I hav'nt actually started climbing but i really want to their is a climbing gym just near me so thats a plus but i wanted to know about becoming fiter and pre-pairing for climbing as i am hardly health at all right now i was wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to increase my health and fitness specificaly for climbing like should i buy a new bike or get a exercise bike to improve my cartiovascular fitness??? any advise is welcome and much appreciated.

And no one, so far, who has a credible amount of experience is recommending one.

However, thinking that it probably does some good doesn't equate to it actually doing some good. You don't know what you don't know, so don't represent your opinion as fact.

i don't think i presented anything other than my opinion and personal experience and deduced an outcome based on that.

However, here are some facts to consider:

1) Exercising a muscle makes it stronger.
2) The previously mentioned product, if used properly, will help to create stronger forearm muscles.
3) Stronger forearm muscles will give a climber more endurance for climbing.
4) The more one climbs, the more likely they are to become a stronger/better climber.

Therefor by simple logic, a forearm trainer, if used properly, will give a climber more endurance which will allow them to climb more, and ultimately COULD help them to become a stronger/better climber.

Do you suggest that forearm strength will NOT help a climber?

Quoted for complete lack of sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling!!!

It is likely not as simple as you make it out to be. What exactly do you mean when you say "forearm muscle"?

Like you, I assume it will, but I really don't know for sure.

REALLY????

Are you willing to go out on a limb and say that lat strength will help a swimmer or that quad strength help a runner?

OR sticking to this climbing discussion... Will stronger abs help a climber?

If we following your logic... strength-training your abs will not help you as a climber.

Do you need a study to prove to you that stronger muscles will help an individual pursuing a sport where those exact muscles are employed in its pursuit?

REALLY????

Are you willing to go out on a limb and say that lat strength will help a swimmer or that quad strength help a runner?

OR sticking to this climbing discussion... Will stronger abs help a climber?

If we following your logic... strength-training your abs will not help you as a climber.

Do you need a study to prove to you that stronger muscles will help an individual pursuing a sport where those exact muscles are employed in its pursuit?

Start with sentences. Eventually you can move up to paragraphs.

You will be hard pressed to find many people that climb at a high level who would advocate training with a forearm trainer or pullups etc...I think that this holds even more true for a beginner.

Eric Horst states in 'how to climb 5.12'

an old adage that "climbing is the best training for climbing" and many climbers use this line as an excuse for not engaging in any supplemental training activities. Let's examine this precept and determine, once and for all, if it is valid.

When I am asked the question "Is climbing the best training for climbing?", my canned answer is "it depends."
There are two sides of the training-for-climbing coin to consider:
1. in terms of improving climbing technique and mental skills, "climbing as training" is the only way to go,
2. developing high levels of sport-specific strength (i.e. grip strength, lock-off ability, upper-body power and such) demands supplement targeted training outside of just sending at the crags.

It is YOU who is missing the point. The OP's question was "I'm a beginner, what can i do to get ready for climbing" and you keep talking about professionals and hard-core climbers.

The person is a BEGINNER, probably with little grip strength (as opposed to those i originally referred to such as manual laborers or cyclists who already have some grip strength from their activities)

Those with little grip strength will most certainly benefit from strength-training for grip strength by ...you guessed it...gripping. Using the device I mentioned will allow a new climber (or an injured climber working to get his/her strength/endurance back) to work his grip strength to failure via high reps.

Moving forward: from an interview with dainiel woods - professional climber

http://www.rockclimbing.com/Articles/General/Daniel_Woods_Professional_Climber_with_no_limits__858.html

Daniel: The most challenging thing about training is motivation.

All I want to do is climb but I recognize that some things cannot be done unless I get stronger or have more experience. I used to do the typical training such as pull ups, push ups, ab workouts, 1 arm hangs and pull ups etc. but it got too boring. Now I feel the best method is to climb as much as possible and travel to new areas with new stone. Your psyche is maintained and you gain more experience.
• he says that the BEST METHOD is to climb as much as possible (which i agreed to)
• he also says that he used to do other training methods "pull ups, push ups, ab workouts, 1 arm hangs" but it got boring.
• He didn't say that it didn't help his climbing.


