We neglect horizontal pulling.
When new clients are introduced, when possible we start them with some form of a horizontal row on rings, and then as they get stronger we progress them on to doing vertical pullups. This is where horizontal pulling ends for many of us. Perhaps there will be some unilateral rowing work with dumb-bells, but a body weight row is now neglected. This is a fascinating exercise exclusion, especially amongst climbers who so often seek after gaining a lock-off or oddly positioned pulling strength. Yet we are faced with the argument that there is little need for horizontal pulling strength as it is far more often that we are working on a slightly off vertical plane.

Recently with the addition of dry tooling to my various climbing activities I realized the need to start training a pulling strength which would help when making moves back across roof problems. This is when I realized that my true horizontal pulling strength is limited, not only in terms of the weight I can move, but also in terms of my range of movement. While a 125lb weighted pull-up is relatively easy, as are one arms, lock offs, and high rep dead hang pull-ups, a true horizontal row is not easy. Assuming the feet are placed at a height where the body stays horizontal it quickly becomes apparent that some very different muscle groups are doing a lot of work. What is more, true one armed variations of the exercise are brutal.

An obsession with training has rapidly progressed my capacities here, but I still find a limited flexibility in my anterior delt limiting the height of my pull [interesting that this is also an area that is regularly inflamed and in pain]. In addition, while I am now able to work a tucked lever variation of this pull, and have even tried it with a 40lb weight vest, I am far from a massive load pulled through a full range of movement. An issue indeed.

When this whole dry tooling nonsense is over in two months I am going to return to this, as I think there is massive room for strength gains with big application in the rock arena if this strength is well developed. Thoughts folks?

Skip forward to May.  It turned out that coming back from worlds took a good three months to get over before I was ready to start climbing again.  The climbing I was doing was mainly up alpine faces in the alpine to ride down them, and rarely were these faces that technical.  So as it was it has been a while since I have reviewed this notion of horizontal pulling I am back on it today.  I think Bobbity actually kept up with this over the winter and also is supposedly off crushing everything he gets on right now, so perhaps some subjective evidence there.  That being said doing one arm finger pull-ups on rings, feet elevated, has started.  Variations of this will be played with in the coming weeks.  We’ll see what else I can come up with in terms of bouldering specific climbing training, but this certainly seems to be one of those movements that we use a lot.  Especially on steeper problems where we are getting out of a sit start.

It seems a little over the top that I always talk about how much stuff hurts, and perhaps it is just that I am soft and weak… but climbing our particular ropes with 70 odd pounds dangling between ones legs really hurts. Since getting the partial climb with the 70 I have gone back and gotten all the way to the top, but that isn’t coming out as a video until I can put it in as the warm-up to climbing with the 88lb kb afterwards. As to training this, I would recommend that people use a bunch of chalk, get a good dipping belt, and start small. If a rope climb isn’t effortless than doing this with added weight can be brutal, especially when you know you really can’t fail with it.

So I built a Bachar ladder this weekend. It is one of the old school training items, which much like campusing has often timed been left at the wayside as plastic bouldering gyms become more common and whiny complaints about tendonitis are more the norm. It was named for the soloist John Bachar and like the campus board is a phenomenal training tool. They stand in many ways as the unholy union of brutal training tools for all those people who wish to become exceptionally strong. Where the campus board is great for developing dead pointing ability, explosive pulling strength off of tiny holds, and due to ballistic loading, some exceptional gains in tendon strength the ladder is targeted towards the world of power endurance.

My first bachar ladder was about 18ft long, had a rung about 16 inches, and was made from $30 of 1.5inch dowel and 12m of retired climbing rope.  It took about two hours to make.  However, within a week of it being built, a 260lb male proved the point that the soft dowels can’t actually sustain too much dynamic load.  Some repairs to that kept that ladder functioning for another couple years, but eventually we proved the point that dropping onto rungs, or swinging on them too much could snap them.

My newest ladder was made with roughly the same specs, and also from retired climbing rope.  The difference this time round was that I went and bought oak 1.5″ dowel.  This cost me a couple hundred dollars, but the advantage is that they seem to be pretty bomb proof.  For a home ladder, it likely doesn’t matter what type of dowel you use.  However, if you have heavy friends, or larger neighbours, I would recommend spending the money on hardwood doweling to build your rungs out of.  If you don’t have nice high ceilings, you could easily hang it from a tree and anchor it to the ground (or a household pet).

Construction aside. Build one. Then get on it. The aim is to pull hand over hand with no feet from bottom to top in as smooth a manner as one can make possible. I aim for either working on pure one arm pulling power, or use this as a tool to build that elusive push/pull combination that is so crucial to being an effective and powerful climber.  Once you hit the top lower down through lock offs. Here again is a chance to work on a number of different angles of loading for your lock-offs.  Once you are at the bottom, hover above the ground and then head up for another lap. If you can make a couple laps you get to watch your pulling power vanish in a rather amusing way. Plus, here finally is a great way to start developing that explosive power endurance that is so hard to get without just climbing lots.

