Workin' out

does anyone work out a little besides the actual act of climbing itself to keep in shape for their climbs?

I do about 3x a week at the local school.

just curious

slingshot

Definitely for me. I try to do at least some calisthenics(push ups, stomach crunches, deep knee bends and back side leg lifts for the back muscles) several time a week, even if quickly at home before I leave for work. I find these make a big difference in my stamina on a climb especially when working in the tree. If I don't do my exercises for a week, I can really tell or feel the difference.

I have a student (who's planning to train for physical therapy after finishing up at BSU) working on this one. She's taking some video clips of arborists climbing and working in trees, and plans to analyze the motions to identify specific muscle groups used. Then, the idea would be to come up with exercise recommendations. We'll see how it comes out; so far she has some footage of a guy on Jeff Jepson's crew working a couple of trees about an hour south of here.

Personally, I work out at the gym about 3x a week too - general weight machine stuff and 20 minutes or so on a bike. It helps a lot, but It'd probably help more if I could shed some pounds.

More later.

My $.02 is that charlieb's idea of working on a couple of specific trunk exercises (back AND tummy muscles) is the most important part. Since you generate your muscular power from your core (your trunk), you want to make sure that those muscles are strong and flexible.
Working on the "latissimus dorsi" muscles are also important. Those are the muscles that run alongside your ribs. You feel them a lot if you try to do a chinup. They are very important when pulling on the downrope in Ddrt or pulling yourself up on the ascender during SRT.
Obviously you use a bunch of other arm and leg muscles, too, but those seem to be key groups that are often overlooked in exercise programs.
In general, a regular walking (or other aerobic exercis) program mixed in with just a little bit of specific muscle training should prepare you well for tree climbing.

Patrick, PT

I do not think climbing is aerobic in nature. Correct me if I am wrong here. I personally now swim 5 times a week for aerobic training. When I climb, I try to increase my repetition numbers higher to get some aerobic benefits. I speed walk too at times doing 30 minute stints. I was born with scoliosis- curvature of the spine, so I cap off each day with spinal stretches (yoga).

Rock climbers do pull ups and train the opposite muscles by doing push ups. I have not gotten to that series yet- a bit boring for my taste. Maybe that would change with the right music and an I-pod.

What are other people doing? I am curious too. MarkF- please report your findings. We would all benefit from that kind of study from a PT (physical therapist).

I know Dan Kraus, the new ISA climbing champion, goes to the gym to do cycle training.

You climb regularly and rigorously for exercise. Every day, like a substitute for going to the gym.

If this is the case, you are probably getting all you need for your lats, biceps, forearms, lower back, and maybe even abs. You can get decent, but not total, legs. And if you're aggressive enough, you can get a pretty good aerobic workout. But you have to be strong enough to keep it going. I dropped and kept off about 20 pounds climbing, while continuing to eat a fair amount of carbs and fat like peanut butter.

My lats and biceps are getting big, and my lower back is strong from all the thrust of DRT. My abs are in good shape, but I intentionally maximize their fatigue whenever possible.

What you don't get a lot of is triceps and pecs. Pushups or benchpress is needed, unless you do enough free climbing to use the pushup position.

It's also important to do range of motion exercise for your deltoids, because the motions of climbing (very much like rowing) leave out a large part of the upward and downward rotation of your shoulders. You need to work that or you'll feel some stiffness there, or even pain. I experienced massive pain, like a charlie horse in my shoulder, while aloft when I pushed down to apply pressure to a chain saw while my arm was fully extended. I was reaching full out with my arm while applying forceful downward pressure - well, I saw stars. My delt cramped up and it didn't stop for minutes. Taught me that I need some balance to what I'm getting in the tree.