Opposing Muscle Strength

Opposing muscles are the muscles that you do not use while climbing but are used to stabilize joints and move them in the opposite direction. Training your opposing muscles is very important when training strength to prevent injuries and to improve the strength of you climbing muscles. When strengthening your opposing muscles you are stretching the muscle fibers of your climbing muscles and that will allow them to be able to contract more, thus giving them more strength. These muscles can be strengthened at the end of a workout and will not affect your workout.

Some of the opposing muscles and strength training drills are:

Back of Your Forearms

The muscles on the back of your forearm are generally very weak compared to your muscles on the front of your forearms. This can lead to wrist problems because the wrist joint is not stabilized properly.

To strengthen the muscles on the back of your forearm there are several good drills.

Reverse wrist curls where you keep your palms facing the floor and curl your hand back towards your elbow. This can be done with or without weight, or by rolling a weight up with a broom handle or something similar.

Pushing and opening your hands in sand. This is great for constant resistance throughout a range of motion. Place a closed hand in a pile of sand and push down and out with your fingers as you open your hand.

Just opening your hand and extending your fingers as far as possible. Try to keep the back of your hand in line with your forearm as you do this. This one is good because it can be done anywhere; at school, in a car, or even at the dinner table.

Triceps

While triceps are used alot when climbing they are not as used as often as your biceps and this can lead to elbow problems. Triceps are easy to strengthen. Chair dips, pushups, and tricep presses are all ways of strengthening these muscles. Not only that but stronger triceps will increase the range of motion in your lockoffs.

Lower Back

Look at the core strength section for some drills to strengthen your lower back.