Climbing
Gravity's a bitch. Get over it.

Fighting the earth's tug as you haul yourself up a wall obviously demands a degree of upper-body strength that sports more accepting of physics' laws just don't require. "Your arms have to always hold on, and they simply weren't designed to do that," says Dale Goddard, coauthor of the highly regarded training book Performance Rock Climbing. "You need to be able to hold on to an overhanging rock with one hand, reach up with another, and pull yourself up."

Of course, having the upper-body strength of Terrell Davis won't help you if your grip on the rock isn't secure, which is why you hear of guys like Hans Florine, America's top speed climber, doing pull-ups with their index fingers. What you won't hear about, however, is serious climbers spending their valuable workout time pumping iron with their legs. Since the sport doesn't require excessively powerful gams, Harvey Newton's basic routine provides all the leg work you'll need.

In the Gym

You'll be adding five upper-body exercises to Newton's weight-lifting plan. Do the obligatory upper-body pushing move as you typically would, and instead of just one upper-body pulling exercise, do three: seated cable row, pull-ups, and lat pulldowns. If you perform each exercise a different way for each of the three sets — with a wide, medium, and close grip — you'll prevent your muscles from adapting to the effort, and thus keep them building. For each of these lifts you should do low reps, about six per set.

To strengthen the muscles that stabilize your arms, add two shoulder exercises to the lineup: prone shoulder raises (pictured below) and flies. For the latter, lie face-up on a bench with your arms extended to your sides, holding dumbbells. To execute the lift, curl your arms together above you as if you were hugging your great aunt. Because these two lifts are working tiny muscles in the shoulders, you'll want to do 12 repetitions with very light weight.

Finally, to work those all-important digits, hang from a doorjamb by your fingertips for as long as you can. Once you can consistently keep your grip for 30 seconds, you're ready to try one pull-up from the same position: Do three sets of as many as you can. Because this particular exercise is tremendously stressful on the joints and tendons, be sure to adhere strictly to Newton's advice about taking at least 48 hours of rest between workouts.

On the Rock

If you're climbing on the same day that you're doing strength training, be sure to climb first, lest your muscles become too fatigued to hang on. As for your aerobic work, following the general maintenance plan will do the trick, since climbing is more about power than aerobic capacity. So if you ever find yourself in the position of having to choose between climbing and, say, going for a run that calls for a spate of lactate threshold blocks, well, it's not much of a choice: Once you gain the strength to pull off crimps, twist-locks, and deadpoints, the only way to improve your climbing is by climbing.

T H E   C R U X   M O V E

Prone Shoulder Raise Lie chest down on a bench with your head extended over the edge and your neck straight. Holding a light dumbbell in each hand, slowly raise the weights straight out from your sides until your arms are parallel to the floor. Hold the position for one second, making sure not to bend your arms, and then lower the dumbbells. Do three sets of 12 repetitions.

Photograph by Doug Merriam