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Rice Bucket

By Yusuf Daneshyar, Program Director

Incorporating rice bucket exercises into your at-home routine is a great way to keep your fingers and wrists healthy if you don’t have a hangboard. If you do have a hangboard, these exercises work well as part of a pre-session warmup.

It’s easy to create your own bucket. Fill a large container with rice – roughly 3/4 of the way full. You can also add some style to help stay motivated!

Today’s exercises target the flexor muscles in your forearms and hands (the ones we commonly use in climbing) and the extensor muscles. Exercising your extensors will balance the muscles in your forearms and hands – resulting in more strength and efficiency in muscle recruitment and a reduced risk of developing common over-use injuries.

Flexor Training

Keeping your shoulder, forearm, wrist and fingers in a neutral position, plunge your hand into the rice bucket. Close your fist and lift your hand out of the rice bucket. Open your fist to drop the rice and repeat for 30 seconds. Switch sides; this is one set. Perform three sets.

Extensor Training

Using the same posture, plunge your hand into the rice bucket. This time, spread your fingers wide and then lift your hand out of the bucket. Repeat for 30 seconds. Switch sides; this is one set. Perform three sets.

The further you drive your hand into the bucket, the more resistance you will encounter. You can also increase the intensity of these exercises by performing more reps in the 30 second time frame.

Enter our contest for a chance to win your own bucket! The winner will be chosen on Friday, May 15th. Look for more exercises soon.

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Yoga for Climbers

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Core Workout

By Nick Hollander, Instructor

We all know our core is important in climbing, but training your core to be stronger is only half the battle. It is also important to teach yourself how to USE your core when climbing. Your “core” is actually made up of a lot of muscles and your brain has to tell them all to “turn on” at the same time to generate body tension. Climbers use body tension to keep pressure through their feet while climbing through difficult positions.

My core workout is about teaching your brain to turn all of those muscles on when you need them, not just to make your core muscles stronger. As such, it is very important that you focus on turning all of your core muscles on while you perform these exercises. This requires a lot of concentration, so it’s important to pay attention when training and not simply go through the motions.

All of these workouts require a great deal of focus to do correctly. They are also easy to cheat with bad form. As such, it’s important that you take your time and do them as slow and controlled as possible. If you can’t do very many sets at first, that’s okay.

A strong core is required for many difficult climbing moves, but how strong your core is doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to use it when you need it. Pay attention to what it feels like when you are doing these exercises and try to recreate that tension next time you’re on the wall.

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Mother’s Day Workout

There’s no timer this week. Just get as many rounds in as you can in 40 minutes. The burpee is your round counter. Take breaks between rounds as needed while trying to keep them as short as possible. If you do not have a crash pad you can replace that with a squat jump, adding the arm movements if you want.

Alternating Toe Touch with a Lift

Reverse Bear Crawl (Go approximately 8 feet or the distance you think you can broad jump.)

Mat Flip or Squat Jump

Broad Jump

Single-Leg Pushup (Both Sides)

Mountain Climbers (10 total, 5 Each Leg)

Burpee (Add a Burpee Each Round)

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Yoga with Anne

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Yoga for Climbers

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Sunday Session

Do as many rounds in 45 minutes as you can. It took me about 6 minutes to do one round. I would suggest a 1:00 minute rest in between each round but rest whenever you need it.

10 Each Leg – Single Leg Deadlift

Use laundry soap, a kettlebell, or whatever other heavy items you want to try. If you have a Bosu Ball, you can do this exercise on it for an extra stabilizer workout. I would use a lighter weight item if attempting the Bosu challenge.

5 Total – Pushup with Elbow Tap

10 Total – Jump Lunge with Ankle Tap

If you can’t quite tap your foot, work on just lifting your back foot off the ground.

5 Total – Plank Walkouts

Put your feet against a wall for a little extra help!

10 Each Leg – Reverse Lunge with Step-up Thrust

Shown on Bosu Ball and stairs. You can also use a bench or box if you have those.

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40 Seconds – Bear Crawl

15 Seconds – Wall Sit

30 Seconds – Rest

40 Seconds – Crocodile Pushups

15 Seconds – Plank

30 Seconds – Rest

40 Seconds – Crab Walk

15 Seconds – ISO Chair Dip

30 Seconds – Rest

40 Seconds – Guerilla Run

15 Seconds – ISO Sumo Squat

30 Seconds – Rest

40 Seconds – Walking Inchworm

15 Seconds – Handstand or Pike on Wall

30 Seconds – Rest