This is a result of not prioritizing. When’s the last time you looked at your life and your job and write down what your priorities are each day?

For example, a sales rep may have a ton of paperwork daily, reports to fill out, sales calls to make, research to do, financial forecasting, etc. But are any of those more important than others? YES! For a sales rep, making sales calls is the most important, since the rest won’t matter if there aren’t any new sales! So therefore he could say, “Cold Calling is my #1 priority. Therefore I will do nothing else until I have planned out who I will call on each day and made those calls. Then I will do the rest of my tasks.” Then comes prioritizing #2, #3 , etc.

So give it a try…write out what your daily priorities are. This will make you accomplish much more every day.

What about climbing? How does this principle apply to climbing? Well…do the same thing. If you have 1 hour to train at the gym…climbing routes that help you train for your goals is more important than just doing situps Climbing is the best training for climbing. So climb first…then squeeze in supplemental training!

For all of these exercises, use climbing specific exercises (pull muscles and core muscles), as well as antagonist exercises (Push muscles).

Stamina Training

Stamina is what you need to climb long routes without getting overly fatigued. This differs from anaerobic endurance. Stamina revolves around your overall endurance to continue climbing, including aerobically and muscularly. Anaerobic Endurance means training your body to rid your muscles of lactic acid, which is particularly helpful on hard routes/problems.

To increase your stamina using a typical fitness gym, you should use weights for all your exercise that allow you to do 3 sets of 12 reps each, with a 1 minute break between sets.

Power/Strength Training

To increase your power and strength training, it is important that you use weights that allow you to do 3 sets of 6 reps max. YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE WEIGHTS THAT ARE ANY HEAVIER, or else you will bulk up and this will not help your climbing.

Anaerobic Endurance

To increase your anaerobic endurance, use weights that allow you to do 3 sets of 10 reps. In between sets, only take a 15 second rest.

Short and sweet! I hope it helps some of you out!

First, it is important to eat the proper balance of carbs, fats, and protein. Here’s a quick formula to help you figure it out! This is based on Eric Horsts description from Training For Climbing.

Determine Your Caloric Need:

Multiply your weight by the following number, based on your metabolism:

• Low metabolism – multiply by 12
• Medium metabolism – multiply by 15
• High metabolism – multiply by 18

Now add 150 calories for each activity of low intensity exercise you do each day ( such as walking, etc). Then add 600 calories per each hour of high intensity exercise (running, climbing, etc). Let’s say you do 30 minutes of walking and 45 minutes of running. That would be 75 calories for low intensity and 450 calories for high intensity.

Determine Your Carb, Fat, and Protein Requirements

Specifically for a climber, here is the breakdown of your needs, based on your caloric needs.

Carbs

65% of your calories should come from carbs. There are 4 calories in 1 carb.

Protein

15% of your calories should come from Protein. There are 4 calories in 1 gram of protein.

Fats

20% of your calories should come from Fat. There are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat.

So by making these calculations, and beginning to monitor what you eat, you will notice significant gains in your climbing ability, as long as you are training alongside of having a strict nutritional program!

More to follow soon!

1. Get a hangboard for your house and mount in above a doorway. The Metolius Simulator is the one that I use. You can search the internet for training routines, and/or use the one that comes with the hangboard. You can easily do a 10 minute very effective hangboard workout at home every morning.
2. Use your countertops or 2 chairs next to each other to do dip workouts, as opposed to pushups. Dips lend themselves better to climbing sport specific workouts. You can do 3-5 sets of dips in less than 5 minutes
3. Choose 3 different ab exercises and alternate between dip sets. My favorite ab exercises are side-crunches, hanging leg lifts, and raised leg crunches.
4. 20 Minute Interval runs are effective. Intervals mean that you run hard for 30 seconds, jog for 1.5 minutes, and repeat.

That obviously is a very short workout, but something is better than nothing. So adding all that time up, let’s say you wake up, get dressed for a run, run for 20 minutes, come home, do a hangboard workout, dips, and abs. You can get that complete workout in in less than an hour, maybe in less than 45 minutes. Can you find 45 minutes to workout in the morning? If your answer is NO, then consider waking up earlier! It will be worth it. I remember when I started training for climbing years ago, I started out doing short workouts like this, and soon became addicted to it, and began waking up earlier and earlier so I could get in more training!

Silent Feet Technique

I’m going to give it a try  and see how it improves my footwork! Let me know if you try it and what your results are!

1. Choose the top 3 things that you need to work on when it comes to technical aspects of climbing (knots, anchor building, rescuing, etc)
2. Buy a book or two that will teach you these specific skills
3. Study the books, and practice at least twice a week so that you could perform these tasks “with your eyes closed.”
4. Take the opportunity to teach someone else something about what you learned. Teaching others helps you to retain what you learn.

I have found it to be so true that if I let a skill I once had go un-practiced, that I will quickly become rusty and forget it. So make sure you stay on top of your technical game as well!

While I am on the topic of training, take some time to check out the updates we’ve made to our rock climbing guide training program.

Interval training is exactly what it sounds like….you run with intervals of fast and slow paced running. Here is a beginner workout, and advanced workout for you to try:

Beginner Running Interval Training for Climbing:

1. Plan on running for 30 minutes
2. Start out with a 3 minute jog/slow run to warm up
3. At 3 minutes, run hard for 30 seconds
4. Jog for 1.5 minutes
5. Run hard for 30 seconds
6. Jog for 1.5 minutes
7. Continue to repeat that pattern until you get to 3 minutes away from your finish time, where you will finish with a 3 minute jog.

Advanced Running Interval Training for Climbing

1. Plan on running for 1 hour
2. Start out with a 3 minute warm up
3. Run hard (90% maximum heart rate), but not sprinting, for 8 Minutes.
4. Jog for 3 minutes
5. Repeat that pattern until 3 minutes from finish time and finish with a 3 minute jog.

Give it a try! Not only will it help with lactic acid removal, but it will make you lose weight quickly too…which is the #1 hindrance to climbing performance!

Flexibility: Yoga

Strength-Building Asana Sequence for Climbers:

1) Down Dog

2) Warrior I — press the palms together and take the gaze upwards 5 breaths.

3) Release the arms behind the back, interlace the fingers, lean back, and touch the hands to the back thigh. Lower body remains in Warrior I position here. 5 breaths.

4) Keep the arms and legs as they are, just lean foward and extend the heart out over the front knee. 5 breaths.

5. Keep the legs as they are, release the arms, and then extend the arms forward as if you are reaching out to someone. 5 breaths.

6. Lean into the front leg and slowly stand up right into Warrior III. 10 breaths. Remember to keep this pose active! Extend back through the heel; extend forward through the finger tips. Keep raising that back leg and don’t let anything sag.

7. “Airplane” the arms to the side, and then “barrel roll” into Half-Moon Pose. 10 deep Ujjayi breaths. You may even try to take the bottom hand off the ground and extend that arm forward.

8. Very slowly, lower back into Extended Side-Angle Stretch. The landing here should be light and controlled. Hold Side-Angle for 10 breaths. Again, keep this pose super active. Extend forward through the top arm, and cut the back foot sharply into the mat. Imagine a line of energy extending from the back heel all the way throught he tips of the forward fingers.

9. Now here comes the fun part. 5 rounds of Extended Side-Angle Stretch into Half-Moon, and back again, holding each pose for 2 deep breaths. Remember to move between the poses with lightness and control.

10. End up in Half-Moon. “Barrel roll” back into Warrior III. Just 5 breaths this time.

11. Bring the hands to the floor and come into Standing Split. Hold for 10 breaths. Try to take both hands to the ankle so that your leg is doing all the work in holding you up.

11. From Standing Split, either press up directly into a Handstand or kick up into a Handstand. Alternatively, just come straight back into Chaturanga.

