Top 5 Weight Lifting Exercises for Climbing

Back to Basics

Before you start introducing more weight into your routines it’s important to make sure you have a strong foundation first. Doing a standard set of push ups, pull ups, and leg lifts first will help your body adjust to the movement on the wall itself and get your joints and tendons ready for increased weight.

Bulgarian Squats

First on the list is going to be the Bulgarian squat. It’s advised to start this movement without weights or for very light weight first so you get an idea for the proper movement. This exercise start with a box or bench directly behind you around waist height. You’re going to raise one leg behind you and place the top of your leg on the bench. Your raised leg should be comfortable and perfectly horizontal. You’ll hold two weights in both hands and with the one leg you’re standing one you’ll begin to squat straight down. Once you’ve done a set of 8 reps, switch to the other leg and cycle through until you’ve done 3 sets.

 

This exercise is incredible for balance and leg strength when you need to use it on the climbing wall. There will be movements you’ll come across that force you to use a single leg to press up and this will help with that forward movement and mobility on the wall. 

Dead hangs

This exercise can be done with or without weight and is advised to start without weight first until your tendons get more used to fully hanging with your body weight. There is no trick here and as the name implies you’re going to grab a bar slightly out of reach and hang for as long as possible. Try to shoot for a minute each hang with three total sets of it and once you’ve established that you can introduce weight. If you have a harness on hand just slip some webbing through a plate, and attach that to the harness you’re wearing. 

 

A great exercise for endurance training as well as strength training, this is a must include if you are having trouble hanging on the wall for extended periods of time.

Dumbbell Fly

When you are on the wall you’ll usually come across some movement called a compression. This is when you need to grab two holds and squeeze your arms towards your chest in order to stay on the wall. It’s an incredibly fun move but can be quite difficult because these aren’t muscles you usually use in day to day life. The dumbbell fly helps tackle this, and if introduced in your regular training session, will dramatically help your compression strength. Like the other exercises it’s important to start light with this until you build up solid form. 

 

You start this exercise by laying down on a bench with both dumbbells being held straight up. In a nice steady motion begin to move both arms out like opening them up for a hug. Once you’ve reached out as far as your arms will go, slowly bring them back to the starting position and repeat this process until your set is over.

Tricep Dips

The Tricep dip is a great body movement exercise that helps increase your pushing strength when you’re trying to mantle or press against a hold in order to get a couple extra inches towards the next hold you want to grab. You can easily do this on a chair at home or anything of similar height but if you have access to side bars that are commonly found on pull up machines at a local gym it would be much more beneficial. The reason behind this is that the bars at the gym will be higher off the ground so you’ll be using your full body weight. Doing it on a chair at home will keep half your body on the ground so you’ll have that added support which is great at first but will quickly hinder you long term.

 

If you have the bars you’ll grab both and lift your body up so that your body is elevated from the floor. Begin by slowly bending both arms and start lowering your body towards the floor. Once your arms are fully bent you will start pushing your body back up towards the starting position. If your at home or on a chair it’s a similar movement but your arms will behind you instead of to the side of you. Doing this consistently will quickly give you the ability to reach for holds easier and smoother.   

Reverse Wrist Curls

Something that most new climbers don’t think about it wrist strength! It’s an incredibly important muscle, especially when you are going to be hanging and pushing off of your wrist in different angles. This exercise will help keep your wrist free from injury and support whatever wacky movement you may being doing with it. Like with the exercises above this one should be taken seriously when introducing weight to it. This is not something that you come across in day to day life so it could be easy to injure yourself if you jump ahead to quickly.

 

Grab a weight (Start with 2.5lb or 5lb and see how it feels first) and prop your arm on a chair handle or lay it on a desk. Anywhere that keeps your arm just around or under chest height is a good place to start. With your palm facing down pull the weight straight up towards your shoulder, just flexing your wrist, and stop once you can’t flex it anymore. If this movement feels easy you can start to bump up weight until you start getting tired after 10-12 reps. Do the same thing with the other hand and once both are done flip your hand around and do it in reverse by allowing your hand to fall to the floor.

Wrapping Things Up

While this list is not extensive with all the various climbing exercises, we believe that if you incorporate these  five examples in your training routine your climbing strength will increase significantly and you’ll be at much less risk for injury on the wall as well. Find a weight that allows you to do 8 reps of each exercise in 3 sets. You should feel strain by the end of it but if you feel any pain drop some weight and build up from there. We hope this helps you in your climbing journey and you have some new ideas to add to your routine in the gym or at home!