I'm a 5'3" female, 110 pounds, and I've been climbing indoors pretty recreationally now for a few months, generally ranging from 1-3 times a week. I'm now looking to specifically train for strength and focus on true improvement on the wall (I'm generally on V2s bouldering and 5.10as TRing). I've been researching to put together a combined weight room/general exercise portion for overall strength improvement (especially pushing upper-body), and then a climbing-specific portion to improve endurance, finger strength and technique. Here are a few of the issues I'm running into: Routines that are not designed for my starting point. A lot of strength training programs I've found include things like sets of weighted pull-ups, and I can't do a single pull-up from a straight-arm hang yet. I'm looking for regimens that are intense and will push for strong improvements, but don't assume you're beginning from the average athletic man's starting point. How much time I should be balancing between general strength training versus climbing-specific training. The end goal is of course sending more, so climbing is primary, but I do think that in this first stage I have some work to do to get my body into an optimal athletic condition for climbing (aka being able to do things like pull-ups). I was planning on going with a combined ARC plan plus gym focus at the beginning so that I'm still on the wall each time (i.e. 30min warm-up and ARC training, then moving into 30min or so of strength sessions). How often per week to do all of this? If I'm being realistic, I will be able to dedicate 3x a week to physically going to the gym, perhaps sometimes adding a fourth day where I just go to climb. I've always been active (mostly with soccer/martial arts) but am new to the world of planned training. Anyone have any good advice or resources to help guide my direction on all of this? *Bonus* portion is also the resources on meal planning to support all of my ambitions!
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