Training for Ice Climbing

[AJ]

With the ice climbing season fast approaching I'm trying to make up for my lack of conditioning. Aside from general physical fitness, does anyone have specific training they do off the ice to help? Do you drytool all over your garage? Do you do tons of weight assisted pullups? What works for you?

[Cpt.Caveman]

If you want there is a mock ice and drytool wall at the gymn in Everrett aka Cascade Crags. They have a very friendly staff there. I think they supply the special tools and you need to bring your non vertical crampons and boots. Pretty interesting if you ask me. I plan on trying it out soon. Otherwise I find doing pullups by any means and anything that mimmics swinging axes useful. To include weights.....

I guess to train for the frontpointing I practice kicking my roomates dog across the kitchen when he begs for food

[This message has been edited by Cpt.Caveman (edited 10-18-2001).]

[summitseeker]

Yup, pullups, pullups and more pullups. It works for me. I remember reading somewhere that Alex Lowe used to do pyramids of 400 pullups after a day of hauling gear up and down a mountain. What worked for him ought to work for the rest of us, I figure.

[fishstick]

I've tried a number of options depending on various geographic locations. For those living in the PNW, I'd suggest serac climbing at Baker each fall. A day of ice bouldering will give up to 5 hours of pulling on tools. A day in the same area on TR might offer as little as 30 minutes of actual climbing depending on group size. Vary terrain as much as possible to include all angles and many stemming problems. Also practice placing multiple screws on steep terrain. Traverse problems exist that require 25 minutes or more (1 way) to build endurance.

The simplest exercise I do requires simply swinging an ice tool indoors. Get down on your knees (and face Banff) and swing one tool above you head in the same manner/velocity that you would when climbing (you're on your knees so the tool doesn't hit lights or the ceiling). Watch the tool to make sure your swing is smooth and the tool travels in a straight line. Quickly repeat. Do as many reps as fast as possible until your arm is smoking. Switch to your other arm and do the same. Your focus is maintaining an accurate swing when your arm is pumped senseless. A friend does the same exercise with small sandbags (from kung fu) attached to the head of the tool.

Using an overhanging campus board or similar structure, do foot assisted pull-ups with the tools hooked over the top. Leashes optional. Repeat one armed to stall. Also try by doing 5 reps, lock off high, 5 reps, lock off lower, 5 reps, lock off very low, 5 reps…to destruction.

I also train on a 45 degree (overhanging) bouldering wall with a few maple hooking holds set at the maximum distance that I can complete a static move. The moves are set in a triangular pattern so I can move in a continuous circle. The goal is 75 moves (about the same as amphibian). Leashes optional. I find the 45degree wall actually too steep. It develops specific shoulder and twisting strength but tends not to work the arms as much as you'd think. The holds also work for inverted sit-ups from a figure four. I've never used a figure four outside, but they are amusing to do at work.

I used to climb dead trees. Set your watch timer for 45 minutes and don't come down until the beeper allows. Overall however, I think the tree exercise is uninspiring and doesn't actually provide enough of a useful pump.

Perhaps the most obvious exercise is to climb in a gym. Concentrate on big friendly holds, running laps up and down on very steep routes.

GB

[This message has been edited by fishstick (edited 10-18-2001).]

[Cpt.Caveman]

One other option I use is to swill pints of beer at the gym aka The Legion in Lillooet. Gets me killer pump and the comraderie at the place is astounding. Every seems to be using this method up there

[Retrosaurus]

You need more climb.

[EddieE]

Stand in your shower with the water turned on cold. Start punching the wall with your bare hands. Periodically ask your roommate to dump a bucket of ice cubes on your head.

[Cpt.Caveman]

You crack me up!

[freeclimb9]

The Workout from Hell: http://www.camp4.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=71

especially the flat-back and standing extensions for the tricep (they get you used to the taste of lactic acid). Don't forget the legs which get you to the climb.

[Bronco]

When you get tired of working out in the gym try to chop a chord of knotty pine firewood in one of the local steep forests. No saws, just an axe. It is an awesome upper body workout. Wait for a nice windy, rainy, 35 degree day to build some character.

let me know when & where you do so I can pick up the wood

[freak]

what about doing pull ups then locking off to one side for seven seconds,then lower and pull up and lock off the other side, use a really wide grip to make harder. use a really narrow grip to make eaisier AKA typewriters,, for me ice season means, time to head south!! cause Im weak,, nic

[Dru]

climb ice is best training for climb ice. that and eat lots of eggs and bacon and sausage and waffles to stay warm in the cold. biceps curls work good too.

[dbb]

yeah, and if you climb in lilloet a lot, you get a can or FREE GREASE poured all over them thar eggs-n-bacon!

[dan_e]

Wrist curls are good for the forearms.

I use a wooden rod with a hole drilled in the center, with a 5' or so piece of 5 mm cord attached (through the hole and the knotted). The other end of the cord has a 5 - 10 Lb weight attached to it. I hold the rod up and out, about 45 degrees and start curling. Works best when done slowly and makes the forearms pumped in no time.

