The best climbing training for home workouts

Our tips for climbing training at home – Climbing and bouldering are all about finger strength and balance – in fact, the whole body is active in this sport. Whether it’s strength, flexibility or a good body awareness, bouldering and climbing require you as an athlete on all levels – also in your climbing training at home.

But what is the best way to train climbing at home? Very few of us are lucky enough to have a bouldering route on the wall of our house or to live right next to a climbing wall. Since bouldering and climbing are full-body sports, there are many ways to train away from your normal climbing routine.

We’ll tell you here what your training outside the gym can look like!

Training for climbing

As I said, climbing and bouldering is really about everything. In other words, your whole body. On the one hand, you can integrate strength training that gives you the necessary power and endurance for demanding routes in your legs as well as in your arms and shoulders. We show you effective exercises for your climbing training at home!

For better body tension and core stability, you can also train your core, torso and abdominal muscles. Exercises that challenge these muscle groups and at the same time activate your sense of balance are particularly suitable for this.

As with any sport, the regenerative phases are just as important as the active training units. Therefore, you should always plan breaks and active rest days so that your body can recover and return to full climbing performance. Especially when bouldering and climbing, it is advantageous to combine regeneration with mobility exercises. Especially on demanding climbs, it can give you a decisive advantage if you can turn a little further or lift your leg a little higher to get into a better position.

Prepare for climbing – with the fitness & resistance bands from FLEXVIT!

Climbing training for at home

Pull-ups for your climbing workout!

Maybe you have a pull-up bar at home, otherwise there are many outdoor gyms in urban areas that have a bar for pull-ups. You can also find them at conventional playgrounds. The pull-up is one of the most effective exercises for climbers because it trains the muscles in the upper body that are essential for you on your route. In particular, the upper back, chest, upper arms and shoulders are challenged, but you should also keep your core and torso active during the execution. Good body tension throughout the body will make your pull-up easier.

A special feature for climbers in the pull-up is also the grip strength. In addition to this, of course, the pull up is trained, as is hanging on the stretched arm. Because when climbing there are always phases when you have to orientate yourself and prepare for the next step. If you tense up in this position and cling to the wall with bent arms, you waste strength and resources. Therefore, it is important to train hanging as well.

Upper & Lower Handle

You can also create small variations in the pull-up by changing the position of your hands during the grip. In the underhand grip, your palms face you – this works all the muscle groups mentioned above, especially your biceps and triceps. In the overhand grip your palms face away from your body. In this way, the latissimus, i.e. your large back extensor, is targeted more.

A resistance band can help you improve your chin-up technique, especially in the beginning, and later increase your repetitions per set. Use a FLEXVIT Revolve and tie it in a loop around your pull-up bar. You can vary the position by placing either your foot (for more support) or your bent knee (less support) in the lower loop. The band now pulls you upwards during the exercise – this allows you to concentrate on correct technical execution at the beginning.

What is important for correct execution?

Begin with the arm fully extended, i.e. in the passive incline, in which your muscles are relatively relaxed. You change to the active incline by pulling your shoulders back and activating them. Now tense your core and pull yourself upwards using the strength of your arms and back until your chest touches the bar. Hold the position for a few seconds before returning to passive hold in a controlled manner.

Rowing – your climbing workout at home!

If you want to strengthen your upper back and biceps, rowing is the exercise for you. Many athletes train these muscles with a barbell or cable pulley in the gym – with our FLEXVIT bands you can save this membership and invest the money in your next bouldering shoes.

For example, use the FLEXVIT Multi or Revolve to add rowing to your climbing workout at home. In the simplest version, simply stand in the middle of the band, grasp it on each side and then pull it upwards in a slightly bent-over position using the strength from your back and biceps.

However, you can perform rowing with a resistance band in an even more targeted manner as follows: Since you often hang when climbing, it makes sense to use the door anchor or multi-anchor so that you can attach your band higher up. This way you can start the exercise from a hanging position and train in a sport-specific way.

Rowing at home – here’s how:

Stand hip-width apart and grasp one side of the FLEXVIT Multi or FLEXVIT Revolve. Now let yourself hang with arms outstretched, legs minimally bent and an active, straight torso. Pull yourself up using the strength of your arms and upper back. Depending on how strenuous you want the upper hold to be, you can either stand up more (easier) or hang more horizontally (more strenuous).

Use the full range of motion here – so start with arms fully extended in passive hold and pull yourself as close as possible to your hands. With this close hold you train the important “blocking” in climbing.