12. Vinyasa. Repeat on the other side.

(this was adapted from the Yoga for Rock Climbing Blog)

Power/Strength Exercise

One Arm Traverses and One Arm Lunges

1. Find a section of the climbing wall that would enable you to do a long traverse, on reasonably large holds.
2. Climb up onto the wall, tucking one arm behind your back
3. Traverse only using one arm and moving your feet.
4. Repeat for the other arm
5. Take a 2 minute rest, and do 2 more traverses for each arm.
6. Now find a spot where you can hang from one arm (feet on the wall too), and the lung up and grab a higher hold. This would be like a one arm dyno. Your goal is to do 12 of these in a row with each arm, take a 2 minute rest, and do 2 more sets for each arm.

Anaerobic Endurance

Steep Wall Lockoffs

1. Find a steep section of the climbing wall (preferably a bouldering area) that would allow you to put your feet on holds, and have your hands either on one large hold, or 2 holds next to each other
2. Find a hold higher up the steep wall that is at your maximum reach
3. Pull up into the holds your hands are on, and reach high with one arm to touch the hold that you chose at maximum reach. Do not grab it, just touch it and hold for 2 seconds. You other arm should be in a lock-off position
4. Lower back down, repeat immediately, for 20-50 reps
5. Do the same for the other arm, take a 3 minute rest, and do 2 more sets.

I hope you all benefited from these 3 exercises! Let me know if you have any questions. Also, check out Eric Horst’s Training for Climbing blog, where much of this was adapted from.

I wanted to share, over the next few days, what some of the lessons I learned from climbing are.

There is nothing that is truly impossible.With determination, the right tools, the right training, and the right people, you can accomplish anything.

When I began climbing, I remember standing at the base of Route 2 (5.3) at Ralph Stover State Park’s High Rocks climbing area. I had big clunky hiking boots on, and was a bit overweight and probably hadn’t done ANY kind of exercise for a while… and was sure that I’d make it to the top. But much to my dismay, I did not make it more than 5 feet off the ground.

Now, many people may have given up at that point. But I, by nature am a very determined person and did not give up. Yes, on that day, I realized that it was impossible for me to make it to the top. But instead of throwing in the towel and thinking “This is for everyone else…even though I want to do it. I guess it’s not for me,” I went home and gathered up whatever money I had from my job as a waiter, and bought a pair of climbing shoes, a rope, a harness, 7 carabiners, and 100 feet of webbing. Then I bought a book that would teach me how to climb. I poured over whatever material I could find to learn how to do it, and I made sure to ask as much advice as possible from the people who took me out climbing for that first time.

I began to run, do pullups, and lift weights. I began to surround myself with climbers who could teach me, and within 3 months, I easily climbed Route 2 at High Rocks State Park. As soon as I stood on top of that cliff, something clicked. I realized “WOW! It wasn’t impossible,” and from that moment on, I vigorously pursued climbing.

Now I am getting nostalgic and feel like writing more and more. But I won’t say too much more, except that as soon as I got to college, I got involved with Quest, the climbing guiding service at the University and continued to train hard and push myself. I remember saying “Climbing is great! But I’ll never do that Trad Climbing thing. That is just WAY too scary.” Well, within 3 months of being at college, I learned enough about trad climbing that I set out and bought my own rack, and led Route 2 at High Rocks State Park as my first trad lead. One thing continued to lead to another, and I eventually become a climbing guide and coordinator for Quest.

Through the experience I gained in climbing, I also became involved with conducting team building and leadership development programs through Quest and Corporate Institute, and even changed my major to Organizational Communication, with a concentration in Outdoor Leadership.

And here I am today, having started my own climbing guiding and team building company, founded upon the principles and life lessons I have learned through climbing.

So how did all this apply to me starting my own company?

Even though many people seemed to be in my way, and there were SO many obstacles to overcome, never once did I think that I wouldn’t be able to do it. I wanted to make it happen, so I was confident it would.

I made sure to surround myself with people who could help me. Building relationships not only benefited my business, but it also improved my life as I have been able to meet so many people.

I was not afraid and am not afraid to invest in my company. By making my initial investment into climbing, it opened the doors to a whole new world, and the same is true in business.

What might look difficult on the road ahead, only looks exciting to me now. Difficulties and trials only excite me more!

NEVER stop learning. NEVER think you know it all.

]]> http://www.ascentadventure.com/2009/06/reflections-on-how-climbing-helped-me-start-my-business/feed/ 0