symptoms of hypothermia means the difference between staying alive and dying on the rocks or ice. Falling rocks have caused a significant number of injuries and deaths and, even though they can’t be predicted, you can avoid them by staying away from hazardous terrains.

As a climber, you should also pay attention to the wind speed, the probability of rain or snow, and the forecasted lows and highs before planning any rock climbing adventure. If you adhere to these tips, you’ll be more likely to return home safe and sound.

Is It Bad to Climb in Weather That’s Too Hot?

The challenges of running, climbing, and hillwalking in severe summer conditions are undeniable. Climbing in weather that’s too hot exposes you to many risks. These include sunburns, dehydration, heat exhaustion, and even heat stroke. Mild dehydration is very common, but in severe cases, dehydration can result in brain damage, seizures, or even death.

Heatstroke is another severe threat of climbing in scorching weather. Heatstroke occurs when your body is no longer able to cool itself. Once your body temperature goes beyond 40°C, the cells are damaged, and your body organs suffer. Climbing in weather that’s too hot impairs your eyesight, and performance, and you won’t know when it’s safe to push harder or when to stop and throttle back.

Is It Bad to Climb in Weather That’s Too Cold?

Cold weather opens the door to the best climbing experiences. As a climber, exploring your climbing adventures during the cold weather gives you many advantages. However, climbing in extremely cold conditions is very risky. If the weather is too cold, you cannot comfortably cling on your rope or hang on the rock.

The rubber in your shoes will be harder, making it more difficult to mold to the shape of the rock you’re stepping on. Even if you’re wearing clothes that keep you warm enough, the rope will numb your hands, which will make climbing very challenging and risky. You’ll also need to wear lots of clothes and gear to keep you warm; these will not only make you heavy but also reduce your range of mobility.

What Equipment to Take with you if You’re Bouldering in Winter

We’ve discussed the advantages of bouldering in winter, but what’s needed to keep you warm during this period? Don’t forget, bouldering is about having fun. Having better equipment means more fun and harder sends.

Bouldering doesn’t rely on ropes for protection. Instead, it relies on crash pads to protect climbers when falling. Think of packing climbing shoes, a climbing brush, chalk and a chalk bag/bucket, high-quality crash pads, at least two t-shirts, a vest, an insulated jacket, gloves/mitts, and warm socks. Ensure that your clothes absorb sweat, give you the right level of warmth, and are well ventilated. Avoid wearing cotton clothes as they become cold and heavy when wet.

You’ll also need a flask for keeping hot drinks, and some extra food. Sunglasses and trekking poles are also recommended for amateurs. If you’re planning to carry your smartphone or any other electronic gadget, ensure that you carry re-sealable plastic bags to keep your equipment dry.

Rock Climbing Techniques for Different Weather Conditions

Experienced climbers don’t use loads of energy to power their way up rocks. Instead, they use different moves and techniques to overcome various types of challenges. When you have the right skills and technical ability, moves will start clicking, and you’ll eventually find yourself on top of the most challenging terrains. Below are some techniques to help you when rock climbing with ropes in any weather.

• Keep your arms straight – When hanging using your rope, keep your body weight on your skeleton rather than trying to flex them. This will help your arm muscles rest rather than being engaged throughout the climbing period.
• Climb using your feet – Despite being the most important skill, most beginners overlook this technique when rock climbing. The lower body is usually stronger than the upper body; that’s why you should always keep your weight on your feet when rock.
• Resting – Having enough rest is perhaps as useful as any other skill in climbing. When doing long routes, you can occasionally rest by dropping one or both arms. You can also use the opportunity to relax your muscles by stretching and shaking your hands.
• Maintain quiet feet – Occasionally, climbers get scared, which makes them hurry. This makes them scrap around and waste lots of energy while trying to find holds. Attempt climbing rocks while keeping your feet are quiet as you can to reduce tension and anxiety.
• Engage your core – You need a strong core to achieve the best stability and balance on rocks. Work on strengthening your core since its good for rock climbing.
• Positive self-talk – A positive self-talk is a vital mental component when rock climbing using ropes. Pay attention to your thoughts when climbing. If you identify fear as a significant factor, learn to think positively about your safety and achievements at the end of the day. Rock climbing can teach you lots of life lessons if you’re willing to learn.
• Breathe – Always take deep breathes when taking each step to avoid instances of making your body shake when climbing. Trembling and anxiety are also caused by insufficient oxygen in your body. Breathing regularly also calms the mind and keeps you focused.

If you were wondering about the best weather for bouldering, rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, I hope this article has given you enough information. Remember, being aware of how various weather conditions impact rock climbing will not only make the activity fun, but also ensure your safety.

There are few things in life better than rock climbing. It’s got it all: it’s a great workout, a fun activity, it has an amazing community of people, and can be a life-long pursuit. Unfortunately, rock climbing can be complex when first starting out – and beginners can find themselves making quite a few mistakes.

Luckily for you there’s a few more experienced climbers, like myself, who understand the mistakes they’ve made as a beginner. If you’re afraid you might be doing something wrong, fear not! I’ve listed 10 crucial mistakes beginner rock climbers make, both in terms of safety and progress, so you can see what you shouldn’t be doing – and if you are doing something wrong, you can learn how to fix it!

Here’s the 10 mistakes that beginners make when indoor bouldering:

1. Bad footwork – if you’re using your feet at all.
2. Don’t rush. Trying to send a climb without focusing on technique
3. Not resting properly – either too much rest or too little rest
4. Don’t jump down after you’ve sent a climb – climb down instead
5. Not knowing the rules and etiquette of indoor rock climbing
6. Being overly-excited and buying the wrong type of shoes
7. Sacrificing technique because your muscles can’t take it – especially your forearms
8. Not caring about finger injuries
9. Using a hangboard too early instead of waiting until you’re ready
10. Focusing on sending climbs instead of developing technique

Read on to learn more about each individual mistake.

1. Bad footwork – if you’re using your feet at all.

Most novices make this same mistake when rock climbing; it’s something that’s happened to most of us. We primarily use our hands, arms and upper back to climb. On one side that’s great – it gets those muscles fired up and going! However it has a major downside.

We slowly learn how to use our upper body strength to climb – but what we don’t realize is that we are forgetting about 50% of the human body. We don’t focus on how to use our feet and legs at all. At least, not correctly anyway.

After a while, we realize we should’ve been using our entire body to rock climb, and it seems we become better overnight. Most people have no idea how to employ proper footwork to rock climb. Who can blame them? At first, we don’t use our feet at all! And when we start using them, we don’t know what to do!

So, here’s the thing. Because we don’t want to overcomplicate things, we’ll keep this one simple: stop using the middle of your foot to climb on footholds. You’re not walking, you’re climbing! Use both your feet as if they were hands and grab onto holds using your toes, or the outside and inside of your foot. Once you advance you’ll also learn how to toe hook and heel hook.

Try using your these parts of your feet next time you’re rock climbing, it’ll be a game-changer!

2. Don’t rush: Trying to send a climb without focusing on technique

Besides lower body issues, there’s a second problem most beginners rock climbers will face, no matter who they are. They rush too much. I’ve seen this more true for men than women (I have no idea why).

Most beginners treat rock climbing like a sprint. Instead of taking time to learn and slowly develop their technique, they throw caution out of the window and try to make it to the top as fast as they can.

There’s nothing wrong with showing off every once in a while. And we’ve a lot of us have raced our friends once or twice before. But the thing is, when you are starting out, you need to focus on developing your technique.

Try to be mindful of each movement: pay close attention to your hands and feet – how are you grabbing, reaching, and transitioning. It’s a conscious effort. Eventually, it will come naturally, and rushing will be a thing of the past.

The Instagram video below is me sending a tricky V5 which required slow transitions to avoid barn dooring on multiple occassions.

3. Not resting properly – either too much rest or too little rest

This isn’t a “beginners-only” mistake, it’s is a common one. But it’s good to keep it in mind next time you are rock climbing. Apparently, most rock climbers think there are two ways to rest between each turn: taking barely any time to rest or taking too long to rest and forgetting to warm their muscles back up once they return to the wall.

If you think you are above and beyond resting, think again. You aren’t doing any favors for yourself by not taking the right time to regain your strength back. Instead, it’s detrimental: you can cause long term and short term injuries by climbing without rest and forcing yourself to climb through muscle fatigue.

This is especially true for beginners who lack the muscle endurance required for climbing. I’ve written a whole article on how to improve muscular endurance for climbing which you can find here.

On the other hand, by resting too much, you are not doing any better especially if you don’t warm up again. If you lose track of time and spend 20-30 minutes chatting between climbs, you will also be prone to injuries. You warm-up before starting a bouldering session for a reason: you need your muscles ready for explosive and persistent movements. By resting too much, you’ll cool down and then you’ll need to warm up again.

4. Don’t jump down after you’ve sent a climb – climb down instead

The superhero landing looks cool. You reach the top and jump down as if you were in a movie. But this is real-life – and doing this has real-life consequences. Instead of looking cool, keep it safe. That way you’ll be able to climb when you’re old.

Why is jumping down from a bouldering wall unsafe? Because your body is not made for taking that much stress when you land! You compress the vertebrae in your spine which puts stress on the lumbar region of your back. It also puts a lot of stress on your knees, feet and hips. You’re asking for a long-term injury by doing this. I’d also advise you to learn how to fall (and how not to fall) off a bouldering wall, this is essential for the safety of your body over time.

You might think you’re body is tougher than your average climber because you have been jumping down for a long time now without any injuries. Well, think again… these kinds of injuries build over time – and one day you could find yourself with terrible knee or back pain you can’t shake. It’s not worth it! WHERE POSSIBLE, climb down rather than jump.

5. Not knowing the rules and etiquette of indoor rock climbing

Nearly every sport or activity has rules and etiquette of their own and rock climbing is no different. Most people learn them over time and, every once in a while, you discover a new rule. They are all intuitive. But, sometimes, that’s not the case.

To keep everyone on board, here are a couple of unspoken rules of rock climbing:

• Don’t shout or yell constantly. Rock climbing can be a frustrating at times, and you can take out a little of that frustration by voicing your issues. Doing this all the time, however is a big no-no. Don’t make it annoying for everybody else.
• Don’t hog the wall. Share. We’re all there to climb, so take turns and keep it civilized.
• When it comes to giving advice, give none unless somebody asks first. This is called “beta spray”. Just because you know the beta (the right way to send the climb) does not mean people want you to tell them. Some want to find out on their own.
• If you want beta advice then just ask a more experienced climber. They’ll usually say yes, but make sure you do it at the right time. Wait until people are done with their own problem first.
• When in doubt, ask “Is this wall taken?” or “Is somebody going next?” It’ll save you a lot of trouble.

6. Being overly-excited and buying the wrong type of shoes

When we begin our rock climbing journey, we learn there are all sorts of things we can buy to make our experience better. You might think the higher the price, the better the shoe. Well, before you get your credit card out, take a breather.

