adding extra weight to the climbing training session

Sometimes training stimulus in climbing should be more intense than the normal, especially in high level athletes with a huge training record (several years, several hours per day).

The training intensity can be increased by increasing the wall angle and/or diminishing the holds size. But if the wall angle overcomes 50-60 degrades the technique gets complicated (it’s more like a roof), and when diminishing excessively the holds size it can be dangerous for the hand joints and tendons and inclusive a bit painful.

To get adaptations, the intensity of each stimulus should be bigger than the previous ones; and when the possibilities of the two previous variables are drained it is necessary to use another strategy.

At this point you can add extra weight to our body to increase intensity.

That has many purposes:

- To increase the intensity of the training of the flexors of the hand, and all the involved muscles

- To diminish the time of total training

- To generate more intense stimulus to provoke adaptations when plateaus take place

- Well planned gets extraordinary results in high level athletes, but in intermediate and low level climbers, it can interfere in the attainment of effective technical expressions and mainly provoke injuries when adding too much stress in the joints, muscles and tendons.

The weight that should be added should not be in any moment superior to 5% of the body weight. The best way to make it is through a weighted belt, so that the added weight is located near the body center of gravity. The vests ankle belts are dissuaded, the first to interfere in the movements of the shoulder, and the seconds because they generate an excessive load in the knee when making foot movement, and both methods change too much the body center of gravity.

Each time you finish your weighted workout you must do several climbing movements without the extra weight, means the last set of your session or at least a couple of boulder problems. This way you can rearrange the corporal scheme to the normal position of the center of gravity.

Some recommendations:

- This method is exclusive for climbers with a wide record of training

- It should be used in climbers with great consolidated movement repertoire

- Immediately after a weighted session it’s advisable to transfer the training to an unweighted climbing

- This method is great to increase strength, and also it can be used to add intensity in the different types of endurance training.

- This method should be located in specific periods of training (concentrated loads or shock microcycles)

- The recovery time among sessions should not be smaller than 48 hours, due to the excessive load provoked in the joints, muscles and tendons.

- The use of regenerative measures is recommended to increase the recovery in the weighted climbing periods.

Pof. Juan Martin Miranda