Recently I stopped climbing because I injured my finger, and I was struggling to figure out what
training I can still do for climbing. I came across a video from Hooper's Beta, where he
mentioned that training the deadlift is actually very helpful for climbing. I was intrigued by it
since this was my first time hearing an expert making the connection between the deadlift and
climbing. Fortunately, I was still capable of gripping a bar with my injured finger,
so I decided to reach out to a very special expert in person for advice, Hooper's Beta!
-[Hooper's Beta] Howdy, welcome, happy to be here. -[Geek Climber] Why is training deadlift beneficial for rock climbers? -[Hooper's Beta] It really
has three huge benefits for climbing. One is -[Hooper's Beta] the pure strength component, especially with
the hamstring strengthening that you get. It's going to help you immensely with your heel hooks
and any kind of strength that you need for cave climbing. It's kind of looked as like frowned upon
especially with the leg strength you're going to add, the weight to yourself, but really you're
increasing the health of your body, so you're going to decrease chances of sustaining injuries.
The second part is a deadlift is such a complex movement that learning to do it properly is really
going to help you learn how to control a lot of tension. Learning to engage multiple muscle
groups is really vital to climbing, especially like if you're cave climbing or doing anything
more dynamic. And a deadlift is a very compound exercise, so it's going to activate your mid back,
your core, your glutes, and your hamstrings and even your quads, and finally being that huge
compound exercise, it actually will up regulate some really important anabolic hormones, such as
testosterone and human growth hormone. If those are floating around in your bloodstream are
actually going to help with buildings, so you're going to help heal from like other injuries,
or they're going to supplement your other training and climbing you do to help make your
fingers and your forearms stronger to make you a better climber. -[Geek Climber] There's a conventional deadlift
and there's a Romanian deadlift, so what's the difference and then which one is more recommended
for rock climbers? -[Hooper's Beta] There's actually a different starting point. The Romanian deadlift, you want to
actually start with the weight in a standing position, so your first motion is lowering,
and you don't go very deep. You go like to the bar about crosses your knee and that's it. With the
conventional deadlift, you're lifting the bar from the ground standing to that full upright position
and lowering it back down every time. The reason I actually prefer the Romanian deadlift is for
two main reasons. One, it's a lot easier to learn especially if you're newer to deadlifting. With a
conventional deadlift, the first part, which is the squat, and then you go into hip hinge movement,
whereas the Romanian deadlift, it's just a hip hinge, so it's a lot simpler to learn. The second
part is because the conventional deadlift targets the quads and the glutes a little bit more versus
Romanian, which is going to target the hamstrings more. It's a lot more appropriate for climbers not
only the heel hooks but really with cave climbing. If you can really engage your hamstrings and keep
your hips closer to the wall, it's going to take a lot of that weight out of your arms,
so the translation of the Romanian is just closer to climbing to me than the full deadlift. -[Geek Climber] That's
amazing. How about I'll go to the gym and then try out the Romanian deadlift and have you correct
my form? -[Hooper's Beta] Let's do it. We'll learn the Romanian deadlift. If your thumbs are touching your thighs,
that's perfect. That's a good width away and your feet should just be about shoulder distance apart,
so here my shoulders are back and down like I'm squeezing into my armpits. My core is engaged.
I'm going to load into my legs, and then I push the floor away from me. Same thing here.