Make sure you know what you are getting into before you buy anything. Learn about it online, ask the veterans at your gym as well. Try and buy something that will suit your needs and budget.

I’ve spent years trying out different shoes, finding the best ones that work for me in particular types of climbing – whether they’re shoes specific to beginners, bouldering, sport climbing or just as an all-round shoe. I’ve always tried to focus on getting the best value for my money while increasing my performance. If you want to take a look at a list I’ve made of my recommended climbing shoes then you can take a look here.

7. Sacrificing technique because your muscles can’t take it – especially your forearms

Bouldering will tax a lot of muscles in your body. Without proper technique, you’ll start using some muscles more than others. You’ll do alright at first – but, eventually, you’ll find yourself either stagnating or injured.

Hang with straight arms where possible when you’re climbing. Beginners tend to have weak forearms and therefore use their biceps to keep their body up when hanging. This is wrong technique. It’ll be incredibly hard and your forearms will be in a lot of pain at first, but it’s the best way to learn proper technique and develop strength and endurance – especially when you’re a beginner. After you have a little bit of experience you can try more advanced techniques.

Check out this video of me using the straight arm technique on this V4-V5:

8. Not caring about finger injuries

Most beginner climbers are quick to fear back injuries. Knee injuries are also a big worrying matter. What beginners seem to ignore are finger injuries. There might be a slight sharp pain in your finger flexor, or even your forearm flexor… but that’s no reason to stop, right? Wrong!

Your fingers are a key element when you’re rock climbing and they can damage very easily, especially for beginners. If you’ve just started climbing then your fingers have not gone through this much of a workout in… probably ever! So, pay close attention to fingers at all times. If you feel something different, even a very small but sharp pain, stop climbing and ice them when possible.

9. Using a hangboard too early instead of waiting until you’re ready

Rock climbing is a world of its own. And like every other sport out there, there are specific ways to become better. One unique thing about climbing is the use of a hangboard. It’s a weird-looking board that’s used to train your finger strength and grip. Be advised, though, you should only use it to train when you are advanced enough.

The hangboard is a fantastic tool if you can handle it, but beginners do not have the forearm and finger strength to use a one safely. Hangboards can damage your finger flexor tendons if used too early. You can usually start using a hangboard safely once you’ve been climbing for around 6 to 12 months. Here are my recommendations of the best hangboards to buy. If you’re a beginner, plain old climbing will have to do for a while before you can jump onto the hangboard.

10. Focusing on sending climbs instead of developing technique

How can you measure your progress if not by checking how much you have accomplished? Well, you can see how good your technique is getting overtime. This should be number one on your priority list! Technique comes first; sending routes (aka finishing a climb) is a distant second!

Of course, one comes with the other. If you develop good technique, you’ll send more climbs. If you are completing more routes, you could say you have a better technique, right? Well, not so much. Sometimes, we manage to finish routes because of other factors – like pure, brute strength. And we don’t want to rely on strength; we want to be technical rock climbers! While strength does have its advantages, it decreases over time when you use it. Plus, if you’re younger you won’t have as much strength as you get older. If you focus on technique everything else will happen in due time.

Have you ever wondered how climbers like Alex Honnold can ascend a 3000 foot wall without falling in 4 hours… while some people lose their grip on a 15 foot bouldering wall because their forearms are too tired after only training in the gym for 30 minutes? What determines this seemingly superhuman ability to cover terrain vertically? The answer is muscular endurance (ME). Also called strength endurance, muscular endurance training is of supreme significance to every athlete involved in repetitive movement sports that lasts more than thirty minutes.

So how can you improve muscular endurance for rock climbing? The main areas of focus when trying to improve muscular endurance for rock climbing are the forearms/fingers, the core, the biceps and the lats (the main back muscle). To improve muscular endurance in the forearms and fingers you should hangboard regularly, increasing the load overtime so you can increase the endurance of your muscles. There are many core workouts out there, a few are planks, crunches, sit ups and leg raises, but these must be done slowly. Slow bicep curls with a heavy weight will increase muscular endurance of the biceps, and slow pull ups will help the lats. Several studies have also shown that yoga can help improve muscular endurance in all areas of the body which is a great bonus for climbing as they go hand in hand.

Read on for more information that will help you improve your muscular endurance for climbing while also helping you learn more about your own body.

Page Jumps

• Why Does Rock Climbing Require Muscular Endurance?
• In What Areas of the Body Do Rock Climbers Need Muscular Endurance?
• What Types of Climbs Require The Most Muscular Endurance?
• How Can Climbers Improve Muscular Endurance?
• Ways to Increase Core Strength Endurance for Climbing
• How Anaerobic Endurance Relates to Muscular Endurance
• Ways to Improve Muscular Endurance While In the Climbing Gym, At Home and in a Normal Gym
• Using the Right Climbing Technique Will Mean You Won’t Need To Use Your Muscles as Much

Why Does Rock Climbing Require Muscular Endurance?

Rock climbers need to have the muscular endurance necessary to finish a rock-climbing route. Without muscular endurance, it is unlikely that a rock climber will be able to finish even an amateur route. Two factors that are vital for a successful climbing session are strength and power. Shoulder and arm strength as well as good muscular endurance benefit rock climbing. A rock climber’s success can be explained by:

• maximum grip strength
• forearm endurance
• forearm strength
• shoulder strength
• shoulder endurance

High level rock climbers are not unusually strong. It is their strength to body mass ratio that’s high. Low body mass and low body fat percentages are beneficial in the performance of rock climbing, coupled with a lot of strength for their weight. However, these are not prerequisites to become a rock climber. Training variables such as shoulder extensions, knee flexion, knee extension, endurance, and grip strength are what matters in rock climbing.

Adam Ondra is the perfect example of a high level climber with a strength to body mass ratio that’s perfect for climbing.

In What Areas of the Body Do Rock Climbers Need Muscular Endurance?

It seems like rock climbing endurance draws on every type of movement that the physical human body can achieve. Rock climbing requires endurance, flexibility, fitness, and strength. While strong shoulders, arms, and fingers are necessary for pulling on handholds, it is also crucial to have efficient, proper footwork for climbing competency. Rock climbers need muscular endurance in the following areas:

• fingers/forearms
• toes
• hands
• shoulders/biceps
• lats/back
• calves
• forearms
• core
• thighs
• ankles
• knees

What Types of Climbs Require The Most Muscular Endurance?

One of the most physically intense activities, climbing uses your own strength to ascend up a wall and works your body in its entirety. No matter whether you are hitting the crag or the local gym, every move up and down those rocks will require your entire body’s muscles to get into overdrive.

• Slab climbing will require smoother movement over each rock rather than jerky, long moves and will require core muscles to work hard.
• Vertical faces will tend to use your forearm and your leg muscles more than any other muscle in your body.
• Overhanging walls will require finger strength and upper torso strength as you haul yourself up at an upward, overhanging angle. Overhang and roof climbing rely greatly on muscular endurance of the core.

How Can Climbers Improve Muscular Endurance?

There are more than a few ways climbers can improve muscular endurance. Here are the 4:

Use a Hangboard

Climbers can improve muscular endurance by using a hangboard for finger strength and endurance as well as forearm strength. Perhaps the best tool for developing strength in the fingers for rock climbing is with the hangboard. This one-stop training device can be used for all movements involved in climbing.

Use a hangboard that has two or three hold sizes. The one you get needs to be the one that feels like it actually fits. You won’t find a better tool to help you improve your finger strength than a hangboard but remember that a good warm up is essential before you begin your workout.

I’ve trained on a lot of hangboards in my time, and I know a few people that have them set up in their own house. Check out my recommendations if you’re thinking about setting up a hangboard area in your own home.

Stay Hydrated

If you don’t drink enough water, think about installing and using a free water drinking app on your smartphone. Drinking water regularly helps improve muscular endurance and is vital for good health. Make water a part of your endurance workout whether you are starting out after a long sedentary period or you are a regular climbing enthusiast.

Stay hydrated during your strength-building routine and you will see a difference in your endurance. In short, a hydrated body can perform longer. You can end up lethargic if you drink too little for your weight. Heavier athletes need higher water amounts. Those who perspire at a higher rate will need to drink more water. You won’t go very far if your body is losing more water through sweating than it is taking in.

Stretching and Yoga

Stretching and yoga tones muscles throughout your body and many studies have shown that it helps muscular endurance throughout the body. Typically, weight training exercises flex and isolate one group of muscles at a time. In contrast, yoga and stretching increase the endurance of your muscles because yoga requires you to hold a given pose or a given stretch for a time period and repeat it throughout the yoga workout several times.

Climbing Intervals

You can improve muscular endurance by performing climbing intervals and pull-up intervals. Climbing intervals is the first and most specific exercise for training pull-muscle and forearm endurance. It involves interval-climbing on a moderate to difficult climb or boulder problem. Ideally, the route would be laborious and steep. However, the route shouldn’t be too difficult technically that you would be unable to climb a few laps completely. The protocol for training is to alternating climbing rests and climbing burn intervals.

This is not unlike the interval training that runners do. The resting phase needs to be proportionate to the length of the climb phase. Thus, if your climb phase has to do with sending a ten-move boulder problem which takes about sixty seconds, you will want to rest thirty seconds between burns. Longer climb phases such as moving around your home wall, steep sport climbing, or lapping for a few minutes should be followed by a rest of similar lengths.

Pull-up Intervals is a highly effective exercise for building endurance in your upper arm and the larger muscles in your back. Your goal is to complete 20 one-minute pull-up intervals which are composed of a rest period and a set number of pull-ups taking one minute, exactly. Use a timer with a second hand or a clock so you can stay on the exact same schedule of training.

Begin the stopwatch, mount the fingerboard or pull-up bard, and crank out five pull-ups. Dismount and rest for the rest of the one-minute interval. Next, begin your next pull-up set of five. Once you complete the five pull-ups, rest for the remainder of the minute. Continue doing these repetitions of five pull-ups and one minute rests in between for a total of twenty minutes. If you are unable to make it to the ten-minute mark, at least, reduce the number of pull-ups to just three. You can also increase the number of pull-ups if you find the full twenty-minute routine feeling rather casual.

