Tips to Always Use During Climbing:
It is extremely important to use correct climbing technique while climbing to prevent injury and improve our climbing ability. This takes time to learn and should be practiced while warming up and climbing easy routes so it becomes part of our normal body movement overtime. Below are FIVE tips to help improve body movement while climbing:
1. Keep Good Posture:
Keep the trunk (hips, core, shoulders) upright, with shoulders back, and shoulder blades GENTLY squeezed together. This creates a very powerful foundation from which to engage movement.
Keep the trunk (hips, core, shoulders) upright, with shoulders back, and shoulder blades GENTLY squeezed together. This creates a very powerful foundation from which to engage movement.
*When the body is aligned with good posture the muscles can act more effectively and are less likely to strain.
2. Bring Your Hips into the Wall:
Move your center of mass (the hip/core area) down and closer to your toes and bring the entire pelvis toward the wall by rotating one hip into the wall.
Move your center of mass (the hip/core area) down and closer to your toes and bring the entire pelvis toward the wall by rotating one hip into the wall.
*The center of mass is the area around which the majority of your body weight sits, and the closer we keep that weight near our toes/legs the less our shoulders, elbows and bodies have to work!
3. Don't Over-bend Your Arms:
Try to make every movement keeping straight arms, this means you may need to do a few extra foot moves, including getting your feet really high to stand up. Remember not to lock the elbow, but to maintain a tiny micro-bend to prevent straining the elbow joint.
Try to make every movement keeping straight arms, this means you may need to do a few extra foot moves, including getting your feet really high to stand up. Remember not to lock the elbow, but to maintain a tiny micro-bend to prevent straining the elbow joint.
*Keeping straight arms means we need to bend the knees instead and moves our focus to using powerful legs to generate movement!
4. Push with Your Feet:
Always remember to push through the feet first and ONLY pull with the arms when absolutely necessary.
Always remember to push through the feet first and ONLY pull with the arms when absolutely necessary.
*The legs are developed to support all of our body weight and are much more powerful than our arms.
5. Climb Like You Crawl:
The rule of opposites! When crawling, babies learn the most efficient way to move their bodies by first moving their right arm then their opposite left leg, and then their left arm followed by their right leg. This rule also makes for efficient climbing by maintaining balance and keeping the power in the core.
The rule of opposites! When crawling, babies learn the most efficient way to move their bodies by first moving their right arm then their opposite left leg, and then their left arm followed by their right leg. This rule also makes for efficient climbing by maintaining balance and keeping the power in the core.
(Above tips are from the book Climb Injury Free by Dr. Jared Vagy DPT)
