Rock climbing and lifting

taylormoooon

Hey guys! So I really want to go rock climbing soon and I'm having trouble figuring out the best time. I do full body lifting 3x a week and I'm not sure if I should go climbing in replacement of a lifting day. I'm also trying to decide if I wanted to start climbing regularly how to fit that in.

BigGuy47

I'm not a climber, but I imagine that it's extremely taxing on your upper body. I would think that substituting climbing for lifting would be fine. You could adjust your lift days and rest days to allow for some flexibility.

Mon - rest
Tues - Lift day
Weds - rest
Thur - Lift day
Fri - rest
Sat - rest, lift or climb
Sun - rest, lift or climb

You could climb on Saturday or Sunday and still have a rest day before your next lift day. Just a thought.

Capt_Apollo

a lot of it is going to be trial and error. don't be afraid to screw up. go in the afternoon after you lifted that morning. go the day after you lifted... you'll also want to be mindful of how climbing effects your lifting. if you go climb for two hours will your upper body be shot for the next day?

little by little you'll improve in both and you'll find what works for you.

btw, thanks for the reminder, i'm going to do some more climbing this winter. i think it's been over a year since i've gone.

junlex123

Personally I had real difficulty following a progressive lifting program (3x a week), going to the climbing gym frequently enough to see clear improvement, and maintaining a deficit to lose bodyfat. Progress in both climbing and lifting was slow, injuries were frequent, energy levels were variable.

In the end I've decided to cut down the lifting time (to 1x a week) to focus on the climbing as that's what I enjoy more (going 4-5 times a week at the moment), and dial the deficit down from 500cal/day to 100-200/day. Seeing very clear climbing improvements as a result, able to go hard enough and with a slight enough deficit that I don't think I'll lose much muscle mass (not that there's a whole lot to lose at the moment). Focusing on upper body push movements (bench, overhead press) and pull lower body (deadlifts) on that one day I do lift, to balance all the upper body pulling and quads pushing involved in climbing - though depending on what types of moves you're doing climbing has the potential to hit pretty much everything. Doing lots of core as part of the climbing.

This is definitely something that you'll have to find your own personal balance for though, depending on how you're prioritising your goals, and your own body. Might be if you eat enough to fuel your workouts you'll be able to keep both going for quite a while before seeing plateaus.