The first time I went ice climbing, my calves were exhausted. I did some research to find how I could fix this via training.
So, what are some good calf exercises for ice climbing? Calf exercises are essential to make sure you have the strength to support yourself. Some of the best ones include:
- Calf raises
- Farmers walk (on your toes)
- Jumping squats
- Weights press/raise
- Jump Rope
When you go ice climbing, you rely on your calves to keep your body upright and hold you in place. Without this, you risk falling, which is something that you want to make sure to avoid at all costs; to do so, it’s important to build up strong calves. The exercises lifted below have been chosen because they’ll make your calves stronger and will also increase your stamina, which is good for long climbs. Additionally, many of them can be performed at home and don’t require a lot of additional gear.
The Importance of Strong Calves
Before we get into the exercises, I think it’s important to understand why strong calves are so important to ice climbing. The main reason behind this is because of the strain put on that one specific body part, and the dangers of falling when you’re leading.
Strain on Your Calves
When you’re on a route, the only thing you have connecting yourself to the wall is a 1-inch piece of metal attached to the front of your crampon and drive into the ice. Using this, you need to be able to not hold yourself in place, but also maneuver your body into a variety of different positions so that you can work your way up the route.
Doing so requires that you hold yourselves up with your calves to keep your crampons at the right angle. While this isn’t challenging to do so at first, you need to stay in this position for a long period of time (10+ minutes). Additionally, if you’re a beginner or you get scared on route, you may have a tendency to squeeze your muscles harder than intended, which can lead to early fatigue.
Danger of Falling
When your muscles get fatigued, you run the risk of missing a placement or fully just having your body give up on you, which can lead to a fall. In the sport of ice climbing, this is something that needs to be avoided at all cost.
Ice climbing falls are bad for a variety of reasons. I have an entire article written on why you want to avoid them, but the spark notes version is: if you fall, it’s likely that one of your tools (maybe even your crampons) will remain stuck in the ice. This can contort your body out of shape, keeping some parts of you attached to the wall while others fall. Massive strain will be placed on your bones and joints, which can lead to long-term and sometimes life-altering injuries.
Best Calf Exercises
To avoid these injuries, it’s important that you train enough so that your body ca respond to commands and do what you need it to do. Below is a list of some of the best calf exercised to make sure your footwork stays solid.
Calf Raises
Calf raises are the oldest, simplest, and maybe best calf exercise out there. All you have to do is find a ledge, stand with your toes on the ledge, and drop your heels as far as flexibility will allow. Then, using you calves, stand all the way up on your toes, as high as you can go. Repeat the motion as many times as you can (some people can do hundreds of calf raises in a row).
One of the great things about calf raises is that they require almost no equipment and can be performed almost anywhere. You can also pick the number that works for you and increase it as your fitness builds.
A couple of tips:
- Integrate some holds! Do enough calf raises to tire yourself out, and then raise up on your toes and hold yourself there for as long as you can. This more closely mimics ice climbing, where you need to maintain a position.
- Watch something! Position your raises so that you can watch TV while you do them, to help pass the boredom.
Farmers Walk on Toes
The farmers walk is a simple exercise where you hold something heavy in each hand and then walk in a straight line. This works almost every muscle in your body.
By doing a variation of this exercise where you stand on your toes, however, you can use it to specifically target your calves. Pick up a dumbbell, kettlebell, or any other weight, go up on your toes, and walk back and forth for as long as you can.
A major benefit of this exercise is that it requires you to hold a position for a prolonged period of time. This increases your anaerobic fitness, which will be useful for long ice climbing routes.
Jumping Squats
Jumping squats are more of a general fitness exercise. You can integrate them into your workout routine, or use them as a cardio exercise that has some calf benefits to it.
All you have to do here is lower yourself into a squat and then thrust upwards with your legs. Once your legs are straight, use your calves to push you up farther so that your feat leave the ground. Land, drop back into a squat, and repeat.
I wouldn’t recommend using jumping squats as your sole exercise for working calves, but they’re great to supplement one of the above exercises, or to get a little bit of calf work in on a day when you don’t have time to do something more intense.
Weighted Raise
This exercise is a variant of the aforementioned calf raise. It’s the same motion, except you weight yourself down as you do it, which adds more strain to the muscle and can lead to greater growth.
Because of the added weight, you need to do fewer of these to work your calves effectively, which can be great if you’re strapped for time or simply impatient. However, because you’re doing fewer exercises, you build up less anaerobic muscle. This is less than ideal for ice climbing.
Because of that, I wouldn’t recommend using a weighted raise as your primary exercise. What you can do, however, is do 3 sets of these at the end of every workout; it’s quick, and it will still build some calf strength.
Jump Rope
This is a great one for building cardio in both your calves and your overall body. Jump rope doesn’t require a whole lot of explanation, so I won’t go into details about it. The benefits of this exercise are highly touted.
It doesn’t work your calves exceptionally well, especially if you already have a decent degree of fitness, but it does provide a nice burn on an off day.
Other Factors
Now that we’ve covered the exercises to do, let’s talk a little bit about some other factors that can influecne your footwork when ice climbing.
Gear
What gear you have on your feet can drastically change the pressure that will be placed on your calves. For example, ski boots are going to provide a stiffer surface to stand on, which means your calves need to do less work to hold you in place. Of course, mountaineering boots still have their advantages over ski boots, but it’s something to be considered when you pick your gear. Even within the mountaineering boot category, there are some variances in the level of stiffness provided.
Another factor is the crampons that you’re using. Typically, dual-point crampons provide more secure footing for you to stand in, because they bite better into the ice. As with above, the more secure the foothold is, the less work your calves need to do to hold you there.
Technique
Finally, and most importantly, is your technique. No amount of strength or equipment can compensate for bad technique, especially when ice climbing.
The most important thing, as I mentioned above, is to not be too stiff when you climb. Stiffness means you’re clenching your muscles, which can lead to tightness and fatigue. Instead, work on relaxing as you climb and letting everything move smoothly. Doing so is one of the many tricky parts of ice climbing: holding your muscles stiff enough to provide support, but not so stiff that they tire early.
Another thing to watch is your foot placements. The more trustworthy a piece of ice you find, and the better you get your points to stick, the less strain you’ll need to put in your leg to hold you in place.
Finally, rest can be a big factor. Whether this means placing extra weight on three limbs so that you can shake out a leg and release some tension (as you often see climbers do with a hand) or putting in an ice screw to hang off of for a few minutes, rest is an important thing that you should never be too proud to do.