Ways to Increase Core Strength Endurance for Climbing

Strengthening all your other muscles without strengthening your core muscles is like putting the engine of an economy car into the chassis of a sports car. Without a solidified core, rock climbers risk injury and their core won’t be able to support them up the wall. Here are some exercises that strengthen your core muscles:

• Push-Ups. Traditional push-ups strengthen your upper body and core muscles as you try and keep your body off the floor as much as you can. This is a fantastic exercise that you can do anywhere. New variations also work to emphasize your core muscles and relieve the monotonous routine of doing fifty push-ups a day.
• Landmine Press. This core exercise also works your arms and shoulders. Use this exercise as much as you can while kneeling, if your goal is to work your core. Take a landmine or a barbell and position it by the wall. Grab the end with both hands, kneel and place it right below your chin. Lift repeatedly up and down. While the barbell is down, keep your elbows close to your body. Keep your upper torso as still as you can.
• Planking. One of the best-known core exercises, planking involves lifting your hips off the floor, getting on your toes and elbows, and keeping a straight line between your heels and head. This exercise benefits you better when your partner ensures you hold the posture properly.
• Leg Raises. Lie down on the floor on your back with your hands by your side. Lift both legs slightly off the floor and then raise both legs towards you, then release back down without touching then floor. Do this 10 times.
• Sit ups. Lie down on the floor on your back. Bring your feet around 10cm away from your bum. Sit up to your knees and back without touching the floor with your head. Do this 10 times.
• Boat Crunches. Get into a boat position – sitting with your feet and back off the ground. Push your head and legs away from each other and pull yourself back in with your core. Do this 20 times.

How Anaerobic Endurance Relates to Muscular Endurance

You know when you see someone on an extremely steep, high-graded overhang and they’re just bossing the whole route without a breather? That’s when you know they have high-level anaerobic endurance.

Rock climbers usually refer to anaerobic endurance in the pulling muscles (e.g. biceps and lats) and forearms. Generally, they don’t mean the aerobic endurance necessary for a full day of climbing or a long-distance run.

Think of anaerobic endurance as very high muscle endurance necessary to continuously climb a demanding sequence without taking a breather. Some climbers also call this power endurance.

When climbing, lactic acid and an obvious muscle pump development (usually in the biceps and forearms) are indications that you’ve hit the anaerobic endurance threshold.

To improve anaerobic endurance, you need to train correctly and often. High intensity, sustained muscular exercise and good diet can increase the threshold of your anaerobic endurance limit. To reduce lactic acid you need to drink lots of water, breathe properly, warm up before you exercise, rest up to a minute long between climbs, and increase your magnesium levels.

If you’re thinking of training like this then be prepared for a physically and mentally challenging process. But if you would like to improve your anaerobic threshold, climb higher grades, and reduce the amount of lactic acid you get when climbing, then this it’s what you need to do.

Ways to Improve Muscular Endurance While In the Climbing Gym, At Home and in a Normal Gym

In a Climbing Gym

Increase your rock climbing endurance at the climbing gym by doing pull-ups frequently. Pull-ups work the back, shoulders, and arms.

Race the clock by doing speed climbing. This helps improve your endurance of climbing and teaches your body to become more efficient. Find an easy grade climb that you’ve done a few times so you have the muscle memory down. Climb is as fast as you can. Either that or find a speed climbing wall.

Try some dead hangs, also known as an “un-exercise.” This helps your body build endurance for hanging. Climbing gyms usually have hangboards and other finger strengthening equipment that you should use. Dead hangs and brachial hangs can also heal shoulder injuries. To read more about this click here.

Most climbing gyms will have a circuit board and this is one of the best ways to improve your muscular endurance. Circuit boards will usually have 4 or 5 different grades on there. The best thing I can advise is for you to climb until you just feel yourself tiring, but not enough so that you feel too pumped. Have a minute or two rest and then repeat. We don’t want to over-train the forearms here.

At Home

Grab a large bucket and fill it with 30lbs of rice. Work your forearm flexors used for climbing and your extensors by putting both hands into the bucket and squeezing the rice. This helps prevent wrist injuries, forearm tightness, and tendonitis. Do variations by scooping the rice and extending your fingers. Other home exercises include calisthenics including planking to build endurance. If you have your own pull-up bar (click for link to Amazon) you can use this as well.

At a Regular Gym

Using the rowing machine is good for muscular endurance for the back muscles. The rowing machine is another great partner for a climber. Weighted arm curls with a dumbell as well as pull-ups on a bar improve climbing endurance. Bicep curls should be done very slowly, with a large weight.

Using the Right Climbing Technique Will Mean You Won’t Need To Use Your Muscles as Much

Believe it or not, it is harder to learn the right technique than it is to build muscle. Focusing on learning the proper technique instead of using brute strength to scale a rock surface will get you to the finish line in half the time. It’s actually persistence and technique that will help you reach the top rather than bodily strength. Many beginners have the misconception that you need to be “ripped” before you even start. That isn’t true.

Improving your technique will mean that you will use your muscles less, and therefore increase your time on the wall without your muscles becoming tired.

Many successful beginners have focused on learning technique and developed the necessary strength later. Think of a rock-climbing wall as a monkey bar. When you need to rest due to failing strength, you will have a better overall chance of endurance when you rest with straight arms, just as you would at the monkey bars. You will then be able to “take a breather” and actually think your way to the top rather than using 100% pure strength.

So when it comes to improving muscular endurance for rock climbing, remember to develop your mental fitness aside from your physical fitness in the process.

It is hard to find a person who would not be impressed by the high peaks of the snow-capped mountains. They are so gorgeous and mighty, but at the same time inaccessible and impregnable. But, there are people, for whom ice and snow are not an obstacle. They are ice climbers.

So, what is ice climbing? Ice climbing is a young sport, just like rock climbing, which branched out from mountaineering. However, it retains all the main features of its ancestor – a high level of adrenaline, the unpredictability of the terrain, and high dependence on weather conditions.

Ice climbing doesn’t mean ascending only icy tops. You can hardly find a place where pure ice covers the rock. More often, it is a mixture of stones and ice – frozen rivers, waterfalls, and icy cliffs. For ice climbing competitions, vertical ice walls are mainly used. However, dry tooling or ice-free climbing with the use of the same equipment is also in favor.

Page Jumps

• Ice Climbing History
• Ice Climbing Basics
• Ice Climbing Equipment
• Best Places to Practice Ice Climbing
• Safety First
• Conclusion

Ice Climbing History

The beginning of the 19th century

Ice climbing originated at the beginning of the 19th century in the Alps, where the British nobility spent their holidays. They hired local shepherds as mountain guides. Their mutual interest has led to several improvements in equipment. For example, the alpenstock became shorter and got a shovel for cutting steps in ice hills.

The beginning of the 20th century

At the turn of the century, the Scottish Mountain Club paved the way to rocky hills, covered with ice and snow. In 1906, Harold Raeburn first climbed Ben Nevis (1344.5 m), the highest point of the British Isles. Until the 1950s, the achievements of the Scots remained unsurpassed.

The main successes of the first half of the 20th century were scaling the three most famous North Faces of the Alps: Matterhorn, Grand Jorasses, and Eiger.

The second half of the 20th century

In 1955, a six-day climb to the North Face of Les Droites showed a new level of difficulty in ice climbing. The incline of the route was much higher than of any other scaled before.

The use of new tools and the experience of Alpine and Scottish ascents in the early 70s allowed climbing frozen waterfalls in New Hampshire. For example, the first ascent of the 600-foot Black Dike.

At the same time, in Utah, Colorado, new standards of free climbing were introduced into ice climbing. In 1971, Greg Lowe climbed a scary route (75 feet (ca. 23 m) of vertical ice wall) near his home in Ogden, Utah, without safety equipment. He used only self-designed ice axes.

By the end of the 70s, ice climbing became widespread in the USA, Norway, Alpine countries, and in Korea and Japan. At the same time, the ice tools were also improving.

Even though ice climbing is a young and developing sport, competitions are held all over the world. The most prestigious one is the annual Ice Climbing World Cup, consisting of several international stages.

These festivals and competitions bring people together. They can share experience and knowledge, try new equipment, and have a great time.

Ice climbing became a separate discipline in September 2002. The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation held the first World Cup competitions in the same year.

You can find more information about the history of ice climbing by clicking this link.

Ice Climbing Basics

First, an ice climber has to determine what type of ice he will face. There are two kinds of ice with different structures:

• Water ice is a brittle and hard formation with an uneven covering. It looks like a thin coating over the rock surface. It is a frozen water flow. Water is climbed by people looking to test their technique and is usually some form of frozen waterfall or similar.
• Alpine ice has a layered and soft structure, built of compressed snow. It is frozen precipitation. Alpine ice is found on mountains, usually climbed because the climber wants to reach the summit of a mountain. It is a type of climbing used in mountaineering. Alpine ice is easier to climb than water ice but is usually a longer route than with most water ice areas.

For safe movement on the ice, an athlete must have technical skills and use the features of the ice surface.

Ice Climbing Equipment

Ice climbing requires specific equipment that distinguishes it from classic mountaineering. Ice climbers can choose from a wide selection of different types and designs of the tools. The modern ice climbing equipment includes:

• Ice screws. Climbers use ice screws to create a running belay on steep slopes, such as frozen waterfalls and icefalls. They also use them to secure themselves on icy surfaces for preventing falls.
• Ice axes. Ice axes are the most crucial part of the equipment used in ice climbing. They help to secure the ice climber to the ice and pull himself up to the peak. Technical ice axes have curved shafts. It helps to support the weight better. You can also use them for self-arrest if you fall or slip on a slippery surface.
• Harness. Climbers use harnesses to secure themselves to either an anchor point or a rope. It is a combination of nylon and cloth, which supports each leg as well as the waist. You can make harnesses out of rope, but it is much more convenient to use commercially provided ones. You can rent them from an outdoor sports shop.
• Carabiners. Most often, a carabiner is a metal loop, made of steel. It allows ice climber to connect and disconnect his rope to the harness instantly. Ice climbers use them for rappelling and belaying since their shape and size fits the need to join two strands of rope.
• Belay device. It is a mechanical part of the equipment that allows the ice climber to exert tension on a rope. This device also prevents you from falling.
• Crampons. Ice climbers attach these traction tools to the bottom of their boots. Crampons have spikes made of steel alloy, and they help them climb icy rocks without losing traction.
• Rope. Ice climbers should use two kinds of rope: static and dynamic. Dynamic one is most suitable for climbing as it is more flexible. It helps in the case of a fall or slip. A static rope is thicker and better adapted for rappelling.
• Insulated climbing boots. Ice climbers need these to keep their feet warm.
• Climbing helmet. Helmets are protective equipment to stop head injury.

Best Places to Practice Ice Climbing

You may think that you can practice ice climbing only in winter. However, many indoor ice walls allow training all year round. The biggest one is a 12m ice wall in the National Ice Climbing Centre in the UK.

This indoor facility has different routes for beginners and experienced climbers. There is no better place in the world to improve your climbing skills.

Nevertheless, if you feel confident enough to try yourself outdoor, below you will find the best places for ice climbing.

• Banff, Alberta, Canada

Johnston Canyon is an ice climbing zone in Banff National Park. Frozen waterfalls are excellent for both experts and beginners.

• Ouray, Colorado, USA

Ouray is a famous place for ice climbing. The Ouray Ice Festival has been held there since 1996. And the best ice climbers from all over the world participate in these competitions. Ouray ice park is open as long as climbing is safe.

