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Anonymous
really there's not a lot you can do to condition for rock climbing, other than to rock climb
I've read many a book on the subject (Extreme Alpinism by Mark Twight, Modern Technique for Ice and Mixed Climbing by will Gadd, Climbing Ice by Yvon Chouinard, Training for Peak Performance by Clyde Soles, and Modern Ice Climbing by Jeff Lowe) to name a few.
There are some stuff you should be aware of, a lot of 5.12 climbers can't even do 1 pull up or squat 100#. Pull ups don't equal rock climbing ability, rock climbing is (don't quote me on this, and it's probably wrong) but from my experience 40% finger strength, 40% technique, and 20% body awareness.
You can condition yourself in the gym to do long climbs, but for bouldering and short (less than an hour) on rock you won't even have to. A lot of world class boulderers can't even run a mile without gasing out.
You have to find out specifically what kind of rock climbing you want to do, whether it be Alpine/Mixed/Ice/Trad/Sport/Top Roping/Indoor, and train specifically for that.
But to help grip strength you can buy a finger board, I have the Metolius Simulator, but recently tore an A5 pulley tendon in my ring finger when I forgot to warm up, therefore I can't do any pulling action with my right hand for at least 5 weeks. Watch out for that as well, I've been training to become a world class alpinist since Feb '08 but just recently maybe 2 months ago started on my grip. Progess slowly as well, grip strength doesn't come rapidly, as does nothing in life.
Also check out those books I suggested, maybe not the Alpine or Ice climbing ones if you have no desire for that, but definitely check out Extreme Alpinism by Mark Twight, he pretty much wrote the book on periodization for climbers, and it's a good read.
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