With all the information and videos out there, it can be hard to separate the good advice from the bad. Our best advice for the self-coached climber is to be critical of the source and heed the advice of true experts. To be clear, “expert’ doesn’t just mean professional climber or someone doing an impressive workout in an Instagram video. It means true professionals who practice or understand climbing whether they are coaches, trainers, physical therapists, or anything in between.

To showcase the kind of expert sources we are talking about and give you both a quality warmup routine and core workout, here are two videos courtesy of Black Diamond featuring climber and physical therapist Esther Smith.

Esther is a long-time friend of TrainingBeta, has been on the TrainingBeta Podcast numerous times, and really knows her stuff when it comes to not only rehabbing climbing injuries but training smartly to avoid them in the first place.

Both videos feature Esther walking you through each warmup or core exercise while professional climber and BD athlete Claire Buhrfeind demonstartes. They are easy to follow and require little to no equipment so you can implement them into your training immediately. Check out both of the videos below!

We all know that warming up is important, but we tend to get excited to jump on the wall and often forget that we enhance our performance and prevent injuries by activating muscles and opening our bodies. This kit of selected exercises tours the whole body and takes inventory of stiff or tight areas, addressing them with breath and gentle, skilled movement. Give yourself a few minutes to center your mind, calm your nervous system and find your flow.

–Esther Smith, DPT of Grassroots Physical Therapy

Our core is our center, our powerhouse of energy. It houses our spine and our central nervous system that delivers electricity to all of our muscles. It is the place from which we organize our strength and produce athletic, effortless movement. From our core, we connect to our limbs, our lungs and our heart and this gives us the stability, control and power that we need while moving on the wall. Organized and efficient movement throughout our body leads to improved performance and can help mitigate the common overuse injuries that afflict climbers.

–Esther Smith, DPT of Grassroots Physical Therapy

More with Esther:

TrainingBeta Podcast:

• TBP 066 :: Physical Therapist Esther Smith Talks About Shoulders
• TBP 071 :: Physical Therapist Esther Smith on Elbow Pain
• TBP 076 :: Esther Smith on How to Heal Your Finger Injury
• TBP 085 :: Esther Smith – Neck and Back Injuries in Climbers
• TBP 094 :: Esther Smith – Treating Knee and Hip Injuries in Climbers
• TBP 105 :: Esther Smith – Treating Ankle and Foot Injuries for Climbers

Hang Right Articles:

• HANG RIGHT: SHOULDER MAINTENANCE FOR CLIMBERS
• HANG RIGHT—PART 2: ELBOW PAIN IN CLIMBERS
• HANG RIGHT—PART 3: HEALING NAGGING FINGER INJURIES

Work with Esther: Grassroots Physical Therapy