A well structured warmup is a great way to start off a training session. You will not only engage the areas of the body necessary for your training session but, is also a way to gage if you should continue of pivot your plan. Below is just an example of how to program a warmup. Please consult with your coach or trainer before incorporating any of this into your program.
Many of sit idle most of the day and when we arrive to our training session it might be a great idea to wake up the body. You can do this by rolling around on the ground using random movement patterns. Jumping up and down, star jumps, swinging arms and legs. Just start letting the body some movement is about to begin.
Antagonistic band work is a targeted and well-rounded warmup activity, specifically focusing on the rotator cuff area and surrounding soft tissue. This is an area of the body that takes a lot of force and stress while climbing. By using an athletic stretchy band, this exercises encompass a range of movements, from elbow wraps to torsional punches, uppercuts, lateral pulls, frontal and lateral raises, scapular pull-ups, and single-arm scapular pulls.
The emphasis on maintaining proper form throughout each exercise underscores the importance of engaging the shoulder muscles effectively. You can adapt this for people at different abilities from beginner to advanced. It is important to engage these area prior to training.
Level two for warming up the shoulder muscles and start to incorporate the upper and lower arms is lock offs. The focus is on performing two lock-offs, a quarter lock, and a half lock, each held for 5 to 10 seconds.
The proper form is emphasized, with attention to maintaining a 90° bend in the elbows and engaging the core. For beginners, incorporating the band is recommended, gradually progressing to more challenging variations.
Advanced climbers can perform the exercise without assistance and may opt to do two lock-offs at each angle. The routine progresses to single-arm locks at a 90° angle, emphasizing the importance of using a timer to ensure proper timing for each set.
Beginning to warmup the fingers involves 10-second hangs with a one-minute rest between sets. The routine begins with an open-handed four-finger hang, emphasizing shoulder engagement. Subsequent sets include a half crimp on the same edge size, gradually progressing to smaller edge sizes such as 30 mm, 20 mm, and even a strict half crimp on a 20 mm edge. Keep the sets low unless transitioning into a finger only training session.
The flexibility in edge size allows climbers to tailor the routine to their individual capabilities, providing an option to add assistance or stay on a specific edge if needed. The importance of tracking progress using a timer and allowing for rest between sets is emphasized.
The use of force load device like Tindeq or Pitchsix Force and a no hang edge as part of the warm-up routine is a valuable warm-up tool and a perfect way to gauge in a safe environment the current max strength of your fingers in an unbiased data driven way.
Performing a couple 1 max rep tests will let you know if today is a day you should dial back your training or continue as planned. You may even find your body is calling for a rest day even through you feel fired up and ready to go for a session.
Once you feel your body is feeling ready for climbing you can now confidently move into more demanding activities. Do not be afraid to take 30 minutes to an hour to warm up properly.