Am I The Only One?

[BlueAura]

Hey guys,

As you can see I've been a member for a while but since being a student have been really very lazy and lost my focus, although I have discovered a few hobbies I have a great passion for... climbing and mountaineering.

I've done a few searches and seem to be the only one of my kind specifically looking to train for this. Am I?

Although I may be unique her hopefully you guys can give me some sound advice on my training and diet. Climbing and mountaineering require me to have excellent physical strength and endurance which I need help perfecting. My strength is mediocre since being a lazy student has converted my muscle to fat and has in turn affected my endurance.

- My first goal is to tone up, loose the tyre and see some muscle definition.
- Secondly I want to improve my vo2 max.

Can you recommend a training regime to achieve my goals and also give me a rough idea of the carb, protein and fat balance I should try to achieve with my diet?

Can anyone also recommend a few exercises for improving finger, grip, and wrist strength?

Thanks ;)

[Hazerboy]

Find built's profile and read the "how to cut" portion to loose the gut.

Become familiar with fitday. 90% of it is going to be diet vs. what your workout is (whats easier - not eating a bag of cheese, or running a mile?).

I did a quick read through of wikipedia and it looks like vo2 max is a way of measuring how in shape you are. I'd do some sport specific high intensity interval training and maybe a small amount of cardio.

Grip strength I do know quiet a bit about, however. As a climber you're going to want a lot of open hand strength and pinch grip strength. Read this: http://www.gripfaq.com/Thumb_Strength_Exercises/#BLOCKWEIGHTEXER and this http://www.gripfaq.com/Wrist_Strength_Exercises/ . become a member of gripboard.com . Become familiar with thick bar work. Train heavy and with low reps on almost all excercises, and be careful not to overtrain. Don't forget to train the reverse hand motion too! (extensors)

Read this: http://www.bodyresults.com/E2ladder.asp to get better at pull-ups. I'd also implement pull-ups off of ropes, thick bars, towels, rafters, and my personal favorite: NOODLES! I'm talking about those thick foam noodles you use at the pool. They're really cheap and absolutely BRUTAL. Loop one of them around a pull-up bar and go some ladders - in a couple weeks/months, you're going to have a monster grip.

[BlueAura]

Some great tips there, and that last website is fantastic. Thanks a million :bow:

[Paul Stagg]

Do a search for a member here named mixmaster nash. He's also a climber. He hasn't posted for a while, but hopefully he'll be back.

[stepto180]

they have pull up "bars" that offer different grips like different depth ledges and different finger holds at differnt depths Ill have to ask my buddy where he got his

[Scooter]

Do a search for a member here named mixmaster nash. He's also a climber. He hasn't posted for a while, but hopefully he'll be back.

I was thinking the same thing. He is a advocate of crossfit (http://www.crossfit.com/) which I think would fit your goals nicely.