Advice for Women in Dealing With Muscle-y Routes

Hi Steph,

I was wondering if you had any advice pertaining to how to build fitness and upper body strength as a female, and/or just in general how excel at more “muscle-y” routes. I’m a female climber at Carleton College, a small school in the Midwest where I started climbing about two years ago. I love climbing and I think- or I hope!- I’ve advanced a lot since I started. However, I would really like to push my skills to the next level. My strength seems to lie in delicate, balance-y routes, probably because I’m tall (5’10”), fairly flexible, and have worked hard to cultivate good footwork. But when it comes to those boulder-y power moves (especially the ones overhanging!), I struggle–I get pumped so quickly, I can’t seem to figure out how to move my body right before my strength quits…it’s frustrating. So what’s the deal here–is it simply a matter of practice? Of cultivating more upper body strength, fitness, strength-to-weight ratio, etc.? What’s the best way to do that as a female? It feels as if most of the advice out there focuses on the male physique, so I was wondering if, as a fellow lady climber (and a bit of a role model of mine!), you had any thoughts. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time–

Best,

Drew

Hi Drew,

It’s great that you’ve been climbing consistently for 2 years and developing your footwork and technique, because that’s really the hardest thing to build up. There are three areas you can focus on to bump up your climbing: upper body strength, core strength and flow training.

Because you know that you have less upper body strength than you want to, that’s the easiest place to start and you’re going to see dramatic results with a little bit of focus on it. I’d recommend starting to do some pullups and Frenchies, and very gradually doing weight-assisted hangboard exercises (if this is easy for you to organize) 2-3 times per week.

You’ll also see significant improvement in your steep climbing if you do some core exercises. The great thing about stomach workouts is you can do them every day, and they are quick! You can do them first thing in the morning or before bed at night.

The last, but most important, thing for you to do is to start climbing more easier routes or problems on steep terrain. This is partly to build the low-intensity endurance you need to hold on and figure things out, but more importantly it’s to get your body used to the movement of the steep angle. If you climb on a steep wall, even if the moves are easy, you are building muscle memories and pathways of how to turn your hips and shoulders and how to move from your core. Find a long steep traverse problem that you enjoy doing and that feels pretty easy, and use this as a warmup, and get in the habit of starting there when you climb and repeating it several times. When you climb, focus first on your breathing. As you climb, concentrate on different things even when doing the same moves: pulling in with your legs, rolling from side to side as you make reaches and activating your stomach and lateral stomach muscles. Pretty quickly, your body develops the movements you need for greater efficiency on these angles–it’s like everything, if you practice you will see improvement.

Good luck!

Steph