Holy crap!! I know a lot of you don’t follow climbing…..wait, let me rephrase that…..I know you don’t know anything about climbing, other than it looks really scary, but you have GOT to check out this video (sent to me by long time e-friend, noogles)!
This video is a perfect example of why I think bodyweight training is whack. There is a time and place for everything, but for the people that do nothing but strictly bodyweight workouts, you will never be able to do that kind of stuff. Also, for any climber reading this, notice that he’s doing contra-specific movements as well? By that, I mean, shoulder presses and horizontal presses (1-armed push ups). That is absolutely crucial to keeping your shoulders happy and healthy. You can’t just climb and focus on your back day in and day out. In fact, I’ll boldly say that you would make more progress if you took a day off from the climbing gym once a week and focused on traditional, full body workouts. Of course, there’s a bit of an assumption that you would be doing those workouts properly.
And just in case you’re wondering, the guy can actually climb too. Chris Sharma (a good climber guy that you’ve never heard of) may be the most famous, and in all fairness, the best, rock climber in the world right now, but he’s not the only one that can climb 9.a+/5.15’s. Ca-razy!! I might have a new role model.
I could use some motivation in some days.
But there are stronger athletes than mitdtbo that DO do strictly bodyweight workouts, namely climbing. It is safe to say that fred nicole is the strongest climber- or boulderer, to be more specific- of all time. those six middle finger pullups mitdbo does with his middle finger? nicole could do that same number with his pinky, and he weighed more, but nicole trained, and continues to train, only by climbing on rock. the other climber you mentioned, chis sharma, is also known for training strictly on rock. he can perform a pullup while pinching a stopsign.
so, you can climb day in and day out. also, at the highest level of the sport, it’s not strictly back training. you could call it simultaneous back, shoulders, chest arms, fingers, and core training if you were so inclined. safe to say that there are many athletes out there who are able to compete at the top of their sport, while only training their sport, without even “sport specific” auxiliary drills.
Yes, they are the genetic lottery winners. For the rest of us mere humans, if we want to try achieve that level of success, it is likely that a training program of some kind is necessarily. You named 2 that don’t, but nearly all the rest do: Paul Robinson, Daniel Woods, Ali Rainy, S. DiGulian, and it goes on and on.