Climb More Fluently: The Ultimate Antagonist Workout

Do you want to improve your climbing flow?

A great way to approach this is by taking a route or boulder way below your grade and climb it slow and intentional without stopping.

Another way to practice this aspect of climbing is by something called locomotion. Our in our case horizontal climbing. Here you take a few crawling patterns and try to link them together as efficient as possible.

When training for climbing there is no shortage of isolated strength, mobility and endurance exersises.

One crucial element that most off-the-wall programs are missing is the development of flow and fluidity.

In this video you will learn a 30 minute ground sequence that will train the previously mentioned elements but in a true climbing specific way.

So if you hate or love slabs, with this workout we take our antagonist training to a new inclination and develop our physical riddle solving abilities in a whole different way.

Here we present a 30 minute ground sequence that will train your strength, mobility and endurance in a true climbing specific way.

This sequence will allow you to:

• Train your capacity to move FLUENTLY, away from the wall.
• Build BODY AWARENESS.
• Perform climbing specific patterns, even if you would have a finger injury
• And much, much more. 

If you want to use the video as a follow along, there are timestamps added with each step.

Don't be afraid to spend more time with every variation if necessary and feel free to add your own previously learned patterns.

-2 min Last Limb First
-2 min Crawling Exploration
-2 min Forward & Backwards Gate
-2 min Open Floor + Gate
-2 min Windshield Wipers
-2 min + Knee Flexion
-2 min + Hip Lift
-2 x 1 minute Deep Squat Rotation
-2 min Open Floor + Rotations L-sit
-1 min Hip Tumble
-1 min Hip Tumble + Leg Elongation
-2 min Get Up Feet On The Floor
-2 min Get Up Kick The Leg
-2 min Open Floor + Air Kick
-2 min Cossack Insertion
-2 min Cossack Insertion + Handstand
-4 min Open Floor All Elements

To dive a bit deeper into the topic of flow and fluidity

In this video on Lynn Hill's Youtube's channel they discuss the value of observing someone's centre of gravity while climbing.

On the image above you will find an intermediate and advanced level climber going up on the same route.

What they noticed was that the advanced climber was way more energy efficient and moved quicker between positions.

This ability is something that comes with spending more time on the wall, but can also be practices away from the wall.

I hope this helps and your day flows smoothly!

- Thomas