Many current training programs have evolved to emphasize strengthening muscles of the core, that is, muscles of the trunk and pelvis. Core training, especially for rock climbers, should be specific to the required skills; maintaining body tension from your fingers to your toes – not rectus abdominal flexion!

I define core strength as the ability to attain and maintain proper alignments of proximal body parts (torso) during movement, in order to heighten the efficiency of distal body parts (arms and legs). The musculoskeletal system works as a system of levers, therefore the fulcrums of these lever systems must be stabilized for proper force generation.

This is my flash attempt at a blog...I have read and responded to many, but never wrote one of my own. I think it would be appropriate for the first blog to describe the general idea of the website and what the goal is. I know that a blog should be relatively short, and in the future I hope that is true.

The idea of the Athlet'k Spesif:k website is to provide information to climbers on developing as an athlete; bridging the gap between research-based information and how it applies to the climbing athlete. Athletic development has an academic term; kinesiology, which - according to Duane Knudson, PhD is the "whole scholarly area of human movement study, and it's causes in living things".

There are many sub-disciplines to athletic development, all of which I consider crucial to the pursuit of becoming a better climber:
BIOMECHANICS - the quantitative and qualitative analysis of technical and tactical movement.