Do your feet fly off the wall when you are climbing on overhanging terrain?  What about your hips?  Do you have trouble keeping them in tight to the wall?  If either of these situations describes you, then you probably need to focus some of your training on strengthening your core.  In reality, training core strength is something all climbers should be doing as continually improving it will help your climbing no matter what your ability level or preferred style.

Luckily, there are a myriad of different ways to strengthen your core so you can keep mixing up the exercises you do to keep things fresh and prevent training from feeling like a chore.  To help you try out some new exercises, here’s an article by climber and trainer Alli Rainey in which she describes one of her favorite core exercises: medicine ball leg lifts.

However, beyond simply outlining how she performs medicine ball leg lifts, Rainey also discusses some overall abdominal strength training guidelines to ensure you are training efficiently and effectively.

“I suggest that whatever abdominal strengthening work you decide to include in your training program, perform the exercises at a level of intensity that isn’t aimed at endurance (i.e. hundreds of repetitions), but at a more strength-training level of repetitions, so that you’re working hard to do 10 or fewer reps per set.” – Alli Rainey 

Not only does Rainey suggest that you focus on increasing core strength rather than core endurance, she also stresses the importance of balancing out abdominal core training with exercises that focus on strengthening the lower back.  Doing so will ensure that you stay balanced.  Additionally, climbing core strength isn’t really about having a six pack, instead its about strengthening your entire trunk to enable you to better preform on rock.

Click through below to give the article a read and then give medicine ball leg lifts a shot yourself!

Click Here: Medicine Ball Leg Lifts – Alli Rainey

(photo courtesy of shapefit.com)

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