Sliding down, really making sure that core is engaged, pushing through the legs, so you'll feel
a lot of tension in your hamstrings and that's why this exercise really focuses on that. -[Geek Climber] Okay, let me
try it out. If you never deadlift before, you will most likely think this is straightforward,
but it's actually not. Once I went through the reps, it's my lower back that felt the
most sore. Then that's probably not the right thing, right? -[Hooper's Beta] So yeah. That means that you're
lifting with your back instead of lifting with your legs. -[Geek Climber] After going through a lot of drills,
all of a sudden, I finally understood what I did was wrong. I should try to be like this,
right? Like when you are doing a handstand. -[Hooper's Beta] What's that? -[Geek Climber] Just like when you are doing a handstand, so
you wanna,-[Hooper's Beta] Ya. You want to keep it like neutral. -[Geek Climber] But at the same time I don't wanna round my upper
back. -[Hooper's Beta] Correct. -[Geek Climber] After doing calisthenics all these years, I instinctively retracted my scapula and
engaged my core by pushing my lower back in for all pulling moves, and protracted my scapula and
engaged my core by pushing my stomach in for all pushing moves. This principle is generally correct
for calisthenics, and the reason why we do this is to fight the external force, which is gravity,
in order to maintain a neutral body position. However, even though the deadlift is a pulling
exercise, the biggest difference is we are facing down and trying to pull the weight up instead of
facing up and trying to pull yourself towards the bar. It means we have to retract the scapula to
maintain a neutral position, otherwise the weight will pull your scapula into a protracted position.
It also means we have to engage the core by pushing the stomach in to maintain a neutral
spine, otherwise the weight will pull your spine into an arched back position. I was engaging my
core in the complete opposite direction. That's why I was feeling discomfort on my lower back
earlier. The handstand came to my mind because I find it fascinating that in order to do the
deadlift correctly, I have to engage my scapula the same way I am doing calisthenics pulling
exercises, but I have to engage my core the same way I am doing calisthenics pushing exercises.
Another mistake I made was looking forward the whole time, which means my neck wasn't in
a neutral position. After correcting it, -[Hooper's Beta] There it is. That looks better. Boom. How'd it feel? -[Geek Climber] Okay,
looking down actually makes it a lot easier. -[Hooper's Beta] Yay, okay.-[Geek Climber]I think I got it. After I finally got
the technique down, it's time to measure my 1 rep max. After a few tries on lighter weights,
eventually I was able to go all the way up to 125 lbs and successfully did 1 rep with my arms
slightly shaking. I decided not to push further, so 125 lbs would be my max before training. When I
woke up the next day, my muscles were extremely sore. It felt like muscles that had never been
activated before got activated. I rested for a few days and started to train. The training
plan provided by Hooper's Beta is like this. The first set is 8-10 reps of about 50% 1 rep max,
which is around 65 lbs for me, and the second set is 6-8 reps of 60%~65% 1 rep max, which is around
75 lbs for me, and the third set is 4-5 reps of 70%~75% 1 rep max, which is around 90 lbs for me,
and the fourth set is 3-4 reps of 80%~85% 1 rep max, which is around 105 lbs for me, and the fifth
and sixth set is 1-3 reps of 85%~95% 1 rep max, which is around 115 lbs for me. Since training
the deadlift is pretty intense on the body, Hooper's Beta recommended me to train the deadlift
for no more than 2 times per week. I trained and trained and trained. Thirty days flew by really fast,
and it's time to measure my one rep max again. After warming up, I decided to shoot for 135 lbs.
I felt pretty strong, so I decided to try 155 lbs.
Feeling pretty good, I decided to push myself to see if I could do 165 lbs.
Lastly, I decided to see if I could squeeze anything more out of myself
and went for 175 lbs, and this happened.
I improved from 125 lbs to 175 lbs, which is a significant 40% of improvement in 30 days.
This proves again that if you are a beginner on something, all you need to do is put in
some work consistently, and you are guaranteed to see good results. Thanks for watching. After
resting my fingers for a little bit over a month, I've just started the rehabbing process with the
help of Hooper's Beta, and I've been documenting it. I plan to make an update video after going
through the rehabbing process for 30 days, so definitely stay tuned for that. Thank you so much,
Jason, for teaching me the technique of the Romanian deadlift in person. If you haven't
checked out Jason's channel Hooper's Beta yet, definitely check it out. Make sure to like,
subscribe and check out my website geekclimber.com. See you in the next video.