Training for The Normal Force

How can you train to gain The Normal Force?

There are a lot of ways to increase The Normal Force, like compression and stemming etc. But these are special moves for special circumstances. On a "blank" face you cannot simply use compression to stick to the wall, this requires an orientation of holds to enable to to find a direction to create compression. There are however some general considerations that will increase the normal force and there are things you can do to exploit this in your training.

In general you know to "stick close to the wall" and on a slab you might not want to... rather stick your butt out to center the weight above the feet. In all circumstances, this is about creating a force into the rock and you have muscles that you can use to create even more of this pressure than what gravity alone gives you. Use your core muscles to tighten and press your feet into the rock with your abdomen. The limit of how great a force you can create is down to your core strength... and a few other factors.

Think of how you can stand an a blank vertical wall if you grab a jug and place your feet directly on the blank wall. You can stay there, but only if you apply some pressure on your feet. The required push into the wall on your feet results in an equal pull on your hands on the jug. The same thing applies at any angle and with any size hold and with any type of grip. Standing on the same blank wall, fully extended, hanging on small crimps... is equally possible. This does however require a lot more core tension to create the required normal force to not slip.

The core is the core, is the core...

Core strength is of course essential, but core strength is not core strength. Your core is made up of a gazillion muscles or so and not everyone of these are involved in creating this specific tension. Doing a lot of traditional crunches will enable you to do... a lot of crunches. A crunch targets your ability to curl you upper body inwards, fighting gravity. Thinking about how you use your abdominal muscles during a smear (as described above), do you recognise the motion or tension from a crunch here?

The required core tension is initialized low in the thigh, then hip muscles, on to the abdomen and upward. It would then be reasonable to train these specific muscles, mimicking this load as closely as possible in your training. Crunches are the exact opposite and does not follow trough down to your legs at all. To gain more control ver The Normal Force you should include or even focus on exercises that include the legs and puts load in the correct area and direction.

Some exercises that are worth considering are: leg raises (hanging or lying), leg lowering (single or double), reverse crunch, suspension crunches, the plank, the spiderman plank crunch, etc. To get a more complete range of engagement you could even combine exercises like double leg lowering with reverse crunch.

The core is the core, but is there more...

So what if you do have the best set of core muscles ever... are you all set? Taking a step back to the "illustration" of The Normal Force by hanging on a jug with both feet placed on the blank wall... you still need to be able to hang on the jug. Pressing harder and harder with your legs... the thing that popps is likely to be your hands, not your feet. This becomes more and more likely as your body gets more extended and the holds get smaller. The point is that you will always need grip strengt or contact strength to keep from popping the hands off the holds.

Finger strength and contact strength is already a well known and prioritized area of climbing training and should remain so, even in the context of climbing technique. You can use it to "hang on", but it helps to know how and why... and the finer details about what "hanging on" actually means.

May The Normal Force Be With You!