Introduction

Climbing is a kind of sports that requires high coordination skills, fitness and good technique. Success in climbing depends on various things, such as your height, weight, age and gender.

Height sets your starting point and affects your further progress. The taller you are, the easier it is to try more difficult routes. It means that you are more likely to make another move than shorter people since the distance between holds is less for you. As a rule, if you are over 180 cm tall, you will have an advantage and get to 6c routes faster. However, it becomes easier to progress if you have average height because you weigh less (which is important when climbing something difficult); therefore, it will be simpler to grip bad holds as the stress is significantly reduced.

The less you weigh, the easier it is to move forward. When you grip holds, your fingers endure exponential stress. The more you weigh, the more stress your fingers endure. This is the reason why lightweight climbers rarely get injured. On the other hand, the less you weigh, the shorter you are; therefore, you will eventually find that the distance between holds increases on more difficult routes and you will have to make dynamic moves. This is why you need to build your technique in the beginning.

Age is also important in climbing. When you are young your ligaments are still weak; it allows children and teenagers to stretch well, improve their technique faster and easily adapt to the stress. However, as you grow older your ligaments become less able to adapt to the stress and for this reason you need to make up a good training schedule.

In general, men have an advantage over women due to their greater muscle mass. Women, in their turn, have better coordination and flexibility to compensate for the difference in strength. Thus, men and women shall have opposite approaches to training.

Summary

It is essential to consider everything that can have an impact on your climbing progress to make up an efficient training program. The program will give you a better understanding of how to reach your goals faster and avoid injuries (you are welcome to ask for a piece of advice from our certified staff to make up a training program for you).

Guide for first two weeks of training

Description

1st session

• Drill how to fall;
• Climb 10-20 routes (the goal is to climb 10-20 routes for 45-90 min after a warm-up. It is important to increase the number of routes in the beginning, even if you are not able to ascend for a first or second try – nothing to be worried about! Keep up the pace, pick another route and try to climb it);
• Test your Overall Physical Fitness (OPF) which includes: pull-ups, push-ups, straight plank, side plank, squat jumps;
• Stretching.

2nd session

• Drill how to fall;
• Climb routes of greater difficulty than before (your goal is to try 10-15 routes but it is not necessary to accomplish them. These routes should include at least one that you are likely to climb);
• Test your OPF which includes: underhand grip pull-ups, wide push-ups, hanging leg raises, lower/upper half pistol squats;
• Stretching.

3rd session

• Try the routes from the previous session where you were about to get to the top (your goal is to find a mistake you make and fix it);
• Test your OPF from the 1st session and compare the results;
• Therapeutic exercises and stretching.

4th session

Summing up

• Your goal is to climb all routes you tried during last sessions; by doing so, you will better understand the progress you have made for these two weeks;
• Test your OPF from the 1st session and compare the results;
• Therapeutic exercises and stretching.

Height

Your height is average, it means that you will easily adapt to almost any route style. The taller you are, the harder it is to gain weight since you have more leverage. We recommend you to pay more attention to OPF and stretching.

Weight

Your weight is average. Our statistics show that you are less likely to get injured if you weigh below 75 kg. The more you weigh, the more stress your joints and tendons endure. You can climb slow-paced and static routes as well as dynamic ones where you have to jump. You would rather not stick to one climbing style and try to be as diverse as possible.

Your weight is perfect and you would rather train all styles to move forward.

Age

Your age is average. You still recover fast enough and you have a good chance to achieve better results not only in lead but in bouldering as well. You can train both disciplines and we recommend you to combine bouldering and lead in a 2:1 or 1:1 ratio.

Gender

Women are naturally more flexible than men. They usually have better technique but should not forget to improve their OPF.