GIRL BETA

By Mercedes Pollmeier

If you are looking to make faster progress towards your climbing goals it is essential to include strength training into your regime. Whether you view climbing as a sport or activity, there is no doubt that a climber has to supplement their training with weight/strength training if they are looking to perform at a higher level. Look at all other sports and activities. For the most part, the athletes performing at the highest levels are also putting time in the gym to give them the edge. Strength training with weights will allow you feel stronger on routes as well as train the metabolic system required for climbing.

So, now that you are convinced that weight/strength training will help you reach your goals for climbing, you need to structure your workouts based on the season and time period you have for reaching your goal. Remember, make attainable goals, and continue to make new goals as you progress.

Rochelle doing push up variation

To start a solid training regime, you need to follow the progression of endurance, strength and power. This not only helps you peak for your project/season, but it also keeps you from getting injured. You also need to keep in mind that climbing also incorporates the lower body. It always surprises me that when I see a climber working out, they are sooo focused on ab and arm training. Your legs are part of your core, and are the base of support as well as the initiator of movement. So, make sure to include lower body exercises as well! (* A note for female climbers – we tend to suffer from the Q angle syndrome, which means that we have a very high chance of tearing our ACL’s. By training proper lower body mechanics, we can function better and avoid the chances of lower body injury. Mostly it’s the knee and hip movement that we need to keep an eye on)

Below is a sample of a strength workout. This is purely just the weight-training component. This does not include other important aspects that need to be incorporated into your training regime such as campus board, systems wall and cardio workouts. Other climbing specific exercises such as front levers, rope climbs, hanging legs raises etc, can also be incorporated into this program. The exercises selected are basic body movements that work the large muscle groups that will no doubt help you climb harder and function better.

Here is a sample progressive workout. This can be done 2-3 days a week. Work into it slowly! In addition to this, you can choose to take active rest periods. This is generally done every 4th week of the training program. You can still climb during this period, but try to keep the volume low. All physical adaptations from training occur during the recovery period!!

Endurance (3-6wks): 3-6 sets, 10-20 reps (you gotta feel the burn!), 30s-1min rest in between.

Body Weight (BW) squats

BW single leg squats

Hamstring extensions on the ball.

Pull ups *(50-75% 1RM)

push ups (50-75% 1RM)

Dumbbell chest press (50-75% 1RM)

Plank

Jump rope (considered plyometric, but great for building those calf muscles, do 5-15mins)

Strength (3-6Wks): 3-5 sets, 4-8 reps, 30s-1min rest. Weight selected should be progressed from 75-90% 1RM.

Squats

Straight leg dead lift

Weighted pull ups

Weighted push ups

Weighted dips

weighted single leg squats

Windshield wipers

Weighted plank

Cable rows

Box jumps (1ft height, ~25 reps)

Power (3-6wks): 1-3 sets, 1-5 reps, 1-3min rest. Weight selected should be progressed form 80-95% 1RM)

Power clean

Squat to overhead press

weighted pull ups

weighted push ups

Dumbbell chest press

Bent over rows

box jumps (2ft height)

* 1RM means the maximum weight you can lift once. i.e. if you can chest press 100lbs, your 50%1RM would be 50lbs. If you can only do 1 pull up, use a bungee or resistance band to help you do more reps.

Nina Williams reading the finals route at “The Gun Show” SBS.

Route reading is not exactly easy to pick up when you start climbing. It can however,  be a huge factor in sending your project. A route that should take you a few tries to complete could end up taking a few days to tackle if you miss a simple foothold or have an incorrect sequence. Here is a pre-climb routine that only takes a minute, but could end up saving you lots of skin and energy. When you walk up to the climb you should choose to do these things:

• Take an overview of the route by identifying the start holds and the finish holds (or top out).  Locate all the hands and feet on the climb. Find what “Line” the route takes. Does it traverse, go straight up, or zig zag?