Workouts to try:

1: Power Endurance Training
A tabata protocol modified slightly.
Do 20s of climbing then rest for 10s with both hands on a rung and a foot on the ladder.
Try to get through the full 4min (8 sets).

2: Training for explosive pulling: Speed Climbing
As aforementioned, speed climb up… however rather than lowering slow, speed climb down. Then repeat for as many rounds as possible. When your speed dies hop off, take a rest and do it again.

3: Lock off strength
Get to the top in whatever manner you can. However on the way down skip rungs and hold your lock offs as tight and long as possible. If your rungs are as far apart as mine this is going to force you to train a far higher one arm lock-off than you would otherwise train.

Ah well. I am off to campus… and maybe attempt a few more climbs with the broken rung.

I have recently been doing a lot of work looking at rebuilding and strengthening my shoulder girdle.  It seems that people everywhere are dealing with shoulders that aren’t moving properly.  The answer has been twofold.  First of all the Turkish Get-Up done with a barbell.  The ultimate in tools for rebuilding that shoulder girdle.  It of course deserves a whole post of its own… hopefully one where I can showcase putting up my body weight.  So until I have that nailed down I am going to hold off on showcasing my TGU.

The second item has been to play with the good old fashioned push-up again.  An item which seems to have fallen out of vogue, but I continue to believe is one of the few exercises a person needs for building phenomenal upper body strength.  Given some people have recently been asking about some of the basic variations I like to make use of I have thrown this quick clip together.

Now as to how well this program in redeveloping shoulders has been going. Well it seems that I am finally able to start getting back into doing some movements that have been painful to do for a number of years now. Is this a great tool for developing active shoulder flexibility and strength: no. However it is a pretty good way to gauge just how healthy my shoulders are once again becoming. I would simply suggest that everyone add one or two days with some heavy TGUs and some push-ups into their daily training. It of course goes without saying that the standard ball work and soft tissue work should not be neglected.

I commented a while ago on the notion that you need to do some passive stretching after doing soft tissue work on the musculature of the shoulder girdle. However I have been remiss in actually following that up with any kind of video or article. Today with a number of individuals in pain, it seems that I can’t neglect this any longer. Stretching daily is important. Regardless of whether or not the muscles have been worked. While countless articles have been written on how stretching does nothing whatsoever for preventing injuries or aiding in rehabilitation I am going to stand in protest of such statements. In my personal experience a good stretching regime done regularly has always helped speed recovery for me, as well as done a lot to decrease any kind of movement limitations and daily pain.

Note of course that I think that stretching should come along side of soft tissue work and effective training that fixes muscle imbalances. However the stretching bit, while profoundly simple is still needed.

I suggest holding most of the stretches for 30s-1min, alternating sides and doing each stretch about three times. The actual time limit can be determined best by the person stretching. Don’t watch the clock, rather breathe into a stretch and use it to open up those stuck tissues.

Again from the archives.  June 26th, 2012.  These ladders are rad.

So about a week ago [Or two or three] I posted an article on my new toy. However due to some engineering issues I had to wait a week before I was able to really start crushing out some training on the ladder. So today I am throwing out some of my favorite exercises that are geared towards static strength, one arm pull-up development, and super low lock offs. While this has some obvious cross overs to the various climbing disciplines that I dabble in there is a bunch of fun stuff here for anyone looking to work on there one arm pull-up or lock offs.

So lets start there. In training the oh so coveted one arm pull-up I always suggest that people start with one arm lock offs [assuming they have a bunch of other basics down already]. Even if someone has very few pull-ups under there belt I always suggest that the addition of static holds will do the most for drastically improving strength in a short period of time. There is actually some half decent science behind this particular gem, but given that I can’t find the journal articles for them I am simply going to run off of my own experiences as an athlete and coach. Static movements, be they crosses, planches, bottom squats, or lock offs have the greatest potential for developing maximal recruiting capacity [And yes, I know that ballistic loading, and explosive movements do cool stuff] while minimizing any gains in mass.

So yielding to a lock off on the way down the ladder is a great way to start pushing that one arm pull-up forward. Hand in hand with that I am working a really low lock off in these videos, as the goal is to be able to hold a lock off much lower down my body, and in a far more awkward spot… because when we climb we are rarely presented with perfect hand placements for the moves we are doing. Of the other two items I put forward, the one arm climb is a lot of fun, and a great training tool to get in the habit of doing more than the one pull and then collapsing. For while one one arm pull-up is a great feat to accomplish, it is exponentially easier than trying to pull a second or third once you have already loaded that arm fully.

Then the last item. A lock off, high reach, and then a switch. Ideally I would be reaching past the higher rung on these pulls, however the notion of reaching and holding that reach for a couple second count is what we are really gunning for. Again this puts the body under tension for a lot more time, works the core muscles like crazy, and has a tendency to be a bit more like the way I climb… wherein I spend a lot of time reaching around and hoping I get a hold that seems like it is worth holding onto.

Anyways. Give these a try. Once I can trust the repaired rung I will toss up some more of the explosive and fast pulling stuff.