• Rjukan, Norway

A stunning frozen waterfall in the Norwegian Rjukan has become the central place for European ice climbers. In 2005, they founded the Rjukan Ice Festival, which became the European version of Ouray. It is held in February, and it is also a popular destination for skiers.

• Kandersteg, Switzerland

Another European ice climbing festival takes place in the Swiss municipality of Kandersteg. The ice there is not as stable as in other climbing sites. But when the Kandersteg waterfall freezes, it becomes the most challenging ascent in the world.

The Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival has been held there for 15 years already. It lasts three days and offers numerous contests, training courses, interviews with world-famous ice climbers, as well as massive parties.

• Viedma Glacier, Patagonia, Argentina.

The vast Viedma Glacier allows you to test your climbing skills in ice caves and steep hills. It is an ideal place for combining basic ice climbing with an ice-climbing expedition.

Viedma glacier is an exciting location to hike because different parts of the glacier move at different speeds and form bizarre ice holes and abrupt cliffs scattered throughout the area. The glacier flows into the lake, and climbers have to use boats to get there.

• Skaftafell, Iceland

Iceland is a country of otherworldly landscapes, as it combines geysers, volcanoes, and mountains. And the glaciers cover the large part of its territory. One of the most suitable places for ice climbing there is the Svínafellsjökull glacier. Vatnajokull is another place with gorgeous climbing trails.

Safety First

Like any kind of extreme sports, you will face many risks while ice climbing. And falls from height are not the most dangerous. Of course, if you use the safety equipment and ropes.

Ice axes often injure ice climbers. When detached from the ice, it can slip out and punch the owner. Also, when ice climbing it is advised to be careful with the ice particles, as they can be quite sharp.

When installing ice screws, make sure you secured them in the ice. Remove any soft snow or ice and start making a hole using the tip of your ice tool.

Also, always carry a GPS device and first aid kit with your gear. In case of injury, the way to the hospital can take several hours.

Conclusion

Although ice climbing is a relatively new discipline, it gains popularity among adrenaline lovers all over the world. It’s mainly a winter sport. However, indoor ice walls allow practicing even in summer.

But if you want to feel the true spirit of ice climbing, you should pack your suitcase and go to one of the above places. They will impress you with unearthly landscapes and the sense of freedom! For an article I wrote detailing 14 different types of climbing click this link.

If you’re like me then you were naturally better at slabs and right angled walls rather than overhangs. In the early days I literally just used to ignore them because I wasn’t very good at them. However, I realised that if I wanted to improve my overall climbing ability I had to improve on overhangs. But it wasn’t that easy. Even though I had the drive to improve and was being coached by some very advanced climbers, I wasn’t progressing fast enough. So I started to wonder “how can you get better at overhang climbing?” So I started looking at the differences between climbing on overhangs and on slabs and found that they both worked the same muscles however the primary muscle groups that they worked were different. Plus the techniques used when climbing overhangs are usually very different to climbing on slabs and straight walls – how often do you see a toe hook on a slab? It’s uncommon, however on an overhang or cave climbing it’s a lot more common. Anyway, let’s look at improving your ability to climb overhangs in more depth.

So how can you get better at climbing overhangs? There are three main areas that need to be worked on if you want to see overall improvement in overhang climbing:

1. Body tension/core strength
2. Finger strength
3. Footwork and general technique

Body tension may be your main problem because you might not be putting enough effort in with your core strength to stay on the wall. Gaining strength in your fingers is always going to be good to improve your overall climbing ability, however working on finger strength for the pinchy holds on overhangs is imperative to see improvement. Improving your technique sounds obvious but you really need to start focusing on where your feet are going. Last but not least, the last thing you need is motivation to keep practising the three areas mentioned. If you don’t practise then you won’t see improvement.

Page Jumps

• How to Progress on Overhangs with these 3 Areas
• Other Ways to Help Overhang Climbing Improvement
• How to Stay Motivated Even if You Can’t See Progress
• Related Questions

How to Progress on Overhangs with these 3 Areas

Now, it’s obvious that depending on your climbing grade that you might improve on climbing overhangs more slowly or more quickly, so please keep that in mind. But in this section we’re going to going through the three areas mentioned earlier in detail.

How to Use Body Tension & Core Strength to Improve Climbing Overhangs

When you look at slab climbing, body tension and core strength isn’t used as much as overhang climbing. I find slab climbing a very patient art that requires balance, and (usually) very little strength. And if you see a beginner climbing overhangs really well then typically they’ve come from a more athletic background and are quite strong especially in their core. This is the main reason why you might find slab climbing and straight walls to be a lot easy that overhangs and roof climbing. You need to improve your core strength and body tension. Now there are ways to do this, first of all you can start climbing overhangs more often, and when you do you want to use your core to hold you up as much as possible with every more. While overhang climbing, try to include your core through every move, specifically with the aim to gain strength in that area. Once you’ve gained the strength in that area you won’t need to focus on tensing your core on certain climbs because you’ll do it naturally. If you’ve done this correctly you’ll feel sore in your abdominals, oblique muscles and lower back muscles for the next couple of days.

Another way to improve your core strength is to make a weekly core workout routine. Three days out of the week could be devoted to improving your core strength. Here’s a typical core workout routine (you can increase or decrease the amount of reps you do):

1. 20 Sit Ups
2. 15 Crunches
3. 15 Leg Raises
4. 20 Second Plank

Repeat once.

This routine does not take long and can really help you gain core strength and therefore improve your overhang climbing ability.

How to Gain Finger Strength to Improve Climbing Overhangs

Whether it’s overhang climbing or slab climbing, finger strength is one of the main things you’ll need to progress through the grades. It is probably one of THE most important factors (other than technique) for improvement, and it’s not that hard to gain finger strength if you devote time to it. If you don’t have naturally strong hands then this can take a lot more time for you than others, but if you really want to get better at climbing you’ll do it anyway. And if you can usually complete a move or transition with larger holds but can’t with smaller or more pinchy holds then you need to gain strength in your fingers.

So what’s the best way to gain finger strength for climbing? Using a hangboard is hands down the best way to gain finger strength. You can’t usually find a hangboard at your local climbing gym, however you can also buy them and fit them in your home. Here’s a hangboard exercise to help you gain finger strength which I’ve taken from my recommended hangboards page:

I suggest you try out a 30 day cycle. Time how long you can hang on to each finger hold with both hands before your 30 day regime, and then do the same at the end of the 30 days. This will show you just how much your finger strength/endurance has improved.

The exercise:

• Have a phone timer or stopwatch nearby.
• Place both hands into the deepest rung – four fingers in, thumbs out.
• Hang for 10 seconds.
• Rest for 10 seconds.
• Repeat this another 4 times (5 times total)
• Rest for 3-4 minutes making sure your body has fully recovered.
• Repeat this whole cycle 6-7 times in total.
• Do this either every day or every two days for required results.
• You should be able to hang for at least 7 seconds, at most 11 seconds before you feel fatigue in your fingers.
• Once you get good enough, do this on the more shallow rung.
• If your fingers need even more strength, add 5lb or 10lb weights to your body.

After around 10-15 days of doing this exercise DAILY you should probably be feeling a difference with your climbing. Some of the holds you might usually avoid may be easier to grab.

How to Use Footwork and Technique to Improve Climbing Overhangs

Footwork is crucial when it comes to overhang climbing. If you find you’re cutting your feet a lot then you aren’t using your feet to your advantage. Cutting feet is a skill and is a good technique to use every now and then on some climbs, however it does put pressure on your upper body to work more and take all of your body weight. Although campusing is useful on overhangs, it also means you’ll get tired faster. Try to cut feet less and, instead, use them to help you climb.

Toe hooks are common on overhangs, and if you’re going to be climbing overhangs a lot more then you might want to think about getting shoes that are specifically built for toe hooks like the Scarpa Instinct VS which has a rubber patch on the toes made for toe hooking.

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Learning how to use the bicycle technique is crucial on overhangs. When doing this move you simultaneously use a pull and push action with your feet on holds. This creates ultimate stability. You do need to be actually working here though, you can’t just PUT your feet on these holds – you need to push and pull with your feet which does require some effort.

Heel hooks are often quite common on overhangs you’ll need to not only recognise, but also try to use them where they seem to be needed. I know some climbers will understand that a hold is set as a heel hook but try to get around it in a different way because they don’t like to heel hook. That isn’t very good if you want to improve your overall climbing ability.

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Another thing to remember is that when you’re reaching for a hold with your right hand, try to push more with your right foot on a hold to prevent yourself from barn dooring (where the body swings off the wall due to being off balance). If you’re reaching with the left hand then push with your left foot.

Using straight arms where you can take a lot of the tension away from the climb. If you aren’t pulling too much with your arms then they’ll be able to last a lot longer.

Other Ways to Help Overhang Climbing Improvement

Once you understand the above ways to improve you overhang climbs, you might want to think about losing some weight if you aren’t in good shape. If you’re carrying some excess weight then you’re going to put a lot of strength into your arms and core as they take you up the wall. The less weight you are the easier it is to pull yourself up the wall.

If you’re finding it too hard at first then you simply might be climbing grades that are too hard for you. You might be able to climb V6 on slabs but only V4 on overhangs. Find out what works best for you to progress as fast as possible.

How to Stay Motivated Even if You Can’t See Progress

I found that if I make a routine or training plan for my climbing session then it helps me to stay motivated to work on all different areas. My routine depends on how much time I have through that certain day to climb, however it always starts with a warm up and ends with a cool down. Hangboarding is thrown in just after the warm up to get my fingers ready for the session. Let’s say you have 2 hours to spend climbing. That’s a 10-15 minute warm up, 15 minutes hangboarding, 45 minutes on slabs and straight walls, 30 minutes on caves and overhangs and a 15 minute cool down.

Once you’ve made a routine or training plan for your climbing sessions and started improving the areas explained throughout this article, take a video of you climbing overhangs and remember the grade you’re climbing now. In 28 days take another video and see what you grade is then. If you don’t see improvement then keep trying or try to understand where/if you’re going wrong.

Related Questions

What does it mean to cut feet in climbing? Cutting feet is when you’re moving dynamically to a hand hold and your feet come off the wall. Sometimes the climb can’t be done without using this method, however for a lot of routes cutting feet can actually be of more effort than just keeping the feet on holds.

What is flagging in climbing? Flagging is when you use a foot that’s not on a foot hold to counterbalance yourself on the wall therefore preventing yourself from falling due to a barn-door.

Climbing is my passion and when my regular indoor climbing gym shut I was devastated. All the climbing gyms around me shut at about the same time due to COVID-19 aka coronavirus. For the first few days I was sat at home feeling miserable, but I started to realise that this it’s times like this that separate the strong from the weak. We can either motivate ourselves enough to keep our focus on what truly matters to us or we can give up, feel low and let time take its toll until we can go about our business as usual. I’m not willing to wait so I decided to train climbing at home while including some home workouts to keep my body ready.

