So a bit more than a year ago I was in a climbing accident well not really an accident I just over-strained my shoulder on a route doing a move and ended up with a torn bicep tendon, labium cartilage tears, and 3 bone chips the size of your pinkie nail inside my shoulder socket.

And then going through 8 months of no climbing…. 6 weeks of doing nothing, 4 months of physio appointments that will leave you begging not to go back to where they stretch out your tendon to help it heal and to retain normal movement again. And then 2 and a half months of a bio workouts where Thera bands are tougher than I thought.

But in all this time I couldn’t stop thinking of climbing and how to get back to it. I must have read just about every single training program out there and drew drafts of so many programs to get me back to climbing again. But as a weekend warrior with a full-time job during the week and weekends, my time to train is very limited.

And then a few weeks back I found something that was extremely similar to what I’ve just always been doing but with more structure. The program is very flexible and basic. Tuesday is power and Thursday power endurance. I don’t really train endurance but when I feel the need to I gain it really quickly with about 2 weeks of solid endurance training.

So the exercises in my program are made out of what I have available to use to train on. I copied and pasted exercises that other athletes were using and I added a bit of antagonistic exercises to it to help strengthen my shoulders to prevent an injury again.

Monday

Rest

Tuesday

Morning (takes me 30mins to complete)

Abs – 100s

Bear crawls 2 x forward & 2 x backwards

Thera band work out

Gym   (takes me 1,5hours to complete)

Thera band warmup

Boulder 30 min (no real purpose, more for the social of it)

Campus board – medium rungs 5 x up (every second rung)

–  Small rungs 5 x up (every rung)

Finger board (7 sec on, 3 sec off) (3 sets per grip)

• 4 finger crimps (medium & small)
• 3 finger crimp (medium & small)
• 2 finger pocket (index, middle & middle, ring)

Weights (optional depending on weekend send)

• Biceps 3 sets of 10 reps
• Triceps 3 sets of 10 reps
• Chest 3 sets of 10 reps
• Lats 3 sets of 10 reps

Wednesday

Rest

Thursday

Morning

Abs 100s

Bear crawls 2 x forward & 2 x backwards

Thera band workout

Gym (takes me 1 hour to complete)

Thera band warmup

Boulder 30min (no real purpose, more for the social of it)

Campus board

big rungs (up, down, up) 5 sets

medium rungs (up, down) 5 sets

Circuit board – 25 moves (5 – 10 sets, trying to get to 10 sets more consistently)

10 x 10 pyramid push up & pull up

Friday

Rest

Saturday & Sunday

Outdoor climbing

Abs 100s is an abdominal workout I got from a gymnastic friend. It consists of small and fast movements like flutters and each flutter counts as one and with 8 different movements it all adds up to 800 movements.

• Start lying on your back with your hands on your legs and chin on your chest and touch your knees 100 times.
• Still on your back, chin on your chest, hands by your sides or just slightly under your bum lift your feet up and down about 30cm for 100 counts.
• Turnover on your stomach arms out straight in front of you and lift your feet up and down about 30cm for 100 counts.
• Still on your stomach bring your arms out next to you at shoulder height bent at 90 degrees and lift your chest off the ground and back down for 100 counts.
• Turn on to your side place your bottom arm out in front of you for balance and your top arm lying on your side, touch your knee with your top arm for 100 counts.
• Same position but raise your feet up and down about 30cm for 100 counts.
• Turn over onto your other side and repeat number 5.
• Same position and repeat number 6.

If you can’t complete an exercise scale the numbers of reps or seconds down to suit you and build it up from there. The numbers in the program are what I’m on at the moment and as weeks go by I adjust them to make it harder.

Try each exercise beforehand and log the numbers your capable of and then do them all together the next week. Give it 2 weeks before increasing your numbers and warm up properly before you start.