3 Range Isometric Pull Up

The video this week features a strength based exercise versus a climbing skill or drill based video. I started working with this exercise during strength training days to help mimic and train the start/stop patterns we see so often in climbing, especially route climbing when we stop to clip a bolt or gear and then continue moving.

The 3 Range Isometric Pull Up is designed to incorporate isometric holds at three different joint angles (at the elbows) during a standard pull up. The idea being to mimic the same motion pattern we experience when we’re route climbing and dealing with gear/rope/etc. Often when bouldering we tend to move quickly from hold to hold and don’t spend a ton of time pausing between positions, harder climbing favors faster more fluid movement.

When we’re climbing on longer routes though we pause frequently to either place gear or clip it. We all know we should try and do this from a solid stance with straight arms but that doesn’t always happen. When we’re climbing routes near our limit we will often clip from strenuous positions simply because the climbing and features demand it.

I’ve seen first hand, dozens of climbers stall out while clipping because the break in momentum becomes too much to overcome. Momentum plays such a huge part in our ability to move upward and stopping that on climbing that’s difficult for us can be the deciding factor on certain moves.

This exercise trains exactly that, the strength to overcome those pauses during pulling. It’s a fairly simple exercise but adding in the pauses increases the difficulty of what would normally be an easy movement pattern. I will often have athletes add weight for these but it’s worth noting that with those pauses, the added load needs to be quite a bit lower than say that of a max weight pull up. Every athlete is different but I usually start with no more than 25-30% of max weight for these and adjust the load from there.