Building Body Tension: The Secret Skill Behind Power and Control
Body Tension and the use of the core is quite simply the missing link in most people's physical game. Imagine having a strong upper body, mobile and robust legs, only to have a floppy mid section which never allows you to keep your feet on. Feeling your core working and keeping you stable and in control on the wall is one of the best experiences you can have on the wall. It makes you feel fully in control of all limbs of your body, and able to exert force and pressure where you need to, and get into boxes and shapes that have you feeling a huge sense of connection. But what really is body tension? And why am I giving it the big one about it?
Defining Tension
Body tension can be defined in so many ways, and take in so many different muscle groups, styles of climbing and movements. But simply, I think of body tension as the ability to maintain stability of my core and trunk, but also link the upper and lower body together to provide stability and force on the wall. Having core tension allows us to keep our feet on more, move our body in difficult and tenuous positions which might otherwise result in falling, and exert force on footholds or handholds which we otherwise couldn’t.
Use Cases
So what does that look like, and why is it important? Let me do this visually, and pick out three body tension dependent moves on three boulder problems.
Vecchio Leone, 8B - Getting that right foot out right and ACTIVELY using it, requires a huge amount of body tension. The ability to not only get it there, but keep it there, and push into the foot to do the next move.
The Dagger - 8B - Using the toe hooks and moving your feet around is extremely difficult here, and relies on a lot of lower back strength, but also hip flexor strength. This boulder is impossible without a good degree of awareness and body tension.
Amber - 8B - The start sequence on Amber requires a huge amount of tension in a large but very sloping foothold shelf. If you can’t maintain a solid position here and keep your hips up, the weight of your ass is going to pull you out and off from the footholds in a heartbeat. Here it is purely about keeping pressure and maintaining a position.
How to Train It
Body tension (in my opinion) is first and foremost a technically gained skill. It’s something that you need to practice and incorporate into your game to gain. Some of the climbers I’ve met with the most body tension, have often been the ones doing the least off the wall work. But what they have done is a hell of a lot of climbing on steep walls, and understood and practiced keeping their feet on, and moving in ways that demand body tension.
So practice climbing on a steep board with bad footholds. Use feet out to the side, in high positions, low positions. Force yourself to climb at the extremities of your range of motion. Use tiny smears in more comfortable positions. Use bigger footholds in extreme positions, then begin to blend the two. Practice repeating boulder problems you’ve previously done, but better. Keep your feet on the whole time. Do a hard foot walk rather than take the easy cut loose. Don’t worry about making things feel eliminate, set the challenges for YOU and your needs.
Lastly, if you’re set on some physical training, some front lever and floor core work will never hurt. Deadlifting is also a brilliant lift to get to the idea of firing the whole body at once. Just ensure this stuff is supplemental, not focal.
Stay tight out there,
Eliot