Warm Up Intervals

Hi all!

Another short one here. Today I just wanted to post a little warm up I have been using lately before training that can be done easily anywhere. You can also extend it and use it as a good cardio workout too.

It's an easy one: set your timer for 1 minute intervals and do the following...


Minute 1

• 10 core exercises (v-sit, core ball pass, crunches, leg raises, etc - pick and mix them up)
• Finish the rest of the minute with skipping

Minute 2

• 10 push ups (standard, tiger, side to side, etc - again, pick and mix them up)
• Finish the rest of the minute with star jumps (jumping jacks)

Repeat this 5 times for a 10 minute warm up that will get your upper body and core working gently and get your cardio vascular system kicked into gear and ready to train.

Easy! Now get into it!
Duncan

Hangboard Endurance + core and cardio!

Hey all,

Here's a little variation on the hangboard endurance program that I posted here: Hangboard Workout 002

In this one you do the same sets of hangs, with your feet up on a chair, on a suitable hold (I use a sloper that gives me a deep pump but is easier on the fingers joints than an edge or crimp) but instead of just resting in the off sets you do 10 v-sits (or leg raises, or crunches, or mix it up however you like it, just 10 reps of a good core exercise) then do either star jumps (jumping jacks) or skipping or jogging on the spot, etc for the remainder of the rest (be sure to push hard on whatever cardio you choose to get yourself breathing hard and your heart pumping fast).

Follow the instructions in the previous workout for the hangs, but essentially you are using a chair and doing them like this:

I did this workout today with 1 minute hangs followed by 1 minute of the core + cardio combo and did this 15 times for a total of a 30 minute workout.

Now the reason to use a chair is that it takes some of the weight off from doing a normal dead hang and allows you to complete the full 1 minute reps and the required number of sets by allowing you to vary the resistance by moving the chair closer or further away as needed. It also simulates the full body connections and core tension used from fingers to toes when climbing on steep terrain.

Adding the extra core workout and cardio to this endurance workout helps to simulate more closely the conditions we find ourselves under when climbing close to our maximum - core starting to get tired, breathing hard and fast, heart racing - which means your body is having to perform the endurance hangs in the workout under conditions more closely resembling that of real climbing conditions.

Now go get into it!
Happy training!
Duncan.

The ultimate pyramid???

Hi all,

This is just a quick one from a training session I was doing today. It's a simple thing, a pyramid, but with a twist. Now pyramids are a nice, simple training structure that can be used for a lot of things but this one was brutal.
Instead of one exercise, you are going to do 3: Pull Ups, Push Ups, V-Sits.

Pull Ups:  I did standard wide pull ups on my hang board, but a bar will be fine too. If they are too hard, put your foot on a chair to assist.

Push Ups:  Again I did standard shoulder width push ups to keep this simple, but you can use any variation of a push up that you like. If they are hard just put your knees on the floor to make them easier.

V-Sits:  I chose V-Sits for this as I love them, but you can use any good core exercise you like such as leg raises, raised leg crunches, roman twists, etc. Check some of the Total Circuit videos for other ideas too.

So here's how to do it...

Set your stop watch for 1 minute intervals.

On minute 1 do 1 repetition of each exercise. Easy.
On minute 2 do 2 reps of each.
On minute 3 do 3... and so on up to 10 reps of each on minute 10 (which is mind bendingly hard as you are tired and you have only 20 seconds to do the 10 reps of each exercise!!!)
On minute 11 go back to 9 reps of each exercise.
On minute 12 do 8 reps of each.
On minute 13 do 7 reps... and so on till you are back to 1 rep of each exercise.

The whole thing takes 19 minutes and should have you feeling weak at the knees by the time your done...
Too easy? If so, try a pyramid up to 15, or 20, or?

Happy training people! Look out really soon for some more total circuits and some more climbing specific workouts too!
Psyched!
Duncan.

Vertical Life is born!!!

So the day has finally arrived... the new magazine 'Vertical Life' is here! It is an amazing multi media climbing magazine coming out of Australia that I am very proud to be lending a little bit of a hand to with training articles and climbing content from Asia.
So go and check it out at www.verticallifemag.com.au
Read the mag, tell your friends, get psyched! And as always, feedback on my articles in there is greatly appreciated. So go check it out!

The first training article in the mag is all about making the decision to train, writing training plans, time management, etc and has a bonus killer climbers home workout at the end, so go read the article then get training!