Agility training is a way of exercising to increase your power and coordination for climbing. Agility exercises comprise changing direction without losing speed, harnessing your speed to stop momentum and using power to initiate movement. Sprinting, movement, balance and strength are key elements of agility training. This type of training adds explosive power, control and strength to your climbing with a minimum time commitment.
Function
Agility training is about movement and using the body efficiently. Use agility to develop strength and improve your cardiovascular system, which equates to developing power and control in climbing. Momentum is a key way to make a big move when climbing, and learning how to train the fast twitch muscles in your body is a key part of agility training. Exercises such as jumping and squats help train those moves.
Features
The base of agility training is sprinting. Whether you are using weights to build strength or cardio bursts, you are training your reaction to the moves your body needs to make. In climbing, you need to be prepared for moves that are coming and for the ones for which you aren't prepared. In agility training, these are called programmed and random responses. When your body responds with a programmed response, you know what's coming. When it's random, your body is reacting to a movement.
Benefits
Control, strength and explosive power are some of the benefits of agility training. Exercises that make you jump, control your motion and sprint can help you train for programmed and random responses. You train your body to do climbing moves while on the ground. To train for programmed response, set up a ladder on the floor and run through it, touching down a foot in each square. For random responses that also train your balance, kneel or stand on a balance or bosu ball and have someone toss a medicine ball to you. Have them vary the toss to each side, low and high to keep you off balance.
Time Frame
The amount of time it takes to train agility varies. Since you do short sprints or circuits, you focus on executing the exercises with precision, not doing any one exercise for endurance purposes. This means you can complete a sprint workout in under 30 minutes, just two to four times a week.
Types of Training
There are three basic types of agility training, isometric, sprint and circuit training. Isometric isolates and strengthens the muscles. Use weights, a band or your own body for resistance. Sprints help your speed, nimbleness and power. Circuit training combines isometric exercises and sprints into an overall workout. Do four to five exercises relatively quick, then move on to the next circuit, for a total of up to five circuits with up to a 90 second rest in between. For climbing, work upper body power in short bursts, then the lower body with explosive movements and then balance exercises while you're still breathing hard.
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