• Now its time to mimic the movement of the climb from start to finish. Put your hands up in front of you and run through the entire climb, “miming” the hand sequence. Try to use the body tension required during the climb. This will let your body know that you are about to try hard. Be specific with each grip. Is it a pinch, full crimp, gaston, undercling, etc?

• Work though the crux section a couple times, until you feel confident you can do each move. If leading a route, look for clipping positions and rest holds.

• Now read the route a final time start to finish. Think about the crux moves, clipping positions, rest holds, etc. Visualize succeeding on the route.

With this preparation you are ready to climb the route. Route reading does take practice, so be consistent and patient with the process.

Want to take revenge on your project? Come train with us! Athletik Spesifik offers a range of classes to improve your climbing. Located in Denver and Boulder.

Katie Levy of Adventure Insipired writes about Girl Beta!

GirlBeta.com: Fueling Psyche in the Women’s Climbing Community

Logo courtesy of Mercedes and http://www.girlbeta.com

After spending time with Alison Vuocolo discussing her efforts to get more women out bouldering, it seemed no less than necessary to profile Mercedes Pollmier. Mercedes launched Girl Beta back in January, a website dedicated to igniting passion and inspiring the women’s bouldering community by sharing knowledge through written posts and videos. It’s definitely a site you’ll want to keep your eye on!

Mercedes on Authentic Battle Damage Stand, Boulder Canyon.

Mercedes hasn’t always been a climber, but has a significant amount of experience as an elite athlete. After amassing a number of accolades as a tennis player, including an NCAA Division I scholarship, she started strength training with Dave Wahl out of the Paradise Rock Gym in Denver and became a member of the National Mauritian Tennis Team. Despite her love of tennis, she couldn’t resist bouldering on plastic while spending so much time in a climbing gym and learned to love the sport. Mercedes says she climbs because it’s “a personal challenge, a problem to solve, [and] requires a lot of body awareness. The climbing community is a great thing to be a part of.” Now, Mercedes is a strong, talented climber with ascents of problems like Dark Continent (V7-V8) and Authentic Battle Damage Stand (V8).

Mercedes was inspired to start Girl Beta during a road trip to Red Rocks. She’d searched for videos of women climbing the boulder problems she wanted to do, but couldn’t find any. “Generally, there are not enough women climbing together and I would love to see more of that,” she says. “I think [it] would take away some of the shyness, hesitation and fear of failure…sometimes, having the boys around can be intimidating and may be a limitation for some women.”

Mercedes recognized a clear lack of resources specifically for women to help them achieve their climbing goals. With that in mind, her aim was to create a blog that would help female climbers and generate buzz about women in climbing. Mercedes wants to help women unlock beta and sequences for specific problems they might not otherwise be able to work through.

Mercedes climbing hard in Joe’s Valley.

Pretty soon, Seattle-based women’s-specific rock climbing clothing company Vertical Girl took notice, and is now the website’s sponsor. According to Mercedes, the partnership makes complete sense. “Vertical Girl and Girl Beta share the same philosophy and goals in growing the female climbing scene.” she says. The two organizations are now working together to develop Girl Beta and hope to reach more of the climbing population. So far, Girl Beta provides information on problems in five states ranging from V4 up to V10.

But Girl Beta doesn’t just exists as a medium for sharing videos of hard climbing. In keeping with the site’s tagline, “Inspiration. Information. Improvement,” Mercedes and the Vertical Girl team work together to share training tips and other knowledge with the women’s climbing community. Recent additions in that section of the website include discussions about women’s physiology and using video analysis to improve climbing technique with Flannery Shay-Nemirow.

The women behind Girl Beta and Vertical Girl are working to inspire women who love to climb, and to help us all achieve our goals. You can help by contributing information, training tips and beta, by suggesting a problem to them, even by climbing with them! For more on how you can get involved, visit GirlBeta.com or send a note to info@girlbeta.com.

Here is the first of many training videos that we will be posting on this site. For the last few years, Flannery has been learning and developing a system to analyze climbing footage and helping girls and guys improve their technique. It is our hope that you will gain some insight from Flannery and Sarah’s discussion and get psyched to train as well.