I have to admit that in the gyms I go to, the route setting is often in the way of that. Many easy routes are just boring and repeat the same basic moves. I would love routesetters to try to set a few easy problems that are somewhat creative and engaging. In exchange they would not have to change them as often. Changing a ladder at wall A to a ladder at wall B isn't really adding any novelty. But as soon as I got into the intermediate problems, a whole new world of movement and challenges opened up. Some strong extra motivation to train hard for me, so I cannot really complain myself. But I often see myself trying to coax others into more difficult climbs, because they are 10x more varied and engaging in my eyes.

Yeah to both comments! 👌✌️

Thank you. I feel this video should be an article instead

I think that video would go like this. 1) up your volume 2) find your weaknesses 3) find train your weaknesses 4) create/follow training program 5)success/ back to step (1) repeat, repeat. Assuming you continue everything from this...

We recently asked what people want to see on our community page. So we are going to plan an Assessment, Programming and Session Structure series of videos. Hopefully this will cover a lot of the things you want for taking training even more seriously 😉. Thanks for the feedback, it's good to know what people want to see!

@@LatticeTraining Assesment is a video I would love to see.

I definitely dealt with elbow pain when I was starting out but seemed to have fixed it now, so I can try and give some tips on how I did it. First off you need to take a break from climbing. This is definitely the worst part, but it needs to happen. Depending on how bad the elbow pain is it could be anywhere from 1 week to a month or more. Once you've had a break to rest your elbows (or towards the end of your break), start adding in some antagonistic training. Climbing has a lot of pulling but not a lot of pushing, and these muscle imbalances you develop can lead to elbow pain. Add some chest/tricep pushing exercises, like pushups (i like to do them on my knuckles as its less stress on the wrists) or bench/dumbbell press for your elbows. (I like dumbbells as I like to work each side individually and it allows my wrist to be in a more natural position). Look up some antagonistic forearm exercises to add in as well. Finally look at your schedule. I used to climb three times a week, but have since moved to twice a week with one of those days fully focused on lifting and antagonistic training. Beginner climbers often try and climb as often as possible, and while fun, it can be detrimental to your growth unfortunately. I've found that while I get to climb less, the sessions I do have are more productive, and most importantly injury and pain free. Ab exercises 3 times a week, stretching routine 4-5x a week, and I'll throw in a few light lifts after each climbing session. Sorry for rambling, I guess my main point is focus on having a strong and flexible body in general, and you'll be able to enjoy climbing with a healthier body for longer. If I didn't explain anything well please feel free to message me and I can try and clarify!

I'm also beginning climber and had this pain in the shoulders. Agree with the comment above that you should probably take some rest. It is a sign of too heavy demand of the elbows. Like, maybe you are already quite athletic, but it does sound like you might be pushing yourself a lot. An important thing which I learned through 2-3 small injuries in the first half a year (requiring me 2-3 weeks breaks) is not to push too soon to 3-4x a week. I used to go 4x a week after 3 months, but now I go 2x climbing and additionally do general body exercises. This balances it a lot better for me. Haven't had injuries or small pains in the past 3 months anymore and I feel like I'm steadily getting stronger and better.

can ad 2 things: 1st watch out 4 proper technique, especially climbing on long arms - bend and block carefully and only when needed 2nd if you go hard bouldering 4 times a week you are certainly prone to overuse injury, if you keep up with the vary your style of climbing principle in a different sense, e.g. in a week first day rope climbing indoor an evening approx. 3hrs, 3rd day day bouldering 1,5 hrs, weekend 1day outdoor climbing with approach, rest, social life and one day repeaters/ condition climbing (I use buildering on an old tower that has easy foodholds but small crimps as well for the fingers) you can go up to 4 times climbing a week injury free depending on your previous medical fitness.. ..guess most of use go more or less through the overuse of elbows, if you have not some kind of secret farmer/ worker strength of your tendons..4me better technique and less bodyfat ;) solved the problem ..