Eric Horst states in 'how to climb 5.12'

an old adage that "climbing is the best training for climbing" and many climbers use this line as an excuse for not engaging in any supplemental training activities. Let's examine this precept and determine, once and for all, if it is valid.

When I am asked the question "Is climbing the best training for climbing?", my canned answer is "it depends."
There are two sides of the training-for-climbing coin to consider:
1. in terms of improving climbing technique and mental skills, "climbing as training" is the only way to go,
2. developing high levels of sport-specific strength (i.e. grip strength, lock-off ability, upper-body power and such) demands supplement targeted training outside of just sending at the crags.

Here's why.

The goals and course of effective action of "climbing" versus "training" are very different. For instance, the goal in climbing is to avoid muscular failure at all costs and, hopefully, reach the top of a boulder problem or climb. Conversely, effective training for climbing demands a stimulus of sufficient intensity to produce muscular failure in a few minutes (when training anaerobic endurance) and a few seconds (when training maximum strength and power).
Summarizing--in climbing, you strive to avoid failure; in training, you need to pursue failure.

Another example that underscores the difference between climbing and training for climbing is the way in which you grip the rock. In climbing, the rock dictates a random use of many different grip positions and, at times, you may even deliberately vary the way you grip the rock. As a result, it's unlikely that any single grip position will ever get worked maximally and, therefore, the individual grip positions (e.g. crimp, open hand, pinch, etc.) are slow to increase strength. This should help you understand why a full season of climbing may indeed improve your local forearm endurance, but do little to increase you absolute maximum grip strength. Therefore, varying grip positions is a great strategy for maximizing endurance when climbing for performance, but it stinks for training maximum grip strength.

Effective finger strength training demands you target a specific grip position and work it until failure.

As a final note, it may be best for some climbers to engage in physical conditioning that is not sport-specific in nature. For example, an overweight individual is better off spending some time performing aerobic exercise (and, of course, improve their dietary surveillance) rather than supplemental sport-specific climbing exercises. Likewise, someone lacking even modest "base strength" (i.e. unable to do even a few pull-ups, push-ups, abdominal crunches, etc.) is wise to engage in a period of standard circuit training to improve general conditioning.

In the final analysis, if you are serious about climbing performance you must not be satisfied simply "climbing for training", nor can you mindlessly adhere to old adages or train in the flawed ways as most other climbers do.

First of all, I'm not reading all that! Second, you just made my point. We are talking about a beginning climber here, and what they can do to "pre-pair" for climbing (if you can extract what the OP was trying to say at all!). Would you tell a person who is getting into swimming to start doing some weight training to prepare for this new activity?

There shouldn't be anything on a route this side of 5.11 that requires great grip.

Would you tell a person who is getting into swimming to start doing some weight training to prepare for this new activity? Would you tell a person who is starting to run to begin by strengthening their legs through weight training? Of course not!

which one (1 or 2) would you say better describes the needs of a beginning climber?!

Your examples are as bad as your logic.

Swimming is a very low-stress workout, so no... it wouldn't make sense to tell a new swimmer to prepare with weight training (though it would probably help them acclimate faster to the sport if they did).

Climbing creates a LOT of stress on the hands and forearms of a new climber and having some initial training of these muscles will most certainly reduce the impact of that stress.

As for your running example: while most may not suggest a person start weight training to begin a running program, it would HELP they if they had some initial conditioning. ALSO it's always a good idea for one to warm up before running. The BD ring could be used for warming up before a day of climbing.




A beginner climber will need BOTH 1 AND 2. They'll need the 'mental skills' that will slowly develop from climbing AND sport-specific strength which will also be developed from climbing but would be helped along by 'supplement targeted training'.

I never suggested that the new climber use a forearm trainer INSTEAD of climbing. I suggested it's use in ADDITION to climbing... and that they could just carry it around with them mindlessly squeezing it throughout the day.