Dan E.

[Ade]

R&I #109 (June/July 2001) has a training article by Vadim Vinokur. It's a pullup training program. Worth taking a look at for sure...

Basically:

Work out what your max number of pullups is, fingers and thumbs over bar, hands shoulder width apart.

Do reps of 80% max (number of pullups) with two minute rests in between. When you can do four sets drop back to two sets and increase reps.

Do pyramids to 50% max, resting for 1 minute between each rep.

Do reps of lockoffs holding for 5s at 45 and 90 degrees and full up.

Another variation, popular with some of my friends is doing four pullups a minute for as long as possible. You just keep trying to get four done in a minute.

Enjoy.

Ade

[Dru]

How many ice routes has Vadim done?

[dan_e]

Setting up a dry tooling wall is also good training for ice. I made one at the cabin I lived at and I wish I still had it.

Basically it was just a 6' sheet of plywood covered with incut wood holds at random locations. The rafters were really high in cabins garage, so I had to start with a pair of etriers to reach to first holds. The only bad thing about the wall is if I fell at the top, I was looking at a 7' fall on to concrete, let's just call that psychological training!

Dan E.

[JERRY_SANCHEZ]

YOU CAN HIKE UP MT. SI WITH YOUR ICE CLIMBING PLASTIC BOOTS

[sexual_chocolate]

I have such a problem with pull-ups. I mean, I can do a fair number, maybe 22 or 25, but I hate doing them 'cause my body always starts swinging like crazy. I'd like to incorporate a pull-up routine into my work-outs, but this problem always has me heading to the lat machine.

Any ideas?

[Courtenay]

RE: pullup training: try the following, what some people refer to as ladder training (NOT campus board training; read on)

If you can do 22-25 pullups in a row, then you may be a good candidate for ladders if you'd like to increase your stamina/endurance to be able to do more. Do this with a partner, or imagine a training partner doing his pullups while you're resting. Start by doing 6 pullups, then hop off and imagine your friend doing 6, then hop back up and do 7, rest while your partner does 7, and so on until you can't increase by a rep. Then (say you get up to 12) rest while your partner does those (12) and drop back down to your starting number, 6, and ramp up until you can no longer increase. That's a set. If this sounds like torture, or you can only do 6 or 8 before starting to swing like crazy, then drop down to maybe 4-7 as your starting number. See http://www.bodyresults.com/E2ladder.htm for more details.

Another suggestion, depending on your goal, is to add weight (vest, ankle weights, fanny pack, or backpack) and work on increasing your strength until you can do 8-10 pullups with 10-20# on, then try pullups again and see if you're increasing endurance.

If your gripe is primarily about swinging, try using a pullup bar that is a little lower, so your feet skim the ground, or put a chair or bench in front of you so you can stop the swinging. Most effective: pullups without a swing (otherwise you're likely using all sorts of other muscles.)

Lat pull downs work the muscles so differently from (and far less efficiently than) pullups and chinups that you'd be better served going to a gravitron if you must take a break from pullups. Good luck!!

[sexual_chocolate]

Yeah yeah it's all about the swing! I start swinging pretty much right away and I waste half my energy trying to keep from swinging. It pisses me off, but I haven't been able to figure out how to stop it, besides dragging my feet. I'm gonna try to figure it out though, go real slow and see what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks for the work-out plan!

[Courtenay]

re: leg swing on pullups --

Give me a little more info and perhaps I can help. Do you use hip flexors and knee-up momentum to complete your pullups? If so, try crossing your ankles and keeping knees pointing down to the floor, body long from shoulders to knees instead of piking at the hips. Lift smoothly to the top until chin clears the bar, then lower to full hang. I can see "swinging" being a real problem on hanging knee raises for abdominal/core strength, but can you give me more info on body position that could cue me in to your "swinging" issue and how to correct it?

[Dru]

quote:

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Originally posted by Courtenay:

re: leg swing on pullups --

I can see "swinging" being a real problem on hanging knee raises for abdominal/core strength, but can you give me more info on body position that could cue me in to your "swinging" issue and how to correct it?

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I heard the body position that sexual chocolate uses while "swinging" involves getting down on all 4s!

[philfort]

quote:

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Originally posted by JERRY SANCHEZ:

YOU CAN HIKE UP MT. SI WITH YOUR ICE CLIMBING PLASTIC BOOTS

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LOL! Those Mt Si jokes never get old!

[sexual_chocolate]

Courtenay: no, I don't pike, but I know that I don't keep the front of my body relaxed either. It's like I tense up as I'm going up on the pull-up, which seems to initiate the swing, and then as I lower myself, I relax, which seems to exacerbate it. I think I just need to practice them a little more; practice at staying relaxed as I do them. And keeping my body long and straight as I do them. Thanks for the input.

By the way, why do you think lat pull-downs are a waste of time?