@@eDapification One thing I'd add is that if you take a break from climbing to rest tendons (in the elbow or elsewhere), don't stop strength training! You can always reduce the weights you're using to a pain-free level, and build back up while you're taking a break from climbing. If you completely stop and do nothing, the pain will go away, but it will simply come back immediately when you start climbing again, because you didn't maintain strength, and didn't really help the area heal by getting lots of blood in. I know this from years of experience with total rest, which never worked. As soon as I maintained a pain-free level of fitness during breaks, my recoveries went infinitely better, and I even stopped getting injured so much. At most you should only take a few days of complete rest for an acute injury to allow it to desensitize before you start some kind of light training. I absolutely agree though that the real secret is to remain injury-free in the first place, and the best way to do that is load management. Start with low load and only ramp that up very slowly.

Completely agree. Body weight full squats are one of the most beneficial exercises for health and fitness anyone can do. Consciously relaxing the breathing, no breath holding or strained breathing massively amplifies the benefits.

Yeah, gymnastics rings are probably the biggest bang for your buck in terms of upper body training for anyone really. I'm going to have to rely on them as I'll be lucky if I can get to the wall once per week. xD

Hi Jim, if you are injured like this we really recommend you see a physio, a climbing specialist if possible because they understand the stress of climbing on the fingers. It's very early for your climbing so it's best to get things sorted as soon as possible so you can get back to climbing as soon as possible.

1 year later, are you still rock climbing?

Hmmmmm, tricky question. It's easy to say 'it depends' for this. But two days a week is fine if you consider yourself a beginner, still plenty of time to focus on skill development! We might suggest you add some basic training at home on different days to boost your progress and recovery time. It's common for climbers, keen to start training, to have a climb day > s&c day > rest day cycle.

It sounds like you are looking for a training plan based on your current ability and experience. We can't really suggest training sessions or protocols for individuals over comments but do consider a training plan or consolation if you are looking for individual advice.

@@LatticeTraining I know people that purchased Lattice plans and the volume was high. I think my body cannot tolerate that, can a goal of a training plan/cycle be to focus on increasing the capacity to climb/train more often? Also can exercises provided by a physio be incorporated in the plan?

@@gamotousername the volume of training is always individual, written by a coach from scratch every time. So if you are limited by time or ability to recover, all you need to do is tell the coach. We don't include physio prescribed exercise if you are injured. It's best that you are fully recovered before starting a plan. This helps you get more out of the training plan 😊

@@gamotousername I’ve had success getting back into climbing after a longer break despite similar recovery limitations. In my experience, someone whose brain knows how to “write a skills check their body can’t cash anymore” will always have the tendon/joint pain and fatigue accumulation until they go lighter than they went when they started training. Trick is to do the motion your brain knows at a super-low volume of perceived work, training the nervous system to stop “guarding” all the stabilizers we’ve lost strength in. I thought when I started to climb again that I was training light and low-volume… until I couldn’t recover in time for next session yet wasn’t sore in the muscles whose movements would fail on the wall, just random odd niggling pains elsewhere. That’s when I stopped looking for beginner climbing videos and instead started looking at videos breaking down the science behind injured-powerlifter mid-season rehab principles (a strength required skill sport where people overtrain a motion to injury like climbing due to not realizing their body needs a de-load to build strength in stabilizing muscles and connective tissue.

2 year climber here: Go for it!! There will probably be climbers of all experience levels at your gym. Most of the climbing community I have met are very helpful and supportive when it comes to hyping you up on your climbs. Sometimes, having a random stranger scream, “You got it! just send it!” is all of the confidence boosting you need to go for that move you never tried before!😊 Best advice I got early on was to not worry about “finishing a route” when you first start; it can become quickly demoralizing. Instead, be proud every time you progress a little bit further than you did the last time you climbed that route. Oh, and don’t worry about buying gear! Most places will rent you shoes, and a harness with the purchase of your entry fee. Just wear your comfiest clothes that you don’t mind getting a bit of dusty chalk on😂 Hope this helps!👍🏽

@@amandaalston1325 appreciate the advice

Moon Samurai Pant

2-3 **

@@timothygats that’s still quite often

Climbing gyms are so expensive

2 is good enuff

@its finn monthly pass is pretty solid. Here In Canada I'm paying about 75$ CAD a month. Pretty similar to a regular normal gym membership.