My Strength Journey + Climber Workout Routine

I am an active person, even if that concept is quite new to me.

Before October 2021 I never worked out or had any inclination to in the first place. I was very content to stay in a perpetual state of despising my body. I don’t think I’ve ever had body dysmorphia, but it had gotten to the point where the mirror wasn’t a very appealing object.

I am tall and my limbs are long. I had always had noodle arms and thin legs. Not to mention my whole life I have HAD people tell me I’m skinny or a “pancake” which did not help my body issues. And I wasn’t a good eater, food made me sick half the time. It became an unhealthy cycle and I had no idea until I had gotten out. Now, let me explain how.

The first step to realizing you are not who you want to be is getting your heart broken…kidding (kinda.) Foremost, I was in a relationship with someone who valued strength and health, and I had neither of those things which made me want them even more. So, I began some at-home workouts because why not? Started lifting weights because why not? I began to fall in love with being strong, I started seeing muscle on my bones again and it felt like I had opened this door to a magical world.

Then we broke up and I felt defeated, like the things I began to do for them turned out to be for nothing. I had to change my mindset because I was no longer working out for them, it now had to become a me thing. In the weeks and months to come, I was working out more than ever and getting stronger by the day: mentally and physically. All of it led up to the discovery that changed my life: rock climbing.

I have been around climbing since I was a kid, but never pursued it as a passion. November 2021 changed that for me when I decided to sign up for a climbing class at the local college climbing wall.

So then, working out turned into climbing daily, climbing daily turned into my goals getting bigger, and my goals getting bigger lead me to where I am today. I am climbing harder than ever and lifting weights at a rate that I never thought possible.

This leads me to my next point: balance.

I had an overuse injury in January and I am still on the mend…I was working out 3-4 days a week and climbing 3-5 days a week. My issue was that I had become so obsessed with my strength that I did not know where to stop. I felt as if I did not work out every day I was gonna become weak again and if I did not climb every day I would lose my skill.

After my injury, I began researching and realizing how unhealthy I had become in my journey to become stronger. This is why I hope to bring some insight on what has been working for me and how I am getting stronger while letting my body rest (CAUSE REST BUILDS MUSCLE.) Once again, my mindset had to change.

Now onto my routine:
I work out twice a week and climb three days a week. It goes like this:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Legs + 1.5-2hrs Climbing

Thursday: Arms

Friday: 2hrs Climbing

Saturday: 1.5hrs Climbing

Sunday: Rest

(I will include my entire workout routine at the bottom of the post as well)

I have two rest days in the week where I do ABSOLUTELY nothing. Then the rest of my days are either lifting or climbing. I do not climb on the days I have worked out my upper body (learned that the hard way.)

I have found myself completely in love with working my body and pushing it in new ways. It is incredible what 5 months of consistency can do.

On the left is me September 29th about a week and a half into working out. And you can’t see it visibly here but I was straining while taking that photo in an attempt to make my muscles bigger. On the right is January 17th (yes, I need to update my progress photos.) And it’s also me barely having to flex at all.

I wish I could have been better at photos in the beginning. I barely got any of my back (which has seen a butt load of improvement…I’m up to 6 pulls ups now!!) or my legs. But oh well, guess arms will do just fine ;)

Now, my favorite part! How I set up my workouts!

I used to use the app Alive by Whitney Simmons for a lot of my home workouts. They were basically the foundation for everything I do today. The programs were nice because she had a lot that only required dumbells or bands (which is what I had on hand.) Later on, I moved to an actual gym as I began to want to try more. That is what my workout routine looks like now. It is a combination of machine, body weight, and free weight exercises that I have found work best for me as a climber.

I have two groups: Upper & Lower.

My lower days go like this:

Barbell Backsquat - 4 sets of 3-8 reps

Deadlift - 3 sets of 6-8 reps

Bulgarian Split Squats - 3 sets of 12 Reps (each leg)

Calf Raises - 4 sets of 12 reps (usually elevate my toes with a few plates)

Step Ups - 4 sets of 6 reps (each leg)

Plank - 3 sets of 1-minute planks

I keep my compound exercises at the beginning of my workouts and always add a core exercise at the end…usually I switch it up depending on what I am feeling so go with what you like! Because I only work out twice a week, that means I need to get all my eggs in one basic on the days I do work out. In all, I am working my glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calfs all in the span of one session.

And for my upper days they go like this:

Bench Press - 4 sets of 3-6 reps

Pull-Ups - 3 sets of 5 reps

Tricep Dips - 3 sets of 8 (I try and do as many as I can unassisted…but yes, these brutally humble me.)

Single Arm Lat Pulldown - 3 sets of 12 reps (each arm)

7/7/7 Curl - 3 sets of 7 (7 lower range of motion, 7 upper range of motion, and then 7 full range of motion)

Lateral Raise - 3 sets of 12

Hangboard Session - I usually try and train my finger strength on arm days. When I do I’ll slowly work my way onto the thinner ledges and go till failure.

Like on my lower days, I keep compound exercises at the beginning. The only one I have on upper days is the bench press…but I also like to include pull-ups at the beginning before I am fatigued. This workout trains basically all the core muscles in your arms and back: chest, lats, delts, tricep, bicep, and shoulders. It’s a doozy but has honestly improved my strength so much.

So that’s it! My routine and journey all summed up into one. Stay tuned because in the near future I will be going more in-depth about my journey as a climber and how that had drastically changed my life.

Have a wonderful weekend and for those up in the midwest — stay warm!