No Gym—No Problem
With the current situation involving the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become impossible or a poor idea to gym climb unless you have a personal home gym. That can be a bit of a drag for many of us, however, we can turn that situation around to take care of ourselves and hit the upcoming rock season even stronger. Below I lay out some ideas to kick start your at-home training so you get stronger during this situation.
Let's talk gear first. I will go through a few different potential routines targeting different levels of home gym setups, and also some advice on some very effective pieces of equipment. Many of us live in cities and can’t set up a power rack with all of the home gym toys, but there is plenty we can do to get a great workout and address our weaknesses.
The Gear:
The most basic setup is our bodyweight focused setup. You always have your body, at home during a natural disaster, out camping, or on a long family trip. These are all situations where you can’t stick to a normal gym centric routine. Some nice additions to your bodyweight setup would be a travel hangboard, a backpack with weight (bricks are cheap and 5 lb each), and a suspension-type trainer. This kind of setup can easily fit in a small bag, except the bricks, be carried with you on your travels and affords a great variety of workouts (as discussed below).
For all of these setups, recovery is key. A foam roller is a great tool, and there are various ones available online. A larger one is easier to use, but is larger and takes up more space. An alternative while traveling is a tennis ball or a Nalgene bottle. The tennis ball will be softer if you are just starting to add recovery to the mix, but a Nalgene bottle will give you a deeper release. Add this to your routine, especially as you may have more time to work on your fitness routine.
A step up from a bodyweight focused setup would be to add a strength implement or two to the setup. For those with limited space, a sandbag is a wonderful full-body workout tool. It takes up less space than traditional weights but can give you an insane workout. There is a reason that all of those MMA fighters work out with one. You are not going to be tossing around a sandbag that is heavy as the barbell or dumbells at the gym because the sand moves some. Also, note that sandbags are best when not filled completely. For beginners or people of lighter build look for something that can go to 40 lb, and for bigger folks or those who have been lifting look in the 60 or 80lb capacity. Don’t go full beast mode for your first one though, you have a lot to learn before tossing around a 120lb bag.
Another addition that would be helpful that most climbers already have is a hangboard and or pullup bar. If you don’t have a home setup and were depending on the one at the gym it is probably time to consider investing in one. If you can mount a board, great, if not there are improvised methods that modify a pullup bar or you can get a door frame setup from Blank Slate Climbing. If you have a travel hangboard then you could attach that to a regular pullup bar.
Moving beyond these, kettlebells would be my next addition. If you had all of the space for fitness gear this could easily move ahead of the sandbag, however, the kettlebell isn’t adjustable like the sandbag is. So you are likely to need 2 or 3 depending on the exercises you are doing and the progressions. Again like a sandbag the movements can be difficult and require you to learn them. Start lighter if you are new to this.
Bodyweight +
Travel hangboard (BeastFingers grippul/grippul XL, Tension Block, Tension Flashboard)
Gymnastic rings, TRX, Monkii bars (pocket monkii is most compact travel setup)
Bricks as weight for backpack (wrap in duct tape)
Nalgene bottle or foam roller
Sandbag
Sandbag (40 lb/60lb) + filler bags
Brute force sandbags make some great ones
Pullup bar
Hangboard
Foam roller
Kettlebells
20, 30, 40 lb kettlebells
Foam roller
The Workouts
These are really just a starting point for people who get most of their exercise through gym climbing itself. They can also be used to get used to some of these strength tools if you are unfamiliar with them. The goal I am using for myself is not necessarily to get much climbing-specific strength, but instead to focus on whole-body strength and fitness so that I can hit the season hard. Two workouts are presented, A and B to be done on alternate days. Add finger strength as a third day or in addition to the other workouts.
Bodyweight:
You can add a backpack with weight to most of these to increase difficulty.
A: 10 rounds 10 reps:
Pushup - pause at the bottom for more challenge
Squat - slow and controlled
V up
B: 10 rounds 10 reps:
Bear crawl
Burpee
Situp
Fingers: 20 seconds on, long rest x5-10
Sandbag:
There are tons of great sandbag exercises, and many exercises you can do with a regular weight you can do with a sandbag. Here are some that are good to begin with that might take a little time to master.
A: 3-4 rounds 10 reps:
Sandbag Turkish getup
Shoulder to shoulder press
Sandbag deadlift
B: 3-4 rounds 10 reps:
Sandbag thrusters
Lunge with sandbag on shoulder
Pushup with sandbag pull through
Fingers: 20 sec on with long rest, add weight slowly with a backpack
Kettlebells:
A: 3-4 rounds 10 reps
Kettlebell swing
Kettlebell high pull
Turkish getup
B: 3-4 rounds 10 reps
Lunge with kettlebell press
Single leg kettlebell deadlift
Offset pushup - use kettlebell to make one hand higher than the other for half the reps, then switch
Fingers: same as above, or pick a longer routine like the Beastmaker workouts
Use these workouts for 4-6 weeks to help build your fitness while we are all taking some time off from the climbing gym. They are by no means the only workouts, or even the most optimal, but they are what I feel is a good introduction to each set of tools. Use this as an opportunity to learn more about these tools and come up with your own routines based on your weaknesses during this time.
By Scott Powers. If you found Scott’s post useful, consider sending him a few bucks. (Venmo: @scott-powers-0)