So how do you train climbing in lockdown, self-isolation or quarantine? There are four main parts to climbing – diet, physical ability, technique and motivation. It’s best to make a diet plan so that you aren’t going off the rails with sugary, fatty and generally unhealthy foods. It’s also a good idea to commit to a weekly workout routine so you don’t lose your strength or flexibility. Arguably, the hardest attribute to train in lockdown is the technique but this can be done by thinking out of the box – e.g. traversing the walls of your house. When it comes to motivation I find that actually having a set time AND a set space in your home to do your workouts and/or climbing exercises really helps. It also helps if you can do the workouts with someone else over video call so you can motivate each other.

Page Jumps

• Climbing in Lockdown: Stick to a Diet Plan
• Climbing in Lockdown: Stick to a Workout Routine
• Climbing in Lockdown: Find a Way to Climb
• How to Stay Motivated in Lockdown
• Use Quarantine as a Time to Heal Your Injuries
• Related Questions

Climbing in Lockdown: Stick to a Diet Plan

Sticking to a diet plan is crucial in quarantine. This isn’t just because you want to keep yourself fit when the lockdown finally ends and you can start climbing again. It’s mainly because the average man or woman will find themselves bored at home and start raiding their cupboards and/or fridge. Most people snack when they’re bored and that’s a dangerous habit to get into. I wouldn’t advise you start a habit like this because you’ll want to continue it once you’re no longer isolated. Therefore I would advise you to stick to a diet plan. Not only will you feel better for doing this, you’ll also help your climbing.

One thing I do know is everyone’s diet is different these days. Some people are wheat intolerant, some people are vegan, and some people can’t eat carbs. I’m not going to supply you with a diet plan here because it’s impossible for me to please everyone. However, what I can tell you is that you need to limit your snacks and alcohol per day if it isn’t the norm and also only buy food from the supermarket that you should be eating. If I don’t have chocolate in the cupboards that means I’m going to have to go to the store to buy it (and with the queues at the moment I’d rather not).

Climbing in Lockdown: Stick to a Workout Routine

Home workouts are very popular these days, but for climbing I would advise you only workout specific areas that are going to keep you strong. If you add more weight to your body that isn’t actually going to help your climbing then it might actually make your climbing experience worse! The perfect climber is light in weight but strong. A lot of people also forget about the importance on training flexibility for climbing, but don’t worry I’ve got you covered in this section.

Strength Training for Climbing

• Pull ups. First of all I would consider buying a pull-up bar (click for link to product) to keep your back and shoulder muscles strong. Pull-up bars are also great to keep your shoulders loose by using them to hang on (click for article). If you can’t do normal pull-ups, try putting a chair underneath and putting a foot on it when pulling yourself up.
• Push-ups are a great way to work your chest, shoulders and triceps all at once. There’s all sorts of different types of push-ups you can do to focus on different parts of your chest.
• Bicep curls. If you have dumbbells it’s time to work those biceps with some bicep curls. These are straight forward.
• Core workouts will keep you ready for those overhangs. Sit-ups, crunches, leg raises and planks are ideal. Try 20 sit-ups, 10 crunches, 10 leg raises and 20 seconds plank every night to keep that core in shape (1 rest day every 5 days).
• Hangboard training. If you have a hangboard (aka fingerboard) then this is obviously an ideal way to train your finger strength. For a detailed overview of hangboard training check out this article I wrote. Finger strength is crucial for a climber.

• Wrist curls. Training your forearms is also a good idea, so if you have dumbbells (if not get a tin a beans) you can do some wrist curls. Sit in a chair and put your forearms on your legs palms facing to the ceiling. Curl the dumbbell towards you and release. Repeat this until you feel the burn.
• Squats and calf raises. Train your legs by squatting and doing calf raises. Calf raises are best done on a yoga block or a stair – put the front half on your foot on the yoga block, stand on your tip toes and then lower your heels back down below the yoga block. Repeat this until you feel the burn. If you need to add more weight to the squats or calf raises just put a dumbbell in each hand while you do the exercises.

Flexibility Training for Climbing

• Upper back. There are a few different stretches for the upper back (including the neck and shoulders) that I really find helpful. Climbing puts a toll on our upper back area because of all the pulling we do with our shoulders and lats. We want to minimize injury as much as possible and stretching daily is the way to do that. Check out this video from Yoga with Adriene for a rundown of the upper back stretches I do daily which I believe have improved my life dramatically.

• Lower back. There’s one lower back stretch that I absolutely love and incorporate into my daily routine. Not only does it help any lower back pain (or future injury), it also stretches your calves. Go to a wall, put your back on the floor, bum to the wall and put the back of your legs against the wall. Now flex your toes towards your head. You should be in an L shape position, feeling a stretch in your calves. This position aligns your legs with your hips and lower back. It’s great.
• Legs. As climbers, we need flexibility in our legs more than you might think. We’ve already stretched our calves when we did our lower back stretch. Now it’s time to open up your hip flexors. Check out this video by Doctor Jo:

Climbing in Lockdown: Find a Way to Climb

Now there’s one thing which you’ll probably find overall the hardest part of training from home and that’s actually finding a way to climb. However, there are lots of ways you can train climbing at home that you may never have thought of. For example, you can climb around your dining room table! You can even traverse from one side of your house to another. The climbing gym I usually attend is actually having a competition at the moment on Instagram where their followers are tagging them in videos of themselves climbing at home. I think it’s a genius idea and it also helps you with your technique while you can’t go to a crag or a gym.

Now some people might be wondering if they are actually allowed to go climbing outside in their country. I’ve actually written a short article about that which you can find here. Personally I’m not going to risk climbing on my own in these unusual times, but that’s just my opinion.

How to Stay Motivated in Lockdown

When lockdown in my country was first announced I said to my partner that this is going to separate the strong minded from the weak minded. The strong will come through these weeks having bettered themselves in many different areas, and the weak will just be complaining or watching TV all day. I’ve found the best way to motivate myself is to set myself a daily routine. I have a child who’s no longer at nursery through the lockdown, so the night before I make a list of things to do with him until bed time. After that it’s time to progress in different areas of my life such as climbing. To stay motivated you need to set yourself goals which revolve around a daily routine. I’ve also found that having my partner set herself exercise goals (and other goals) means that we motivate each other. If you live on your own see if you can set a certain time through the day that you and a friend can video call each other to complete the exercises you’ve set yourself daily.

Use Quarantine as a Time to Heal Injuries

It’s best to use the time that lockdown is giving us in a positive way. If you have any injuries that you were training on, or old ones that you’d like to heal, it might be good for you to find some rehabilitation techniques online. If you’re going to do the exercises outlined in this video, be sure to make sure you work around your injuries.

Related Questions

Can I go rock climbing in lockdown? That depends on your country. Check out this article I’ve written here to see if I’ve mentioned your country.

I was lying in bed one night thinking to myself, what would I have told myself to do or not do when I first started bouldering, or even a couple of months ago that would enhance my bouldering experience. After a while of mulling things over in my head and thinking about the lessons I’ve learnt in all my time climbing, I eventually typed out 16 tips on the notepad of my phone and went to sleep. These 16 tips are bouldering basics, what you should know when you go bouldering to help you have the best experience while you’re there and to show you what you need to do to quickly progress. I’ve thought about each of these tips more and realised there’s quite a bit of detail to add to each tip. To get the best bouldering experience possible you’ll have to at least be quite familiar with the bouldering basics.

So, what are the bouldering basics? The basics of bouldering are:

1. Warm up/Cool down and stretch – Do this before you climb and afterwards.
2. You should know your bouldering terrain – are you indoor or outdoor? What kinds of holds do you have to handle?
3. Join in with a group of more advanced climbers – If you want to progress faster it’s better to learn from someone who’s better than you.
4. Watch other people climb – If they’re better than you then watch them to check out the techniques they use.
5. Use a hangboard (aka a fingerboard) – Using this just once a week will improve your finger strength massively.
6. All climbers find their feet – If your feet aren’t on the wall it’s a lot harder. A lot of people neglect to use their feet in certain situations.
7. Clench your foot like a monkey on slippery holds – This seriously helps to grip onto holds that have you slipping off.
8. Don’t rush – You should think about your next move before you rush into it. Bouldering outdoors or in an indoor gym has no time limit so climb slowly if you can.
9. Work on your strengths AND weaknesses – Don’t just advance on types of climbs you’re good at, work on your weaknesses too.
10. Don’t get annoyed – If things don’t go your way don’t get annoyed because this will just make you climb worse.
11. Safety first – Make sure you don’t endanger yourself or any others around you.
12. Use the circuit board – Using the circuit board helps to improve your climbing technical ability, endurance and strength.
13. Try bouldering outdoors – If you haven’t already tried it, outdoor bouldering is a really good experience.
14. Get a good brush – A good brush for use on chalky holds is definitely needed.
15. Find someone around your level and compete with them – By bringing in a competitive edge, you will want to get better faster and will push yourself.
16. If you buy climbing shoes, make sure they suit your needs – Buying the wrong climbing shoes is a waste of money.

Click on any of the links in the list below to jump to a more detailed overview of that tip. I go into detail about each of these tips below. Keep reading if you want to find out more.

Page Jumps

1. Warm up/Cool down and stretch
2. You should know your bouldering terrain
3. Join in with a group of more advanced climbers
4. Watch other people climb
5. Use a hangboard
6. All climbers find their feet
7. Clench your foot like a monkey on slippery holds
8. Don’t rush
9. Work on your strengths AND weaknesses
10. Don’t get annoyed
11. Safety first
12. Use the circuit board
13. Try bouldering outdoors
14. Get a good brush
15. Find someone around your level and compete with them
16. If you buy climbing shoes, make sure they suit your needs

1. Warm up/Cool Down and Stretch

It’s probably not a surprise to most of you when you find out that warming up and cooling down (especially warming up) are vital parts of your climbing session. For me, a climbing session can be completely ruined by even the smallest of injuries. Imagine snapping a tendon in your finger from having stiff hands because you hadn’t warmed up properly – not only would your climbing session be ruined, healing the injury requires that you do not climb (or do any other activity involving that finger) for around 3-6 months. It is imperative that you warm up your muscles before you start your climbing session.

Warming up can be done in a few different ways: by doing physical activity and stretching in the gym area, or you can climb lower grades, slowly, with 100% proper technique. As rock climbing is a full body workout, try to involve your whole body in your warm up and stretching routine; however the main muscles used are the back muscles, finger/forearm muscles, and the core.

