20 Pro Tips EVERY Climber should know...

Climbing Tips from Magnus Midtbø

Technique and Practice

• Film yourself climbing. Reviewing the video may reveal that your movements look different from how they felt.
• Keep chalk off your shoe rubber, and avoid repeatedly readjusting your grip.
• Try climbing faster while maintaining good technique when possible.
• Climb with straighter arms to save effort, once you trust your finger strength.
• Wave your hands between attempts to help them dry.
• Commit to your attempts instead of repeatedly climbing at half effort. Don’t let fear of failing in a crowded gym hold you back.
• Experiment with techniques such as drop knees, knee bars, flagging, toe hooks, and bicycles.
• Try problems that look too hard, work out the moves, and accept that failure is part of improving.

Skin Care and Training

• Sand down thick or uneven patches of skin, moisturize, and keep your skin dry. Rough holds may wear it down faster than smoother ones.
• Wash chalk off your hands after climbing so your skin can begin recovering.
• There is no single training plan everyone must follow. Regular climbing and hard efforts can build skill, and a hangboard is one possible training tool.
• Setting your own boulders on a spray wall can sharpen movement memory and help you understand how routesetting and body position affect difficulty.
• Add core work after climbing, and warm up for roughly 20–30 minutes before hard efforts to prepare and reduce injury risk.

Equipment, Grades, and Weight

• Choose shoes by trying them on a wall or at a demo; fit is personal.
• Don’t be intimidated by grades. Give challenging problems a try and learn the moves.
• Treat dieting cautiously. Midtbø warns about the risks of disordered eating and advises against pursuing weight loss at the expense of health.

Source and Examples

Presenter/source: Magnus Midtbø, from the Magnus Midtbø YouTube channel. Climbers mentioned as examples: Adam Ondra and Alex Honnold.