Push-ups

A strengthened core is the be-all and end-all of climbing. When training at home, the push-up is an all-purpose weapon to get your core in shape. Because with push-ups, as with climbing, your entire body is at work. It also trains you not only muscularly in strength and endurance, but also promotes your flexibility, coordination and sense of balance. In particular, however, your chest is activated, as are your triceps and front shoulder muscles. In fact, you target about 200 different muscles during just one exercise.

How to do the push-up correctly?

For the classic push-up, first kneel on the floor and place your hands shoulder-width in front of you. Now place your feet one after the other about hip-width behind you. Tip: The closer your feet are together, the better you can maintain core and gluteal tension. Stretch your arms and activate your whole body, especially your torso and abdomen, so that you do not fall into a hollow back. Now slowly bend your arms in a controlled manner, keeping your elbows pointing backwards (to take pressure off your shoulders). Go as low as you can, hold the position here for a moment and then move up again in a controlled manner.

If you lack the strength at the beginning, you can also perform the push-up movement while kneeling. Also make sure that you don’t put unnecessary strain on your neck by overextending it – it should always form a line with your spine. If your push-ups are already very good and even many push-ups are child’s play for you, then you can challenge yourself a little more with FLEXVIT bands and make your push-ups more difficult with additional resistance. To do this, simply wrap the FLEXVIT Multi around your back and grip the loops with each hand so that you have plenty of resistance, especially in the upper third of the movement.

Support & Variations

With many variations, you can make your climbing training at home more varied and challenging at the same time. The following exercise variation puts your core and sense of balance to the test. You also explicitly train your latissimus. You can do this exercise in high support, but also in forearm support.

Fasten your FLEXVIT Multi or FLEXVIT Resist close to the floor, grasp one loop or one end of the band with one hand and get into your support variation. In this starting position you should already feel the pull from the resistance of the band. Now alternately pull one arm backwards using the strength of your latissimus and with the help of your triceps until it is completely stretched out next to your upper body. Keep your whole body straight and stable. In particular, make sure that your shoulders and hips remain straight and that you do not deviate to one side.

You can use our FLEXVIT bands in many other ways to make your exercise varied and challenging.

Mobilise the spine – climbing training

The starting position for this exercise is the same as for the chest and shoulder girdle stretch.

Remember here too: Stretching cold muscles can cause muscle injuries. It is therefore recommended to warm up the muscles beforehand by gently swinging the arms. You should also start this exercise slowly and carefully and increase slowly.

To get into the start position, raise your hands back above your head. Extend your arms to both sides. Through the fitness band you are already training your shoulder rotation and mobility. Then raise your arms to a height behind your body. Check if the fitness band has the optimal resistance.

Now turn your entire upper body upwards, sometimes in one direction and sometimes in the other. Do not work with momentum, but gradually go deeper into the respective rotation and consciously feel into your muscles. Turn your head to the side in order to stretch your upper back and neck as well. Stay on each side for about a minute before gently switching to the other side. Keep your arms extended throughout the exercise and keep the resistance band taut.

Do you want to take your climbing practice to the next level? With our FLEXVIT bands you can easily add fun and variety to your normal climbing training and work on yourself effectively. Support yourself and your body in regenerating on your Active Rest Days and make good use of your time away from the bouldering gym.

Climbing training at home: mobilisation

Every good climber needs not only a lot of endurance and strength, but also the necessary mobility – and to the regret of many, this also needs to be trained, and cannot always be compensated by strength. With our FLEXVIT bands we help you to mobilise your body actively and with fun on your Active Rest Day, as a warm up or for a cool down.

Shoulder girdle stretch – climbing training

Our shoulders, arms and upper back work especially hard when climbing. Therefore, you should open up your chest and shoulder girdle and keep them mobile by stretching extensively. You can use a FLEXVIT Revolve or our special FLEXVIT Chain for this.

Stand shoulder-width apart and hold the FLEXVIT Chain fitness band in the loops. Choose a distance where the resistance between the two ends stretches your muscles, but: stretching does not mean harming yourself and your body. Do not go beyond your pain threshold and increase slowly.

To return to the starting position, raise your hands back above your head and stretch your arms out to either side. This movement alone trains your shoulder rotation and mobility. Then bring your arms in a line behind your body. Our tip: You can make small, pulse-like movements with your arms to feel and activate your chest and shoulders even better.

Then move your arms diagonally up and down. You will notice that you target even more specific parts of your chest muscles. This exercise may seem simple, but it has a great effect.

The perfect training tools for your climbing training at home – Get started now with FLEXVIT and train easily & flexibly at home: