Lentini's indoor tricks.

EMS Climbing School Director 0n tweaking and toning.

In the Spring 2005 Catazine, two climbing-fitness gurus show you how to hone your winter training regimen for maximum flexibility and finesse on the wall. Here, EMS Climbing School’s Chief Rocker (aka Director) Joe Lentini kicks your routine up a notch by sharing his top-secret plan for building grip strength and endurance.

Lentini’s first bit of advice? Get outside no matter what the season. “Indoors is indoors, but why not take up ice climbing so you can get outside in the winter?” he says. Ice climbing utilizes a skill set very different from rock climbing, and forays into the frigid air adds variety (and, yes, fun) to your cold-weather training program. Take the appropriate EMS Ice Climbing courses before you head out.

But Lentini’s climbing fitness routine does have an indoor component. He recommends putting in hours at the gym to build muscle and tendon strength where it counts. “I understand the positions I’ll be putting my body in while climbing, so my workout covers the complete range of pulling and pushing motions,” he explains. “Winter is an opportunity to increase muscle mass a little to carry you through the summer.” Some of Lentini’s favorite exercises for gaining upper-body strength are bench presses done in four different positions: seated (aka military press), on a forty-five-degree incline bench, lying down (classic bench-press style), and on a forty-five-degree decline. If you’ve never done bench presses at all—and this advice goes for all new weight-bearing exercises—get a trainer or experienced friend to show you the ropes. Lentini also recommends adding other gym-rat classics like lat pull-downs, push-ups, and upright rows to your routine to strengthen the rest of the upper body’s pushing and pulling muscles. (Lentini doesn’t do leg exercises because he does two ascents of Mt. Washington each week in winter. If that’s not an option, get in some leg burn on a treadmill or stationary bike.)

Another Lentini tip: To help improve grip-strength while you tone, try doing pull-downs with a Metolius Rock Ring. These climbing-specific workout tools are blocks with different shaped hand-holds, hanging on a cord. “You can hang them from the ceiling and do pull-ups, but I like to hang them from the lat machine, sit on the floor, and then do pull-downs for increasing hand strength,” he says. Do this with caution, however: the smaller the hand-hold you choose, the lighter your corresponding weight should be. Start out by grabbing the big holds on the Rock Ring, and only load the lat machine with about thirty-five pounds. Then go up incrementally until you find a weight that you can comfortably use for about fifteen reps. “There’s a tendency to try to pull really hard on small holds. This could cause a tendon injury, so don’t use anything smaller than two joints of your finger.” Lentini also recommends keeping a hand-trainer with you at all times so you can work on grip strength wherever you are. “Contact strength—where your hand contacts the rock—is so fundamental to climbing, and it’s the hardest thing to acquire,” he says. The best ones to use, says Lentini, are the old-fashioned v-shaped variety with a handle and big coiled spring.

Along with working your brawn, Lentini recommends opening your mind to different forms of cross-training to increase flexibility. “Brute strength doesn’t help you if you can’t bend and stretch. I once took modern dance to help me with climbing, and I became so much more fluid on the rocks. But yoga would probably do the same thing.

Story Megan Miller

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