What Muscles Rock Climbing Works And How To Cross Train Them

When I first started rock climbing, I knew it would be a great workout out but I was not entirely sure what muscles it would all be working. So I did a a few hours of research and was able to find this out:

Rock climbing is a full body workout that is great for building strength and getting in shape. Listed below are the main muscle groups worked by rock climbing in order from most used to least used:

  1. Forearms
  2. Core
  3. Back
  4. Heart
  5. Legs
  6. Biceps

Each of these muscle groups play a key role into getting yourself up a wall. Training these muscles will help improve your climbing ability and help get you into the best shape of your life.

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1. Rock Climbing Is A Great Forearm Workout

Probably most famously, rock climbing is known for developing massive forearms. If you have ever gone climbing then you will undoubtedly have felt the forearm pump. A pump occurs when the blood flows into your forearms causing them to swell up. Few other exercises work the forearms as well as rock climbing.

How Climbing Works Your Forearms

Forearms are the main muscles used to grip and grab objects. It should come as no surprise that this is incredibly important in rock climbing. Having to move up/around the wall will continually keep your forearms working. Typically your forearms will have little rest when climbing and will start to fail if used too much.

All of the different hold types and sizes cause different muscles in the forearms to work when grabbing onto them. This leads to a complete forearm workout and feels killer. You will see many rock climbers shaking out their arms. This is in attempt to remove the blood from their forearms and eliminate the pump.

How To Cross Train Your Forearms For Climbing

You most likely will not have to worry about cross training your forearms as rock climbing is one of the best workouts on the planet for them. In fact, I do not recommend cross training them. Hang boards and campus boards were specifically designed to help train rock climber’s grip and finger strength. They will provide you with the most benefit.

If you do decide to cross train, I recommend using a grip machine or performing wrist rolls. A grip machine will transfer over better to climbing as it specifically targets a gripping motion. Wrist rolls are a good exercise for overall forearm development.

2. Rock Climbing Is Fantastic For The Core

The core muscle group is comprised of the abdominal muscles and obliques. It can been said that your abdominal muscles and obliques were termed “the core” because they are at the core of every exercise you do. This holds true in rock climbing.

How Climbing Works Your Core

Your core is directly activated when moving your arms and legs while on the wall. Your obliques are heavily activated when lifting your legs to the side and your abs are heavily involved when lifting them out in front of you. All twisting motions stem from the core as well.

On top of this, your core strength directly determines how well you will be able to maintain balance on the climbing wall. If you have a weak core, you will have troubles performing more technical and advanced moves. All great climbers have tremendous core strength.

How To Cross Train Your Core For Climbing

My favorite way to cross train my core is to perform body weight exercises. A few of my favorites are planks, mountain climbers, sit-ups, leg lifts, bicycles, and flutter kicks. I will perform one of these exercises for one-minute straight and then immediately switch to another one. I repeat this from anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes.

Your core is one of the only muscle groups you can train everyday. Because it is so important for everyday movements and so heavily used it will recover quicker than other muscle groups.

3. Rock Climbing Works Your Entire Back

Your back is composed of many different muscles with the main ones being your lats and traps. Climbing is one of the best workouts on the planet for developing a strong back.

How Climbing Works You Back

Rock climbing requires a lot of strength to pull yourself up a wall. While good climbing technique involves using your legs to push you up the wall, you will need to pull yourself up to some extent. Your lats and traps are the muscles that allow you to pull things (including yourself).

It doesn’t matter how much core and grip strength you have if you are physically unable to pull yourself up.

How To Cross Train Your Back For Climbing

To cross train your back you should focus on compound vertical and lateral pulling movements. Compound pulling movements activate large amounts of muscles in your back and will greatly improve your strength in climbing. Pull-ups are a fantastic vertical pulling movement and the seated row is a great horizontal pulling movement. Performing these in conjunction with rock climbing will give you that v-shaped back you always dreamed of.

4. Rock Climbing Helps Your Heart

Have you ever climbed up a route and have been totally exhausted and out of breath? That is due to rock climbing’s stress on your cardiovascular system.

Rock climbing is technically considered a cardiovascular exercise. This is just a fancy way to say that rock climbing works out your heart.

How Climbing Works Your Heart

Because rock climbing is a full body workout, it requires many muscles in your body to perform work. To perform that work, your muscles need oxygen.

This increase in oxygen demand causes you to breathe heavier and your heart to beat faster. To over simplify things: Breathing heavier allows you to take in more oxygen and increasing your heart rate allows your body to supply your muscles with that additional oxygen. Therefore, rock climbing is an excellent form of cardio.

How To Cross Train Your Heart For Climbing

Popular exercises to increase your cardiovascular endurance include running, cycling, and swimming. I recommend tailoring your cardio method to what type of climbing you wish to train for.

If you are training for longer climbing types such as top rope or sport climbing, longer steady state cardio will be the most beneficial. Your body will be under low amounts of cardiovascular stress for longer periods of time. Longer steady state cardio will help train this specifically.

If you are training for shorter types of climbing such as bouldering, interval training will be the most beneficial. Your body will be under a lot of cardiovascular stress for short periods of time. Interval training will help train your body’s ability to put out large amounts of power for brief bursts.

5. Rock Climbing Helps You Build Powerful Legs

The main muscles in your legs are primarily the glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves. While climbing won’t place a tremendous amount of stress on these muscles compared to the ones mentioned above, it still provides them with a good workout.

How Climbing Works Your Legs

Good climbing technique involves using your legs to propel yourself up the wall. You use your calves when pointing your toes and flexing your ankles to better grip the foot holds. You primarily use your hamstrings when using your legs in a pulling movement and primarily use your quads when using your legs in a pushing movement. Your glutes are basically involved every time you move your legs while climbing.

How To Cross Train Your Legs For Climbing

It is unlikely that you will need to cross train your legs. As you use your legs everyday to walk around, climb stairs and perform other miscellaneous activities, they are pretty strong already.

However, if you notice they are weaker than you would like for climbing, I recommend performing squats, hamstring curls, hip thrusts, calf raisers, and/or the leg press. These will target the main muscles in your legs and help improve your ability to push yourself up that wall.

6. Rock Climbing Develops Your Biceps

Your biceps are the least worked muscle group out of the ones above. Climbing moves rarely rely directly on your bicep strength. However, the majority of climbing moves will involve your biceps to some extent.

How Climbing Works Your Biceps

Climbing works your biceps by using them in conjunction with your back when pulling yourself up the wall. Your back will be the main muscle group used and your biceps will just function to help your back in this process. Therefore, your biceps are “indirectly” worked as they are not the main muscle group of focus.

How To Cross Train Your Biceps For Climbing

Because biceps are just helping your back pull you up the wall, you do not need to directly train them. The biceps will be worked when performing your vertical and horizontal pulling exercises such as pull-ups and seated rows.

If you choose to train them directly anyways, I suggest you do biceps curls or hammer curls. Hammer curls have the added benefit of working your forearm as well as your bicep which make them an excellent cross training exercise.

The bottom line? Rock climbing is an excellent full body workout that will help you build strength in your forearms, core, back, legs, heart, and biceps. You can cross train these muscle groups to greatly improve your climbing ability.

Rex

Hi, I'm Rex! I have been into everything outdoors for as long as I can remember. Climbing became a huge part of my life in college and I hope to share everything I have learned on this website to help fellow passionate climbers.

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