Squad: Foundation Strength

Note: this page is designed to be shared with members of the Prowess Performance Squad ONLY.

Clearly, you’re quite a psyched climber and I would guess, would quite like to train a bit more than you do. But I’m also guessing that if you manage to get chance to get to the wall, you’d quite like to spend that time climbing and not mucking about with dumbbells and pull up bars.

This page is for you to complete some extra training at home. It is based on something called ‘foundation strength’ from Steve Bechtel and you can see the original link here. The concept here is to build strong, robust bodies that then allow us to get stronger for climbing when we go climbing, with a reduced chance of injury.

There are a few conditions and remember to speak to me in person if you are in any way unsure of anything below.

IMPORTANT: Golden Rules of Youth Training

Before we get into how to train, we need to outline some Golden Rules. You might not like them but I cannot overstate how important they are. If you don’t believe me, click here. Here goes:

1. Pain is bad. Forget all that ‘no pain, no gain’ malarkey, we do not want to be in pain. Think of pain being the body telling you that something is wrong.
   That being said, climbing hard is going to be uncomfortable at the time but if that doesn’t subside soon, we have a problem. A local physio, Tim Peck, advised me that ‘if pain doesn’t go away in the evening [after a daytime session] or the next morning [after an evening session], alarm bells should be ringing.
   If this is the case, contact me directly as soon as possible
2. Pain = Stop. There’s no arguing here, if it hurts, don’t do it. We might be able to reduce the load and try again another day but your first action when something hurts is to stop. It’s that simple
3. Accept that you are growing. If you are between the age of 11 and 18, you have something in your body called growth plates. I’ll explain more lower down. For now, accept that this period of your life is when you run the risk of damaging yourself not just for now, or for a while, but forever
4. Don’t Add Weight. I’ve oversimplified this one but it’s better to stick to this way round. You know those videos of people hanging weight off a harness before hanging off their arms? Yeah, leave that to them, you stick to body weight for now.

These Golden Rules aren’t there to scare you, they’re to make you aware of limitations. Check out this article on The Marshmallow Test to read more about this. If you have any questions, contact me direct.

Foundation Strength

The premise is simple: we can break ‘training’ down into six different areas. Click the link on each heading to quickly skip to the relevant section. In no particular order, they are:

• Squat. This is the action you do when you bend down to pick something up but bend at the knees, keeping your back straight up in the air
• Hinge. Very similar to a squat, imagine bending to pick something up but this time, keeping your knees straight and bending in the middle
• Push. Really simple one this one, think press ups. Anything where you push your body away from something or push something away from your body
• Pull. Another super simple one, think pull ups. Kinda the opposite of push but crucially, make sure you’ve got a big, full hand around whatever you’re pulling against
• Midsection strength. This is the toughest one to explain, it’s all about being able to maintain tension through the body. So kinda like core but not quite
• Fingers. Yeah, they are important after all. Just don’t get carried away jumping on a fingerboard straight away (we’ll come to that as we go along)

The idea is that if we can develop strength in these six areas, we’ll be ready to get stronger for climbing.

Let’s run through each of them in turn. There are handy links in the list above if you want to skip to a specific one.

Squat

This is the action you do when you bend down to pick something up but bend at the knees, keeping your back straight up in the air. You can work both legs together or one leg at a time.

Example exercises:

• Bodyweight Squat. Real simple, link here to give instructions
• Bodyweight Single Leg Squat. If two legs is too easy, try one leg at a time. Link here
• Band Squat. We can add in an elastic band to provide assistance. Link here

Back to the list

Hinge

This is possibly the hardest to get your head around. Think of it as bending in the middle.

Example exercises:

• Half Kneeling Hip Hinge. You’ll need a bench or some such for this one. Link here to give instructions
• Glute Bridge. Floor Based exercise, slightly tougher. Link here
• Single Glute Bridge. Same thing but with one leg elevated. Remember to swap over and do the other side too. Link here

Back to the list

Push

The classic that you’ll doubtless recognise. But when you think about it, something we don’t often do in climbing…

Example exercises:

• Push Up. I’m sure you’ve seen these before but watch out for form. Link here
• Bodyweight Knee Push Ups. If you find classic push ups too hard, this one is easier. Link here
• Incline Push Ups. Another option to make things easier. Link here
• Diamond Push Ups. On the other hand, if push ups are too easy, you can change hand position to make them harder. Link here
• Decline Push Ups. Or you can raise the feet higher. Link here

