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Author

Pull ups?

wolfgang

22-Mar-2007
4:04:42 PM

Recently i was told that doing chin ups for climbing training was quite bad for you and actually detrimental to your peformance.

These are the only training i really do for climbing, one session in the morning and one late at night.

So should i continue doing these or should i stop?

Thanks


phil_nev

22-Mar-2007
4:11:17 PM

Pull ups are fine as long as you only use one arm and do them on a door jam.


nmonteith

22-Mar-2007
4:21:17 PM

Chin-ups are great if the only climbing you do is foot free lip inspection of roofs.

wolfgang

22-Mar-2007
4:24:06 PM

well, thats a given

but could i please have a slightly more serious answer


nmonteith

22-Mar-2007
4:35:44 PM

Its not bad wolfgang. If you do them fingers forward then it will help to build up raw shoudler/back power.
What it won't help is to strengthen your fingers or build pump endurance. It probably more productive to
do chinups with your feet restign against a small edge to simulate actual climbing, or use a wieghtbelt.
Being able to crank off 20 chinups won't help much in the real world. being able to do one chinup off a
mono and a crimper will be useful however of you are into bouldering. Chinups shoudl just be one small
part of a trainign reguime. I know as a young tacker i coulf crank off 20-30 chinups no probs. these days i
struggle at about 15 but i climb rock much better.

dalai

22-Mar-2007
4:36:10 PM

With the user name Wolfgang, only one arm one finger pullups with the finger in a sling are allowed!

Try

on 'Pull Ups'

Quite a few comments on pull ups and many that stray from the topic are available...

dalai

22-Mar-2007
4:46:49 PM

On 22/03/2007 wolfgang wrote:
>Recently i was told that doing chin ups for climbing training was quite
>bad for you and actually detrimental to your peformance.
>
>These are the only training i really do for climbing, one session in the
>morning and one late at night.
>
>So should i continue doing these or should i stop?
>
>Thanks

You are doing pullups twice every day and as your only training, seriously? Check out some of the topics posted on elbow injuries and tendonitis/ tendonosis as that is where you will be heading!

Pull ups are better than no training, though twice a day will lead to overtraining and injuries. The best training for climbing is that which replicates it as close as possible. As well as gaining muscular strength and endurance it strengthens your engram repertoire...


Eduardo Slabofvic

22-Mar-2007
4:52:06 PM

The best training for climbing is climbing, but doing chin ups would be better than eating cream
buns.......hmmmmmm........cream buns..


billk

22-Mar-2007
4:57:15 PM

Sorry I'm answering your question with another question but are you doing another exercise to balance out the effects of chin ups? If not, could doing lots of chin ups put your shoulders out of proper alignment? That would be the most likely detrimental effect.

There have been a number of posts on related threads about the benefits of doing push ups at the beginning and/or end of a climbing training session to balance out the effects of cranking. They might also work for balancing out the effects of chin ups.

Someone more knowledgeable will hopefully chip in with a post about exactly which muscle groups get worked doing chin ups and what else you should be doing to keep your muscles balanced.

dalai

22-Mar-2007
4:57:27 PM

Or combine the best of both worlds Ed?

wolfgang

22-Mar-2007
5:05:05 PM

no i don't do any specific exercises to counter the chinups, i'll probably start doing push ups afterwards if people think it will do any good.

and i'll also probably drop the early morning sessions, tendonitis sounds unpleasant

dalai

22-Mar-2007
5:17:42 PM

On 22/03/2007 wolfgang wrote:
>and i'll also probably drop the early morning sessions, tendonitis sounds
>unpleasant

It is! Forced me out of climbing and onto climbing forums and into the bitter and twisted individual who now just likes to annoy people online!

Definitely train your antagonistic muscles, stretch religiously and don't just do pull ups for training. The main benefit will be only that you will get good at ..... pull ups!

If you don't have any local climbing gyms, use some initiative and look for other structures to train on. Prior to climbing gyms and home walls, walls such as stone bridges etc were a good means to train.

If in Melbourne, check out the Melbourne page in the Guide section for some idea's.

If you have a bit of ingenuity and a bit of nous, you can knock up a basic climbing structure (known as a woodie ) utilising shaped and sanded wood offcuts for holds...

22-Mar-2007
5:24:23 PM

My experience has been that my climbing ability is not greatly affected by my pull up strength.
The consensus seems to be that climbing on rock is the best training for climbing followed by climbing on
plastic. For most climbers who train pull-ups only form a small part of training.
If you cant climb to train maybe a general strength program with pushups, situps and a few weights
combined with some hangboard work would be a better option. This way you are more likely to avoid
injury from repetitive and restrictive motion of the pull-ups and working opposition muscles will also help
prevent injury. A general strength program is probably a good idea even if you are climbing to train.
The general workout will also help develop some of the core strength useful on steeper routes.
The hangboard will also make the workout more climbing like than a bar.
Like Neil suggested I often put my foot on something while doing chinups to make it more climbing like. In
my case the hangboard forms part of a small woody so I put my foot on holds in a range of different
positions. I also do crunches and leg lifts while hanging on the hangboard

As suggested above there is heaps of web based info on training , chinups and injuries as well as a few
good books.


gordoste

22-Mar-2007
5:49:43 PM

I reckon you're better off just seeing how long you can hang on, with various different grips.


kezza

22-Mar-2007
6:02:11 PM

On 22/03/2007 Eduardo Slabofvic wrote:
>The best training for climbing is climbing,

In theory Yes. But I've been climbing for 6ish years now, and since I started climbing I've lost complete interest in anything that isn't climbing related..
I'm now one unbalanced climber! Which has lead to shoulder, back, and wrist injuries. I did a grip and squeeze strength test when I had my wrist checked out and according to that I can not even hold my own body weight. My finger flexors have been over worked and have had enough, they've gone on a holiday until the rest of my body catches up and my muscles start working the way they're supposed to be.

So make sure your training those muscles that are neglected otherwise your phsyio etc bills will cost more than your rack!

maxdacat

22-Mar-2007
8:20:18 PM

On 22/03/2007 dalai wrote:
>Or combine the best of both worlds Ed?

any idea which route that is?? lloks sweet but not like something i'd want to solo....beer or no beer.

>

maxdacat

22-Mar-2007
8:23:48 PM


tmarsh

22-Mar-2007
8:54:09 PM

It's Lord of the Ring at Araps. And if you think that John Sherman has really poised - unroped, mid crux - to take a pull from a long-neck of stout, then you're sorely mistaken.


muki

22-Mar-2007
8:59:52 PM

It's a classic pisstake shot, harness under the shorts, rap in clip a bolt, and pull the rope out of the shot.


BigMike

22-Mar-2007
9:06:48 PM

On 22/03/2007 bomber pro wrote:
>It's a classic pisstake shot, harness under the shorts, rap in clip a bolt,
>and pull the rope out of the shot.

And pray your mates don't leave you there overnight....

There are 35 messages in this topic.