How To Maximize Core Engagement During A Climb
To maximize your core on a climb, incorporate techniques that substitute muscle demand in your arms for muscle endurance in your core. This transfers the load (resistance by your body weight) from your arms to your core (while maintaining the same hold). Examples include Heel and Toe, Traditioanl or Twisting.
Climbing techniques allow individuals to shift their weight across multiple muscle groups. This is beneficial when climbers feel fatigued in their arms, so reduce arm engagement and substitute it with core engagement. For example, during long climbing routes or when returning from an injury.
It is also useful if you feel your core needs conditioning or want to work on your abdominal strength.
Heel and Toe, Traditional and Twisting (when executed correctly) will engage your core reflexively. You shouldn’t actively try to tense your abdominals because it will distort your form and cause more harm than good.
How The Heel and Toe Climbing Technique Uses The Core
Heel and Toe Hooks transfer body weight from our hands to our legs so our arms are free to move and grab another rock. To do this, our abdominals must tighten to stabilize our body, allowing the heel or toe to stay in place. The tightening of the core builds muscle endurance and power within the abdominals – achieving considerable core strength and size.
Without a solid core, a heel or toe hook isn’t possible. By repeatedly practicing until it feels effortless, every climbing session becomes a solid core workout. This is why it’s a great technique to incorporate to strengthen the core and get closer to that six-pack. To add, it improves your ability as a climber enabling you to attempt more challenging mountains.
Heel and Toe hook climbing is more difficult to master but makes more brutal climbs simpler, which is why many experts love it. However, to make the most out of the heel-and-toe climbing technique, your abdominals must be utilized – which is why it’s great to build and maintain core strength.
Why Twisting During A Climb Is Excellent For Abdominal Growth
To coordinate our legs during a twist, the core must tighten. Your obliques will stiffen as they contract to support your leg’s weight. This makes it excellent for core muscle engagement, especially in the obliques and transverse abdominal.
Twisting is a climbing technique which involves rotating our shoulders, hips, and knees along our longitudinal axis to help maneuver around obstacles or reach rocks that are further than the stretching distance. See below for a tutorial:
It’s natural to reach for rocks using our arms; however, twisting allows us to use our legs and shoulders instead. The motion required to shift your body weight from your arms to your legs and shoulders requires the core’s support.
When performing a twist, your upper torso should face the wall, but your lower torso will rotate perpendicularly.
Will A Traditional Climbing Technique Strengthen Your Core
Yes, the whole reason that bouldering is associated with chiseled abs is climbing requires a lot of effort from the core to move your body up and down the rocks.
A traditional climbing technique strengthens core as it synchronizes movement to allow fluidity and stability within body posture. Whenever you pull yourself toward a rock, regardless of your technique, the core tightens to keep you solid. To add, your abs also engage when you’re still – they brace your body and hold it so you remain balanced. Resulting in an intense core workout.
For example, if you are trying to set a route and are halfway up the wall, your core will tighten to remain stable. It won’t be an effective abdominal workout to stay idol on a wall, but it helps to build muscle endurance so that you have enough core strength to complete the whole climb without prolonged breaks in between.
It tends to be the more obscure position you’re in, the more the core has to tighten to stay balanced. If you have a heel hooked, a toe hooked, a left leg twisted, and your right leg placed in a crack, it won’t be long until your core feels like it is on fire!
This is great for beginners who aren’t too technical with their climbing but want to maintain a healthy pressure on their core.
Why Climbing Overhang Terrains Is Effective For Core Building
An overhang terrain is when the climbing wall or rock face slopes over 90°, so your legs aren’t perpendicular to the ground
When we climb an overhang, our legs position against gravity’s downward force. To prevent our legs from dangling in the air, the leg’s weight must constantly be held up. It’s our core responsible for the up-keeping of our leg weight thus, it will be engaged until you straighten up.
Try this exercise to understand this feeling:
- Lie flat on your back with your legs fully extended. In this position, you should feel relaxed as the ground supports your weight.
- lift your legs slightly and hold your core should naturally engage to keep your legs at that spot
his is the exact logic that applies to climbing an overhang.
Why Bouldering Engages Core More Than Rock Climbing
While core engagement boils down to a variety of factors there is one major advantage bouldering has that rock climbing doesn’t.
Boulderers tend not to use a harness. To stick to the wall, they are forced to tighten their core throughout the full duration of the climb. On the other hand, rock climbers benefit from a harness giving them the ability to sit and rest while suspended above the ground.
Without a harness, relaxing your core results in a fall straight to the soft mat. As a result, boulderers must constantly hold their body weight without any rest. Climbers must push their limits so they will only fall to the point of exhaustion.
On the other hand, rock climbers have the choice to suspend their bodyweight between the tension of the rope and the harness. Climbers often use this to rest or set routes – at which the core is fully relaxed.
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