
I think I am not alone when I say that the majority of climbers do not do a lot of “opposition” work. Our perma psyche and obsession with climbing takes the better part of our energy and a lot of us tend to slack when it comes to balancing our muscles. This laziness leads to the ever familiar climbers hunch, which is just an injury waiting to happen.
I do it too, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to at least squeak in a little bit of opposition training in each week. If you don’t, these large muscles get over developed, thus de-stabilizing your joints, and inevitably causing inury and/or your performance to plateau. Just more the reason to put a strong emphasis on joint stabilizing exercises. If your muscles are balanced and your joints are flexible, it allows you to perform climbing movements through your joints full range of motion. Why wouldn’t you want that?
Stretching those tight overdeveloped muscles is just as important. The tight, facilitated muscles to focus on lengthening would be our latissumus dorsi, trapezius, and pectoralis major.

So if you aren’t into going to the gym to pump iron, here is an easy routine that you can follow to keep opposite muscles in shape. I prefer to do this at the end of a climbing session or on an off day. Do it 2-3x a week.
Opposition Circuit:
Here is an example of exercises to use. All you need is your body weight, a chair, a mat, and maybe some light weights/ bands. You can google any of these exercises for a full description on how to perform them properly. Remember to keep good posture and to warm up properly.
Burpees
Push ups
Dips on a chair or with bars
Plank exercises
Reverse Flies (Rhomboids) note: By working your rhomboids, it will cause the muscle to tighten, thus pulling your shoulder blades together and improving your posture.
Overhead Press
Rotator cuff exercises
Plank exercises
Reverse Flies (Rhomboids) note: By working your rhomboids, it will cause the muscle to tighten, thus pulling your shoulder blades together and improving your posture.
Overhead Press
Rotator cuff exercises
http://www.nicros.com/archive/cuff_training1.cfm, http://www.nicros.com/archive/cuff_training2.cfm
Lower back exercises
Lower back exercises
Reverse Wrist curls (forearm extensors)
Forearm Pronators
Forearm Pronators
Choose 6-12 exercises. Remember to increase the difficulty in some way each week to avoid detraining.
This workout will definitely get your heart going as well. Remember to cool down with some stretches held for at least 20-30 seconds.
Here are some other good articles on opposition training:
http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/tttraining228/
http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/tttraining228/
Lets all stay injury free this winter!







Black Gold, 13c, Gold Coast
Skin Boat 13a, The Motherlode
