5 Strength Training Tips for Indoor Climbers

Rock climbing requires a certain level of strength—it just does. But don’t worry, strength isn’t the only essential tool for rock climbing; it’s just what we’re focusing on here today.

Building the right strength can improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury. Nobody wants to get hurt when they’re just trying to climb. You’ll find that getting stronger won’t have many downsides, if any, really; you’ll just be stronger! (Okay, you may eventually need to buy different-sized clothes.)

There are five key focus areas you should consider when trying to improve your strength for climbing. They are as follows: core, grip/forearm, pulling/pushing, legs/hips, and using functional movements. While there are multiples in a few of those, they relate to each other—trust me. Follow along to find out how!

1. Focus on Core Strength

Your core is essential for stability and body control, and that’s just while existing. If you can imagine, it’s even more important for these aspects in climbing! Your core connects your upper and lower body and helps you stay close to the wall when climbing, allowing your gripping muscles to relax a little.

Exercises you can do to improve your core strength include planks, leg raises, and Russian twists. If you have a hard time setting aside time for your core workouts, do some exercises in between burns at the climbing gym for a very active rest!

2. Train Your Grip and Forearm Strength

This may be one of the most critical strengths you can improve for climbing. Your grip is your connection to the wall, and your forearms are how long you can keep that connection! Whether you’re open-handing pinches or crimping your heart out, your grip strength is the major contributor to helping you stay on that hold.

​Exercises to improve these include hangboarding, pinch-block training, and even farmers' carries! Remember to ease into grip and strength workouts and take your time progressing because these are usually underdeveloped and require more patience to train to avoid overuse injuries.

3. Incorporate Pulling and Pushing Movements

While it’s evident that your pulling muscles (biceps, back, lats) are going to be primarily used in climbing and should be trained, don’t forget about your pushing muscles (chest, triceps, shoulders)! Training your pulling muscles will mimic climbing motions, and focusing on your pushing muscles will help you stay injury-free by ironing out any muscle imbalances that can occur by focusing on just one aspect of strength.

Exercises for each can include pull-ups, lock-offs, push-ups, and dips. Try to focus on having a push-and-pull day at least once a week. These can be on the same day or split up, whichever works best for your schedule!

4. Strengthen Your Legs and Hips

Powerful legs help with dynamic moves and climbing efficiency. A strong base will allow you to explode up the wall! Further, strong hips will help when making those high steps and weird beta moves that require some strange contorting.

Exercises to focus on here are squats, lunges, step-ups, and hip bridges. Remember that when strengthening our legs, we lift with our legs. Really, you should always lift with your legs. Keep your back straight and focus on your form. Don’t worry about increasing the weight until you perfect your form.

5. Use Functional and Climbing-Specific Movements

Lastly, if you’re looking to strengthen your muscles for climbing, you should focus on climbing-specific movements! This means doing exercises that replicate climbing movements (e.g., campus board, traversing, lock-offs).

Functional strength improves your technique and endurance by directly translating to how you’re moving on the wall. The ability to pull or push yourself upward can apply to aspects of life beyond climbing.

However, when balancing functional training with general strength work, try to space it out so you’re not overloading one thing too much on the same day. For example, try to do your climbing-specific movement training on days you’re not climbing as much or working out your pulling muscles.

Last Tips

Each muscle group is vital for climbing, whether major or minor. The key is to stay muscle-balanced to avoid injury, which means working all your muscles, not just your climbing muscles.

Your core keeps you close to the wall; your grip keeps you on the wall; and your push/pull muscles, along with your legs and hips, help you get up the wall. Balancing your strength program is essential to staying injury-free and avoiding burnout.

Strength training is hard, but it can make your climbing easier (until you eventually try harder, again, that is). Gradually increase your intensity and track your progress as you improve and lift more weight/perform more reps. Sometimes, just looking back at your notes can be a motivator to keep pushing.

Like progress in climbing, strength training isn’t always a linear process. You must understand that you’ll have days when you don’t feel strong or when the weight feels heavier than it should. Those are the days that you continue to show up to put in the work because, regardless of whether it feels harder or not, it’s helping you gain strength.