Cooling down is also quite vital as it has been proposed that it benefits you by:

• Cooling your body temperature after a warm, sweaty session
• Bring your heart rate back to normal
• Relaxing your muscles so they can heal faster
• Bringing your breathing rate back to normal
• Returning the body to homeostasis

2. You Should Know Your Bouldering Terrain

If an army is going into battle, the strategists on each side will want to know as much about the other army as possible. So when you’re climbing you should want to know more about the terrain you’re climbing and the types of holds you’re using before you step on the wall.

First of all, is it indoor or outdoor? If you’re climbing outside then you’ll need to think about the weather – how hot or cold is it, and what will you need to while you’re there? The type of rock you’re climbing is also a big factor – is the rock made of limestone, granite, sandstone, basalt, or quartzite?

If you’re climbing inside and you’re about to start something that’s difficult for you, then you should check out the types of holds you’ll be using in the climb. Are they all slopers, or is there a nice big jug for you to hang on to?

3. Join in with a Group of More Advanced Climbers

This is definitely something I recommend. When I first started climbing I joined in with a group of people that had been climbing for years. I did this by being friendly at first, plus I enjoyed climbing with them. I progressed so fast!

By joining in with a group of people who are more advanced climbers than you, you pay more attention to the techniques they use as they climb up the wall which helps you learn. You can also ask them for help you with your climb if you’re stuck which may give you a chance to learn some new techniques if they decide to show you how to do the climb. As you pick up these techniques faster, you’ll get better a lot faster.

4. Watch Other People Climb

When you watch other people climb it helps you to understand why they did a certain technique at one point and succeeded or what made them fail and fall off the wall. Most of the time you should be watching more advanced climbers and learn to mirror their movements when it comes to your time on the wall. Take note of how they use weight distribution or what technique they use to transition from one part of the wall to another; foot swaps, sagging, and dynamic movements are all advanced techniques that you can learn from watching better climbers.

5. Use a Hangboard (aka a Fingerboard)

One of the main muscles groups used in climbing are your forearms and fingers. You’ll need to have really good grip strength if you want to be able to climb well, and it just so happens that your fingers can become so strong over time that you may eventually be able to do a 1 finger pull up… but to do that you have to practice!

Using a hangboard, which is also known as a fingerboard, will help to increase your grip strength and therefore increase your climbing ability. If you’re ever injured and you don’t want to lose your grip strength, [if hangboards don’t affect your injury] they provide a great way to not only keep yourself from losing strength in your fingers but also gain it while you recover. You can buy hangboards to use at home, and you can find my recommended hangboards at this link.

6. All Climbers Find their Feet

It’s now a rule of mine to always focus on my foot position before I attempt to move onto another part of the wall. Some climbers are surprised when they find out that your foot position means so much. If you’re struggling on a climb, it may be because you haven’t used a foot hold or you haven’t used it correctly – you may need to use a heel hook rather than a toe. It’s pretty simple really, find your feet and it’ll help you advance much more quickly.

7. Clench Your Foot Like a Monkey On Slippery Holds

This is one tip I wish I’d have learnt sooner. Have you ever had trouble starting a climb because the toe hold is too slippery? This is quite common and COULD be fixed with one simple trick: clench your toes like a monkey does when they climb. Use your foot as if it were a hand trying to grab onto the foot hold below. On smaller foot holds this may not work; however on bigger, slippery holds this may be the perfect technique that helps you start the climb. Ever better it may help you end a tricky one.

8. Don’t Rush the Climb

One of my the main problems I had when I first started climbing (and even for a few months after) was how aggressive I was on every climb that I tried, mainly because I wanted to get through it as fast as possible and finish it. This was especially true if I was stuck on a particular part and wanted to get it done.

Rushing a climb can result in injuries due to tension in muscles and overall lack of control. For the most part, climbing is about control of your current position and the transition thereafter. When you rush a climb, you aren’t usually in control of your body. You also burn out a lot quicker because your muscles are working too hard, too fast. If you’re rushing a climb then you aren’t focusing on your technique and therefore you aren’t going to progress as fast. It is paramount that you focus on using proper technique if you wish to advance onto higher grades. It is detrimental to your climbing ability if you climb too aggressively and/or too quickly.

9. Work on Your Strengths AND Weaknesses

Personally, I’m really bad at overhangs. However, vertical climbs and slabs seem to be where I shine. Whenever there’s a high grade climb that’s just been set out on a slab or a vertical wall that I know I’m good at, I’ll go for it and a lot of the time I’ll succeed. This is how I progress in my strengths. However, a lot of people seem to only climb their strengths because they want that sense of accomplishment they get when they complete a high grade climb.

I try to work in at least one climb per session on an overhang because I know I’m not good at them. I don’t climb something that’s easy and takes hardly any effort – I climb an overhang that’s a lower grade than the slabs I can climb, however it has to give me a bit of trouble. I want to better my technical skills on overhangs (my weakness) and the best way to do this is by climbing an overhang that gives me a little bit of grief.

10. Don’t Get Annoyed

Having a positive mindset about the wall in front of you really is a big deal when it comes to climbing. If you start becoming negative about a certain position or transition on a climb, take yourself away from it and try something else. Don’t let it ruin your session – climbing is a recreational sport practiced for fun and getting annoyed won’t help you progress in any way nor will you finish your session in a happy mood.

11. Safety First

You should cause as little danger to yourself and other climbers as possible. There are a few simple rules you should follow to be as safe as possible when you’re bouldering. Following these rules will not only decrease the risk of you endangering yourself or others, but it will also improve your climbing etiquette. The rules are:

• Learn how to fall: push yourself away from the wall, engage your neck muscles, land on your feet and bend your knees, roll back. For more information on this click this link.
• The climber already on the wall has priority, don’t climb under them when they’ve already started climbing.
• Stay alert of what’s happening close to and above you. People could be climbing above you without your knowledge if you aren’t paying attention.
• Any equipment (chalk bags, brushes, bottles) left in an area where a climber (such as yourself) may fall should be moved to decrease risk of injury.
• Climb down the bouldering wall after you’ve completed a climb, don’t jump from quite a height. Every time you jump, no matter which way you land, you’re affecting the vertebrae in your spine. Don’t like bad backs? Then climb down whenever possible.

12. Use the Circuit Board

Bouldering on the circuit board is a fantastic way to improve your technical skills, your forearm and finger strength, and your overall climbing endurance. This is one trick I missed until recently. I’ve found it really helps your overall climbing ability when you use the circuit board and I wish I’d have found it earlier.

13. Try Bouldering Outdoors

Bouldering outdoors gives you a new perspective on bouldering or even climbing as a whole. It’s just so much more peaceful. It’s climbing in a real life environment rather than an artificial wall with holds attached that have been set up by a person. Bouldering in nature not only gives you a real life climbing feel, but it’s also very calming. The holds feel a lot different to the plastic ones you find at indoor gyms. You can also make it a social activity by including a few friends on your trip.  If you’re considering outdoor bouldering on your own, you can check out my article on solo bouldering by clicking here.

14. Get a Good Brush

I must have used a toothbrush to clean all my climbing holds until around 6 months into my climbing career. Once I actually bought a brush that could sufficiently clean hand holds of excess chalk, I was pleasantly surprised at how much of a difference it makes. They really aren’t much money so you should probably invest in one as they are worth it. Check this link for the Sublime Slimline Climbing Brush which is perfect for cleaning bouldering holds.

15. Find Someone around Your Level and Compete with them

Me and my friend Dan go climbing together once a week and we’re around about the same climbing level, some would say I’m even better… ha! We started climbing near enough at the same time as each other. Whenever we train with each other we want the other person to do their best and improve, but we also want our own ability to improve as well. To do this we know that a great method is to compete with each other while helping each other. We want the other person to do well because it means WE have to do well. This makes us a better climber! We try harder! The better the other one is, the better we have to become. It’s something I would highly recommend trying out.

16. If you Buy Climbing Shoes, Make Sure they Suit your Needs

Some people buy climbing shoes that are completely wrong for their type of climbing. Some climbing shoes are made for specific reasons, however I know a few people who buy climbing shoes without even considering what the shoe does. They’ll buy slip-on shoes or ones with Velcro straps when they would probably have been better offer with laces; or they’ll buy La Sportiva Miuras when they would have been more suited to Scarpa Instincts or Scarpa Booster S climbing shoes. The truth is, buying a pair of climbing shoes depends on how you climb, what you climb and what type of climbing you’re doing. If you only boulder you’ll want a bouldering shoe like the Scarpa Instinct, but if you want versatility because you lead climb and boulder then you’ll want the La Sportiva Miura. Check this article out that I wrote to read up on my personal opinion regarding the best climbing shoes for versatility, bouldering, when you’re on a budget, sport climbing, beginners, and comfort.

The fear of falling when bouldering can be embarrassing for some people, but it can also be the only thing holding them back from reaching the next level. I have struggled from the fear of falling myself, and still do on particularly high or daunting climbs. I took steps to overcome my fear by reading up on the psychology behind the fear of falling (aka basophobia) and the fear of heights (aka acrophobia). I also read up on what I should do to improve my confidence on the climbing wall.

When I was at the climbing gym yesterday something happened which spurred me on to write this article. I was standing on a very busy bouldering mat while resting from my last climb. I watched as a group of college students in their early 20s were looking on at their friend who was climbing on a particular part of the wall. At around 2 meters up the girl climbing didn’t want to climb any higher, but a couple of seconds later she also realised she didn’t know how to get down, nor did she want to jump because she was too afraid. Some people thought this was funny, but I didn’t. You can imagine this exact scenario happening in a bad dream: being half way up a bouldering wall as your supposed friends laugh at you because you fear the drop below. The fear of falling is normal for many people, but if you want to start climbing you’re going to have to learn to conquer that fear. There are some people who I know that STARTED climbing to conquer their fear of falling.

So, how do you overcome the fear of falling when you’re bouldering? It’s a cliché but to overcome a phobia, you have put yourself in the situation you fear. If you fear being too high up, you need to experience that feeling and learn how to fall (and how not to fall) from that high up onto a climbing mat. You should, however, do this in baby steps, don’t climb as high as possible straight away. You will never grow as a climber if you don’t become comfortable in uncomfortable situations. The higher you climb and fall, the more confident you will be about climbing higher and higher.

Read on for more detailed information and steps to overcome your fear of falling from a climbing wall, and to help your confidence grow as you climb up a bouldering wall.

Page Jumps

• Method to Overcome Your Fear of Falling when Bouldering
• The Psychology Behind the Fear of Falling
• How to Fall Off a Climbing Wall
• How NOT to Fall Off a Climbing Wall
• Common Injuries Caused by Falling Off a Climbing Wall When Bouldering
• Related Questions

Method to Overcome Your Fear of Falling when Bouldering

In your mind you’re going to want to stay away from that climbing wall as much as possible if it means you might you’re going to be on average around 3 meters higher than the floor. But that’s not what you should do! According to the best psychologists, introducing yourself into the presence of your phobia is the best thing to do, however they also say this should be done in baby steps. It can actually be a hindrance on your phobia if you go too hard too soon. The method I’ve used may or may not work for you – it may not totally rid you of your fear but may help in some way.

