3 Rest Day Workouts for You and Your Partner
Most of the time, the best way to train for climbing is, well, climbing! However, if you want to push your limits in climbing, incorporating general fitness training workouts will also benefit your climbing. Adding general fitness to your training regime can increase aerobic capacity for long sport routes, core strength for holding tension, or correct muscular imbalances, among many other benefits. The point being supplementing climbing with different workout regimes is a game changer.
And, what better way to motivate yourself to do off-the-climbing wall workouts than to do it with someone else? So grab your partner and jump into these three rest-day workouts that won’t cost you more skin or derail your overall recovery.
Keep in mind that we are referring to non-climbing days as rest days. However, taking one or two complete rest days (no set physical activity) per week is also highly encouraged and beneficial!
Partner Fitness Exercises for Climbers on a Rest Day
Partner Core Workout
The beauty of core workouts is that they can be as long or as short as you wish. If this workout doesn’t float your boat, do a quick YouTube search for “X minutes abs workout,” and you’ll find plenty of options. But if you and your partner are up for it, give this 10-minute burner a try. All you need are yoga mats and yourselves! (And yoga mats aren’t even required!)
How to: 45 Seconds on, 15 Seconds off
You and your partner will alternate selecting an exercise from the list below. Pick ten exercises from below. There are more than ten exercises, so you can complete this workout multiple times with various options.
Leg lifts with hip raise
Low plank with knees to elbows
High plank and alternate clapping hands with your partner
Side plank with oblique crunch (switch sides halfway through)
Cross-body Mountain climbers
Dead bugs
Reverse Crunches (With your knees bent, lift hips off the ground, lower, and repeat.)
Ab Circles (With your legs straight or bent, draw circles with your legs, switch directions halfway through the time.)
Superman Hold
Cross-body Toe Touches
Bicycles
Oblique Crunches (In the sit-up position, move side to side to touch your fingers to your heels.)
V-ups
Inchworms (Walk feet forward and back in a high plank.)
Reverse high plank alternating leg lifts
Crunch Hold (Keep your knees touching your elbows.)
Russian Twists
Hollow Body hold
Flutter Kicks
Scissors
2. Partner Handstand Holds
Handstands are a fantastic way to counter all the pulling you do in climbing by forcing you into a pushing position. The best part is that you and your partner can do this without being able to hold a traditional handstand. As long as you have access to a wall, you will get the same benefits from the exercise while using the wall to keep you inverted.
How to:
Find a wall and walk your feet up the wall until you feel you are in a position you can hold for 30 seconds to one minute. Focus on keeping your body straight from head to toe and engaging every muscle. Have your partner time you. The goal is to be able to do 3-1 minute holds in total, but you can work up to there doing 6-30 second handstands or taking any other modification you feel necessary. Once you come down, rest while your partner goes, ensuring that the rest is at least 2 minutes.
3. Runs - Easy and Tempo
Running is typically a love-it-or-hate-it activity. However, doing it with someone else makes it bearable. It is also a fantastic exercise for overall endurance and health. So grab your partner, lace up your shoes, and try out one of these two running workouts.
Easy Runs
Easy runs should be just that, easy. Pick a distance of 3 or more miles and keep a pace where you can maintain a conversation with your partner. If three miles is a lot, start with three and build your easy run mileage over time. The longer you can maintain an easy run, the better your cardiovascular endurance and the easier running becomes!
Tempo Runs
These runs force you to push yourself and are great for increasing speed. These runs should be 3 miles or less, and the goal is to alternate between a slower and a faster pace. You can break the run into several slow vs. fast intervals, but ideally, you have at least a 2 to 1 ratio of slower to faster. This way, you recover enough between the speed sections to ensure maximum effort when picking up the pace. Some partners prefer to go based on time, i.e., 2 minutes slow, 1 minute fast. Others prefer to go based on distance, ½ a mile slow, ¼ mile fast.
Now that you have a few ideas for non-climbing fitness activities give them a try! Let us know which exercise(s) you tried and how it went! We would love to hear what you and your partner thought in the comments below!