Back to the list

Pull

Another really simple one to get our head around but be careful not to get the fingers involved here. We’re trying to target the big muscles in the upper arm and shoulder

Example exercises:

• Pull Up. Could I start anywhere else? Watch out for hand position though. Link here
• Bodyweight Assisted Pull Ups. If you find pull ups too tough, try these, perhaps adding a chair if you can’t reach the floor from your bar. Link here
• L Sit Pull Up. If you want to make it harder, lift your knees up. Link here

[Note: the difference between ‘chin up’ and ‘pull up’ is which way your knuckles are facing. Chin ups knuckles face away towards you, Pull ups your knuckles face towards you. Personally, for climbing, I much prefer pull ups and tend to disregard chin ups]

Back to the list

Midsection Strength

Tricky one to describe, this is all about keeping tension through the body. It often relates to a strong core or a six-pack but those are by products really, concentrate on that tension through the body.

Example exercises:

• Bicycle Crunch. Slightly different to the classic sit up, I can’t help but feel these are slightly nicer to perform. Link here
• Laying Leg Raise. A different variation, easily made harder by slowing the speed. Link here
• Bodyweight Hanging Knee Tuck. A tougher version, with lots of variations. Link here

Back to the list

Fingers

This one gets trickier. We’re going to need some extra kit for this – either a fixed fingerboard or what I call an edge block – but it’s also where we’re most likely to suffer injury (they’re small muscles, not big ones here). Be very careful and remember: this isn’t intense training, it’s supplementary training.

Example exercises:

• Flannel Squeezes. A pretty tame one, this one, although you can make it as hard as you like. Bright side is it should cost you any extra money. Link here
• Repeaters (Fingerboard). This one involves hanging from your fingers from a fixed fingerboard above your head. Link here
• Edge Block Curls. You’ll need an edge block and resistance band for this one. Link here

Back to the list

How Much of Each to Perform

Now this is where it gets tricky. You’re all different, so laying it out there and saying ‘do this many sets of this many reps’ is simply not a one-size-fits-all thing anyway.

So I’m going to give you a basic structure. There is a diagram here to help explain some of the terminology:

It’ll be up to you to be able to work out how much to do. You may also like to try something such as Pyramid Training.

Some Training Principles

Here are a few simple rules to guide you in working out how much to do:

• Your last good rep is your last rep. Once you start wobbling about or become lop sided, it’s time to stop. You won’t make any gains at this point, certainly not compared to the risk of injury
• Aim to finish your last set with your last good rep. This is harder but over time, adapting sligtly as you go, you can change the reps and sets to ensure you finish your session but only just before your form falls
• Lots of easy reps, fewer hard ones. If you’re finding an exercises really tough, do less of it. If you’re finding it really easy, well it won’t be that easy after you’ve done heaps of them!
• Regularity is key. Doing anything once won’t do much, we need to repeat it over and over to see gains.
• Train fresh. Make sure you’re physically rested well before training
• Keep notes along the way. This will allow you to tinker how many sets and reps you’re doing

IMPORTANT BITS: When too much is too much

Let’s repeat our Golden Rules again:

1. Pain is bad.
2. Pain = Stop.
3. Accept that you are growing.
4. Don’t add weight.

So why am I being all nervous and cautious? It’s not like me is it? There’s a reason.

A Word on Growth Plates

Chances are you are about to, or are in the process of, going through something called a ‘growth spurt’. You may have heard of it. It’s when you suddenly grow out of all your favourite clothes and your shoes don’t fit any more. Great for shopping but risky for exercise.

Imagine a baby. They’re pretty small, with diddy little arms and legs. They’ve got the same bones as you and I (the long bones anyway), just much smaller. Which then stands to reason that for that baby to grow up to be an adult, the bones will need to grow. To do this, the ends of the bones have something called a ‘growth plate’ which adds on bone mass like some sort of weird growing monster from a sci-fi film. [Note: this is a massive oversimplification but gets the point across]

There’s a point where the growth plate adds new mass, before it turns into a tough bone where there is a big risk of injury. This could be something called acute injury (a bash) or a chronic injury (too much training) but the effect is the same. Don’t play this right and you get something called a ‘growth plate stress fracture’. Long story short, get one of these and you’re either taking several weeks off ANY exercise or breaking yourself for life.

I’m here to help with this bit but I need you on board to understand why it’s important. I need you to trust me, to (honestly) listen to your body and to be careful what you get up to. If you’re not sure, just tell me. If I’m not sure, we’ll get in touch with someone who can help.

If you’re particularly interested, please check out this article or ask me on your next session.