Progressing Core Workouts Part 1: Using Correct Form

Finding useful core exercises for climbing can be tough. Some are so advanced that it’s hard to tell if you are getting anything out of them or if it’s just a circus trick with little carryover to performance. When you do find one that you like, it can quickly become easy for you and not feel like it’s still useful.

Instead of jumping around from exercise to exercise, we at Power Company Climbing prefer to use a focused selection of quality exercises and make small adjustments to them as needed to match the intensity with the needs of the climber. This series will show several of the progression and regression methods that we like to use.

 Progression #1: Using Correct Form

Dan John (Podcast with Dan here) likes to joke that the best progression to any exercises is using good technique. This is as true with core training as it is anywhere else. When something doesn’t feel difficult enough for us, our immediate reaction is to find something harder to do. The problem with so many core exercises though is that they can be easily to cheated with poor form, so you might not even be getting the benefits from the exercises that feel ‘too easy’ for you.

The Pallof press is a great core exercise for climbers, but it's also one that I see performed incorrectly often. In this video I use the Pallof press to demonstrate some things to look for when performing core stability exercises to make sure you're getting the most out of them.