So the way I got through my fear was by using a method that introduced me into the environment in small steps. You can overcome the fear of falling when bouldering by following these steps:

• Learn how to fall off a climbing wall from one of the sub-headings below. You should try to practice the method of “How to Fall Off a Climbing Wall” below many times before you attempt to conquer your fear of falling with the method mentioned here.
• Climb up the wall until the first point that you feel that you’re slightly afraid. It should be below 3 meters.
• Fall from that height using the fall method in one of the sub-headings below (don’t forget to read to keep reading after that as well for a sub-heading that includes what you shouldn’t do when falling).
• Hopefully you’ll feel a bit better about falling from that height. Repeat this process again and if you still become afraid in the same spot you were afraid of before, keep falling from there until you feel more confident.
• Keep doing this until you reach a maximum of around 3 meters. You don’t really want to fall from a height above that over and over again.

Using this method you should be able to acquire this amount of confidence, because you’ll slowly establish a subconscious connection with yourself that falling from a certain height onto a climbing mat isn’t actually that bad.

The Psychology Behind the Fear of Falling

It’s perfectly normal for a human being to be scared of falling from a large height. It’s instinct to be afraid of falling due to the risk it imposes on our bodies, however it’s quite obvious that compared to falling from a great height onto concrete that falling from a climbing wall onto a soft mat isn’t that dangerous. But still there are people (including myself at one point) that have an internal battle about how safe it is to be 4 meters above ground on a climbing wall. This is usually due to two things: lack of confidence, or an experience that’s happened in the past to do with heights. For me it was a lack of confidence. Although there were padded mats underneath, I felt quite scared of the fall below.

Some people can get panic attacks just thinking about being at a certain height off a wall because they have an extreme fear of heights that is quite irrational in reality. If this is you, you might have the right idea by trying out bouldering because it could be the perfect thing to help you overcome this problem. Panic attacks, sweating, heart rate increase, shortness of breath, shaking and cottonmouth can all happen if you’re afraid of being high up the climbing wall and you’re about to start climbing. This is due to your fight or flight response which is a reaction cause by your sympathetic nervous system. The best way to overcome this is to prove to your mind that there’s nothing to worry about.

How to Fall Off a Climbing Wall

Falling off a climbing wall can be dangerous and cause injuries if you don’t fall off it in a correct fashion to protect yourself. Beginners are usually the biggest culprits for this because they haven’t fallen enough to get an experience of how to land and fall. When you fall there are certain things that you should do to lower the possibility of an injury. You should try to practice the method of “How to Fall Off a Climbing Wall” below many times before you attempt to conquer your fear of falling with the method mentioned above.

Push yourself away from the wall

If you’re on a vertical climb or a slab, you don’t want to pull yourself in when you fall because you might hit your arms, legs, body or even head onto the wall and cause yourself an injury. It’s rare you hit yourself in the head, but I’ve definitely hit my elbow or knee from falling on the climb wall as I drop. By pushing yourself away slightly as you fall, you decrease the chance of this.

Look down

You need to know what you’re going to land on to see if there’s anything you can possibly avoid if you can move as you fall. This also improves the control of yourself as you fall because you are focused on landing, not on falling.

Engage your neck muscles

By tucking your chin into your chest, you engage your neck muscles which means you are less likely to receive whiplash from your fall. Again this is uncommon, but we are trying to decrease the possibility of any injury.

Bend your knees and roll back

When you fall you should try to land on your feet, bend your knees and elbows, retract your arms and absorb the impact with your legs. Then you should roll back and tuck the chin.

Break fall

 When I used to do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu we used to learn a technique called a break fall, which took the impact of the fall into your arms and hands instead of your spine. To do this you need to slap your arms backwards while cupping your hands to make an air pocket. Slap your arms at around a 45 degree angle from your body as you land on your back after rolling backwards.

Falling from a horizontal overhang

If you’re on an overhang that’s almost horizontal, you should keep your hands up as you fall from the wall and use the break fall method in the previous section to take most of the impact on your back instead of on your feet, knees or arms.

How NOT to Fall Off a Climbing Wall

Of course when you’re falling there is a method of what to do, and what not to do when you fall. When you’re falling you might actually CAUSE yourself an injury because of something you’ve done as you drop. There are several things you should stop yourself from doing at once.

Don’t stick the landing

We’re not winning any gymnast points by sticking the landing – bend the knees and roll backwards to decrease impact. Don’t land with straight or stiff legs because you’re fighting the momentum of the fall which isn’t in your best interests.

Don’t roll forwards if possible

At the end of your landing, you’ll want to roll backwards whenever possible instead of forwards. By doing this you avoid a face plant.

Don’t try to stop yourself with outstretched arms or hands

This seems quite obvious but if you try to decrease the impact of the fall by stretching out your arms to take the fall, you might be looking at a broken arm, maybe a sprained wrist, something like that. Avoid this by using the method in the previous sub-heading.

Don’t land on your heels, toes or the side of your foot

Land squarely on the bottom of your feet before you roll backwards unless you want a twisted ankle, or broken toe.

Common Injuries Caused by Falling Off a Climbing Wall When Bouldering

If you’ve used the method to fall when bouldering incorrectly, you may experience an injury. You may even experience one if you’ve used the method correctly and you’re just unlucky. There are a few more common injuries we experience when we fall off the climbing wall onto the mat below.

Sprain or Broken Ankle

If you land on the side of your foot or onto the heel of your foot then you may experience a sprain or broken ankle. You should be landing with your feet square to avoid your foot moving in a weird way that may cause injury.

Grade 1 ankle sprains take 5-14 days to heal and 4-6 weeks for grade 2 ankle sprains. They can be quite painful; mild sprains can usually be walked on however more severe sprains may need crutches. Sprains are torn or stretched ligaments in a particular area.

Broken ankles typically take at least 6 weeks to fully heal the bones. Usually the doctor would advise for you to walk with crutches to take weight off the injury. At this time you will most probably wear a cast or splint.

Broken Toe

Broken toes can be caused by landing on your toes after falling rather than landing squarely on your feet. This can happen due to a large amount of impact on the floor immediately after falling or by repetitive force on the toes over time. This can be because the climber is landing on their toes the majority of times when they fall.

The heal time for a broken toe is around six weeks. If the injury is still a problem at 6 weeks, a doctor will usually re-examine and may advise an X-ray. Treatment for a broken toe can be done by “buddy taping”. Buddy taping is when you tape the injured toe with the toe next to it which creates a splint. Using ice wrapped in a thin towel will help manage with pain and recovery. Painkillers can also be taken.

Twisted Knee/Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury

If you land on your feet without using the correct falling method, you can twist your knee and cause an injury such as an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. By landing with square feet and bent knees and then rolling back you will decrease the risk of this. Usually, if you land with a straight leg you can cause an ACL or damage other ligaments by twisting the knee.

ACL injuries typically take 2-6 months to heal after surgery. Surgery is usually required for the best outcome. The whole rehabilitation generally takes 6-9 months depending on age, other circumstances etc.

Whiplash

Whiplash is often caused by falling without tensing your neck muscles. When your neck muscles are loose in a collision they are prone to damage. Tensing your neck muscles by tucking your chin allows your muscles to withstand impact.

It usually takes three months to heal fully from whiplash, and long-term complications are rare. Only use a neck brace if your doctor recommends it. Sometimes neck braces actually make neck injuries worse than better due to the fact it makes them stiff. Go to the doctor and get a diagnosis before using a neck brace. Using ice on a whiplash injury will reduce the swelling and numb pain. Over the counter painkillers such as paracetamol can help. Do as your doctor recommends.

Sprain or Broken Wrist

Sprained and broken wrists can occur when a climber puts their arms out onto the mat to stop a fall and the impact bends back or forward their wrists. Never land on the mat with your arms straight out when falling from the climbing wall. If you’re landing forward try to roll out of the fall, or fold into a ball.

Sprained wrists may take up to 3 months to heal fully, but major symptoms will usually improve in two to three days. Use ice to treat the injury and a cast or splint if the doctor recommends.

The time it takes for broken wrists to heal can be up to 8 weeks, but it might take up to 6 months with more severe injuries. A cast or splint can be worn to help restrict the movement in the wrist and promote proper healing.

Grazes and Bruises

Bruising and grazing yourself on holds is quite common when climbing, it’s probably the most common injury. Cuts on your hands, and grazes/bruises generally on your knees and elbows. This can happen by falling without pushing yourself away from the wall after you first drop. By pushing yourself away from the wall initially as you drop, you decrease the possibility of a body part hitting a hold on the way down. Treat them both with ice and they should be as good as gold after a few days or up to a week depending on how bad the injury is.

Related Questions

What is the technical name for the fear of falling? Basophobia or basiphobia is the technical name for the fear of falling.

What is the technical name for the fear of heights? Acrophobia is the term given to those with an irrational fear of heights.

What is the average height of a bouldering wall? The average height of a bouldering wall is about 10 feet (or 3 meters).

What is the maximum height of a bouldering wall? The maximum height of a bouldering wall is 15 feet. Anything above 15 feet (or 4.572 meters) is classed as highballing. Anything above 40 feet (or 12.192 meters) is classed as free-soloing.

I’ve been climbing for a while now and I’ve noticed I’m injury prone in a few areas. Unfortunately, climbing is a sport where injuries are quite common… although I suppose injuries occur in most sports. I’ve researched into many ways to prevent common climbing injuries from occurring. The places on the body that the most common climbing injuries happen are in:

• The elbow
• The fingers and hand
• The foot
• The wrist
• The knee
• The shoulder

So, how do we prevent the most common climbing injuries from occurring? Most common climbing injuries are prevented by warming up properly, climbing with correct technique, and stretching beforehand. Warming up includes making sure every bit of your body is ready to work, as climbing is a full body workout. This can be done by climbing on very easy grade climbs for around 5 or 10 minutes to get your muscles ready. You can then stretch normally or use the wall and holds to help you. I actually like to use the wall to help me hang myself off a little to stretch my muscles. You should hold a static stretch for at least 20 seconds at a time. Once you get on the wall you should be climbing with as much technique as possible without overusing your muscles and joints. Climbing with the correct technique will take the strain off your limbs and therefore decrease the likelihood of injury. If you are climbing too fast or aggressively, you may also find yourself falling off the wall and landing in a bad way causing injury.

In this article we’re going to cover the common climbing injuries mentioned above and how you can prevent them from happening and repair them if they’re currently affecting you.

