Below you will find six (6) questions to help assess your level of Conditioning and any Corrective exercise that you may need to use. The three (3) aspects of Conditioning include the following: 1) Posture because good posture means a balanced body and a balanced body means more strength; 2) Other sports or activities to help build additional neuromuscular pathways; 3) Injury prevention which is slightly different than the Care Characteristic because it is more targeted for specific joints and muscles rather than the whole body. Answer the six questions below and fill in the values to gain your Conditioning/Corrective Characteristic Score.
Characteristic Score
Aspects
1) When standing in a normal stance, the top of my pelvis tilts forward and my lower back curves in as my butt sticks out.
Tip: Anterior pelvic tilt (hip bones tilt forward, the lower back curves, and the butt sticks out) is one of the most common arthrokinematic deficiencies in our population. Most of our jobs have us sitting a lot which means our hip flexors, including the quadriceps in the front are shortened and tight while our hip extensors including the hamstrings and gluteals, in the back are lengthened and weak. This position puts a lot of pressure on the lower lumber spine while simultaneously reducing our overall strength to use our legs to pull into the wall on overhangs and around aretes. Excercises to improve all of these conditions are easy and will be detailed in the training chapters, but we can all use a break from sitting about every hour to stand up, stretch, and walk around for a few minutes to avoid this situation. Awareness is the first step to improve posture.
2) I take part in other sports or activities including any team sports, water sports, and/or snow sports (ice climbing does not count here).
Tip: The brain and by consequence, the neuromuscular pathways form our muscles to our brain comfortable and complacent when we do the same thing day in and day out. It is the same reason that we are giving repeated attempts on a project that we might go try something else to shake up the brain and the rut in which we were stuck. By playing other sports or participating in other activities, it gives our brain and the nervous system the ability to keep adapting and improving. This is root of the science behind muscles confusion made popular by programs like P90X, Insanity, and CrossFit. Those programs are extreme and have a place in fitness, but not really for here. The truth behind most gains is that increases in neuromuscular pathways account for 50% of initial strength gains rather than actual muscle increases, the same way your project might feel better on the tenthth try rather than the fifth try, because you are learning the movement rather than actually becoming stronger. Back to the point, allowing for a break in climbing activity by doing something else can actually improve your climbing because your brain is not stuck. Personally, I maintain my training schedule of three days a week for climbing but add in skiing in the winter and paddling and windsurfing in the summer.
3) When I identify an injury or malady, I take the necessary time to recover before getting back into training.
Tip: I think we have all climbed through injuries, some of us smarter than others. I broke my foot once and still climbed with the walking boot on. Granted I could not anything terribly hard, but I still kept moving and did a lot of hangboard training. After the boot came off, I worked my way back into using my foot on smaller and smaller holds with tighter and tighter shoes and my hand and finger strength had shot through the roof after taking time to focus on those weaknesses. Once I was ready, then I started training again. Proper scale back, taping, or avoidance is critical to staying healthy and avoiding another trip to the doctor. Never push too hard when something feels wrong and be happy just being able to move because we don’t need to climb at our limit all day every day.
4) When I am standing up in a normal stance, my shoulders round forward and/or my neck and head push forward from vertical.
Tip: If you had a low score for this question, it is very common for many people, especially for climbers. Rounding of the shoulders is indicative of a few of the usual problems that climbers face. One the simple fact that our sport focuses on our large back muscles including the latissimus dorsi, teres major, and teres minor and these are over developed and tight forcing our shoulders forward. It could also be weakness of the smaller shoulder and back muscles including the rhomboids, infraspinatus, and supraspinatus as these muscles may not be strong enough to pull the shoulders back. Tight and weak pectorals in the front will also pull the shoulders and neck forward. Excercises to improve all of these conditions are easy and will be detailed in the training chapters, but for starters, make sure to stretch all muscle groups and add some push-ups to your routine to activate the chest.
5) I take breaks from climbing when I feel the need so that I do not get burned out.
Tip: Taking a short break can sometimes be just what the doctor ordered. In the program, you will find that there are planned rest weeks where no climbing should take place. This gives the body opportunity to heal as well as time for the mind to relax. There are countless stories out there where an individual took a few days or a week off form training to go see a friend, or practice yoga, or see a movie and drink beer, but they always returned with renewed vigor and dedication. We all get burned out with trying to reach goals, even when we have other sports and our jobs to occupy us, but there is benefit from not being laser focused all the time. If we don’t take the time to enjoy life and spend every minute training, life will fly by outside the window.
6) When I identify an injury or malady, I research how to correct, protect, and improve and stick to a plan to stay healthy and active.
Tip: Preventative maintenance is the best way to avoid an injury and identifying potential problems is where we want to start. Poor posture, as discussed above, shows imbalances and weakness that can ultimately lead to an injury. Correcting these imbalances ultimately mean that you will be stronger all around and able to compensate when necessary. Little finger or hand tweaks are signs of a larger problem ready to explode and should be protected. Tape up and avoid your razor crimp project in favor of a sloper problem. Basically, work smart and listen to your body. An injury will set you back farther than taking the necessary time to avoid making it worse. Stay strong out there!
-Tylor Streett, MS, NASM-CPT, PES