Page Jumps

• Common Climbing Injuries: Elbow
• Common Climbing Injuries: Fingers and Hand
• Common Climbing Injuries: Foot
• Common Climbing Injuries: Wrist
• Common Climbing Injuries: Knee
• Common Climbing Injuries: Shoulder
• Conclusion

Common Climbing Injuries: Elbow

The anatomy of the elbow

The elbow is made up of three bones – the humerus, ulna, and radius. It’s a hinge joint on the middle part of the arm. All three bones that make up the elbow are covered in cartilage on the ends which is a rubbery substance that helps the joints move against each other. There are two major ligaments that connect the bones together to make up the elbow. These are the medial collateral ligament and the lateral collateral ligament. The medial collateral is located on the inside of the elbow, whereas the lateral collateral is located on the ouside of the elbow. These two ligaments attach the ulna and humerus together. There is a third ligament called the annular ligament – this attaches the head of radius bone to the ulna bone. There are tendons that attach the biceps and triceps to the elbow bones, and also your forearm muscles to the bones. The forearm muscle tendons are commonly associated with tendonitis.

What causes injury?

An injury in the elbow due to climbing can be caused by changing your whole climbing dynamic. For example, if you are used to climbing very steadily and suddenly change to climbing very aggressively, you may feel more pressure on your elbow region. Even changing from one type of climbing to another can cause an injury in your elbow – changing from lead climbing to bouldering can put more load on your elbow and therefore cause damage.

Acute elbow injuries are usually caused by the flexors of the fingers and the wrist contracting all of a sudden and therefore becoming damaged. Chronic elbow injuries are due to repeating activities over time, eventually damaging tendons and other kinds of tissue.

How to prevent a climbing injury in the elbow

Don’t train too hard. Overtraining can cause both acute and chronic elbow injuries and it’s also not good for you in general. If you’ve taken a few weeks or even months off climbing, recognise this and understand you don’t want to overload your elbows – they aren’t used to it so climb steadily and with proper technique. Warming up and stretching before you climbing is crucial. Lower grades can be used to warm up on or there are simple warm up methods you can do for your arms. Surprisingly massaging your upper back muscles can help prevent arm muscle injury, as well as massaging your arms. If you’ve trained your arm muscles recently, allow some time for your muscles and joints to rest and heal before attempting to train again.

How to treat an elbow injury

Stretch your upper back, arms and shoulders regularly without causing pain on the afflicted area. Rest from climbing if needs be; if you can continue to train then decrease the load or grade. Ice is great for healing most injuries as it reduces swelling. If you need more help with inflammation there are over the counter drugs (ask your GP about these first), or there’s CBD oil. A sports massage may help.

Common Climbing Injuries: Fingers

The anatomy of the finger

A finger contains three hinge joints and three bones. It also contains ligaments that attach to the bones and stabilize them, and tendons that attach the muscles to the bones. A type of tendon called a flexor within the finger attaches to forearm muscles. These muscles tug at the flexor tendons allowing us to bend our fingers and therefore crimp on holds. The tendons are shielded by connective tissue which also allows the creation of 5 annular pulleys: A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5. When a finger is bent, the annular pulleys will keep the bone and tendon close together. Finger injuries are the most common climbing injuries within the hand.

What causes injury?

Finger injuries when climbing can be caused by overuse of the fingers or by a large amount of excessive force applied to the finger. Putting your fingers inside the “screw holes” of an indoor rock climb is a good way to increase the probability of a finger injury. The most common finger injury for a climber is an A2 pulley injury which includes pain at the start of the finger nearer to the palm and hurts when the finger is either straightened and/or bent. A lot of the time a click within the finger can be heard when it’s been injured, followed by pain and swelling. The A2 pulley is mostly involved in crimping which is why it’s more common to injure the A2 pulley more than any other. Dynamic (dyno) moves towards sharp and smaller crimps can cause such injuries, with bad technique and a lot of aggressive movements.

How to prevent a climbing injury in the fingers

Warm your fingers up by stretching and climbing slowly on lower grades for a good 10 or 15 minutes. You can also use the warm down stretches in this article to help you warm up/down before and after a session. Climb less aggressively, use correct technique, and don’t put your fingers in any screw holes to keep your balance, especially the deeper ones – not only is it frowned upon, it can also really injure your fingers.

How to treat a finger injury

Finger injuries can either be minor or serious. These range from sprains to ruptures and tears.

Spraining your finger isn’t too much of a big deal and will usually heal without the need to put it in a splint. An exercise you can perform is to bend your finger tight for 2 or 3 seconds and release. Repeat this 10 times. Do the same afterwards but instead of bending it you now straighten your finger. Do this many times throughout the day.

Partial tears and ruptures of the A2 and A3 pulley or full tears of the A4 pulley require a splint for a couple of weeks and rest until you’re ready to return climbing. Once you’ve returned climbing you should probably wear finger tape when you’re climbing for about 3 months to help strengthen your fingers.

Full tears of the A2 and A3 pulley require a splint to be applied to the injury to keep it immobilized for around 2 weeks. Once you return to climbing, tape your fingers up for around 6 months.

If the annular pulley tears or ruptures you need to see a doctor who will most likely advise surgery.

Ice always helps any swelling.

Common Climbing Injuries: Foot

The anatomy of the foot

The foot contains three sections – the forefoot, the midfoot, and the hindfoot. The forefoot is where the toes are as well as five longer bones known as metatarsals. The midfoot contains a few bones that make up the arches of the foot. The hindfoot contains the heel and ankle. The heel bones, also known as the calcaneus is the largest bone in the foot. On the surface of the foot, there are muscles, ligaments and tendons which help the foot move and keep balanced. One of the more well known tendons is the Achilles tendon, which connects the calcaneus to the calf muscle.

What causes injury?

Most foot injuries caused by climbing are within the forefoot around the toes. This can be due to wearing and climbing in shoes that are too small for you or aggressively planting your toes onto a hold (or both).

If you jump down from the top of a climb regularly, or you just land wrong on your foot as you come down, there is a chance you can sprain or even break your ankle.

Bunions are common in climbing and are only usually painful when they are being pressed on by something such as the inside of a shoe or even the climbing wall itself. I have a bunion on my heel due to wearing shoes that were too tight for me at one point but it doesn’t cause me too much of a problem so I’m not that bothered.

How to prevent a climbing injury in the foot

Foot injuries when climbing can be prevented by wearing the right size shoes. It’s thought by some people that you should feel pain from your shoes when climbing. This is nonsense. Being uncomfortable and feeling pain is completely different. Pain is a signal from the body telling you that something isn’t right an area of your body. This is how I got my bunion; I didn’t listen to my body.

Prevent ankle sprains and breaks by learning how to fall properly – don’t fall onto your foot if possible, especially with a straight leg. And if you are going to jump from the top of a climb (we all do it sometimes), bend your knees as you land to take a lot of the load away from your feet.

Climb with proper technique without digging your toes unnecessarily into the wall or onto a hold – this can cause damage to your toes/feet.

How to treat a foot injury

If you have a bunion that’s annoying you, then you may want to find more comfortable shoes, but you can get them shaved off surgically. However, there’s a big chance a bunion will come back if you continue the activity that caused it in the first place. Any swelling within the foot such as the toes and ankles can be treated with ice and rest. If you suspect you have sprained your ankle or you’ve broken it, you should stop climbing immediately and head to the doctor who can advise you further.

Common Climbing Injuries: Wrist

The anatomy of the wrist

The wrist is made up of the two long bones in the arm discussed earlier – the ulna and the radius – along with a collection of smaller bones called carpus. The ulna and radius are at the top of the wrist. The part of the wrist often injured in climbers is called the Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex (TFCC for short). The TFCC is structured to prevent injuries by stabilising the radial carpal joint and the radio-ulna joint.

What causes injury?

For climbers, the TFCC is most often injured by falling from a wall and landing on your hand in an unsuitable fashion. Injury can also be caused by overusing the wrist when climbing – overtraining can cause many injuries.

When using a hold as a mantle, injuries can occur in the wrist. I’ve actually had this myself on the odd occasion. This is due to the wrist rotating while also being compressed on the hold.

How to prevent a climbing injury in the wrists

If you want to avoid getting wrist injury, learn how to fall properly – don’t fall on an outstretched hand. Overtraining your wrists causes instability in the joint so it’s advisable to finish climbing if your muscles and joints are starting to feel fatigued. If you’re mantling a hold, don’t force yourself up aggressively or too quickly – use proper technique and patience. Don’t forget to warm up and stretch before your climbing session.

How to treat a wrist injury

If your wrist has an acute injury, it may need surgery due to large tears in the tissue around the area. If a bone is broken it will probably need immobilizing with a pot or splint of some kind. Chronic injuries require rest and ice if there is swelling. Over the counter anti-inflammatory drugs can be taken but you should speak to your GP before taking them. It’s also best to avoid any hand holds or movements that aggravate your wrist injury. You would probably be best off not climbing slopers.

Common Climbing Injuries: Knee

The anatomy of the knee

The knee is a hinge joint made up of three different bones: the femur (thigh), the tibia (shin), and the patella (knee cap). There are two types of cartilage that help the knee absorb shock and act as a cushion between the bones. These cartilage are called the meniscus and articular cartilage. There are two types of menisci: medial meniscus which is on the inner side of the knee and lateral meniscus which is on the outer side of the knee. Knee injuries due to climbing often involve a meniscus tearing. The knee also contains ligaments one of which is called the anterior cruciate ligament (or ACL). ACL injuries can also be common in climbing.

What causes injury?

Meniscus tears can be caused by repetitive use of a climbing technique called a drop knee. Drop knees rotate the knee down and cause torque around the knee area creating stress on the meniscus. Aggressive climbing without using proper technique is also another reason for knee injuries. Landing on a straight leg can twist the knee or even cause a ‘knee bar’ which pulls the hinge joint the wrong way.

How to prevent a climbing injury in the knee

If you’re doing a drop knee, try to turn your foot the same way your knee turns. Use proper technique and climb slowly. Warm up properly before you climb and learn how to fall properly without landing on a straight leg.

How to treat a knee injury

Rest and ice are always great for any swelling. More serious knee injuries may require rehabilitation methods including surgery. ACL injuries are often associated with surgery. Meniscus tears and ACL injuries will probably require you use crutches for a while until it’s ok to put weight down on the leg. Some sports stars who have undergone ACL surgery find that rehabilitation through cycling is a very good way to help the injury heal.

Common Climbing Injuries: Shoulder

I haven’t included common climbing injuries involving the shoulder in this article as I’ve done a whole article about that which you can find by clicking here.

Conclusion

Injuries in climbing, as with most sports, are very common but they can be prevented by climbing with proper technique at a slow to moderate pace. Treatment nearly always includes rest and ice. Using the RICE method of rest, ice, compression, and elevation is often advised for any injury where swelling is involved. Some injuries may be more serious than others and might involve surgery and other rehabilitation methods. Once you know the cause of a common climbing injury, you’ll generally know what steps you have to take to prevent it from happening in the first place. If you want information regarding shoulder injuries due to climbing you can click here for an article I wrote.