[tbunbury]

Hey guys I'm relatively new to climbing (2 years) I have terrible body tension and was looking for ways to improve

[tomtom]

Build your core.

Planks (front and side) are a good (and easy) place to start. Also start working overhanging problems making sure you keep your feet on (large hand holds are OK) as this makes your core work - to place and keep your feet on..

[shark]

Hey guys I'm relatively new to climbing (2 years) I have terrible body tension and was looking for ways to improve

Hi tbunbury 

Deadlifts 
Bouldering on a steep wall on poor footholds (deliberately swinging off and getting your feet back on is something thats been successfully used)
Knee raises hanging from a bar is often recommended   
 

[kelvin]

Oddly - I found deadhangs with one foot on massively improved my core.

[SA Chris]

I've got a great workout I do on the monkeybars at the local playpark (at night when theres no-one around!) Which is really improving my crap core strength.

[rich d]

I've got a great workout I do on the monkeybars at the local playpark (at night when theres no-one around!) Which is really improving my crap core strength.

do you fancy posting up the details of it?

[Ti_pin_man]

I can recommend these two sessions done one following the other x3 times each with a two min gap between.

I was pointed to them by a slacklining friend and they've helped me, its taken a few months of doing them to see gains but the full set can be done in 20 mins which is really helpful to fit around life:

[SA Chris]

I've got a great workout I do on the monkeybars at the local playpark (at night when theres no-one around!) Which is really improving my crap core strength.

do you fancy posting up the details of it?

FWIW, yeah, no probs, will do it later. Only been doing them for a couple of weeks, might be good to get some suggestions / refinements.

[petejh]

<2pence> Core workouts for climbing are best if they're made climbing specific - i.e. the exercises that involve climbing moves, or at the least exercises that involve holding your feet onto something which is difficult to hold your feet onto, will improve the specific motor control and muscles needed for climbing moves requiring good body tension; whilst the exercises that don't involve climbing moves will improve your specific motor control and muscles needed for doing those exercises but the crossover benefit into steep climbing with poor feet (classic body tension territory) might not be as great...
So the priority should be finding hard climbing moves requiring body tension, if that isn't possible use other exercises.</2pence>

[Nibile]

Egg. Sactly. Climbing core involves a lot more than strong abs. It's a full body effort that goes from fingers to toes and needs strong shoulders, glutes, lower back, hamstrings.
Isolating abs won't be enough.
I highly advise front levers, deadlifts, and specific climbing, problems on poor footholds and poor handholds on which cutting lose means falling off. No campusing.

[T_B]

My 2p's worth. If you are doing a lot of other climbing/training then core exercises that don't involve hanging off your arms but instead also work antagonists seem like a good idea to me. Check out some of the core exercises you can do with a sling trainer e.g. leg pulls feel very relevant to steep climbing, and have the benefit of working the shoulder stabilising muscles at the same time.

[Ti_pin_man]

climbing are best if they're made climbing specific

I agree but those vids are great for times when you dont have much time and cant get to any climbing walls and dont have any training kit bar yourself. 

[SA Chris]

I've got a great workout I do on the monkeybars at the local playpark (at night when theres no-one around!) Which is really improving my crap core strength.

do you fancy posting up the details of it?

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php?topic=22455.0

for starters.

my workout usually involves (at the end of a hour on bike, so warmed up)

these are nice long set of wooden ones (with bar down the middle and rungs out of either side)

I try and simulate some roof climbing scenarios, without doing any arm work.

1) 2 sets of inverted sit ups (as many as I can do, usually 4-5 at best!) the rungs fit my leg length well (it might not suit yours) but it still hurts a bit behind knees.
2) hold two rungs about shoulder width apart and facing ladder "sideways on" do as many controlled lifts of one foot then the other up to rung height and down. Once I can't do any of these I do a few "dynamically". I have to do a pullup to do this, but working on diong it straight armed
3) swing along length of ladder underneath using toe hooks, as stretched out as possible a couple of times
4) as above but pushing down with feet on rungs
5) swing along ladder releasing toehooks and cutting loose with each hand move, then swinging fett back up and toehooking
6) as above but swinging on each move to push feet on rungs.
7) A few hangs with feet at 90, with the aim of doing something like a front lever eventually
if my arms aren't feeling blown I'll dick about a bit doing monkey swings either between single rungs or double, and some swings doing both hands at once (this isn't recommended unless they are nice fat smooth wooden rungs)

Feel free to take the piss, or try it and and / or suggest variations. Sounds naff, but it's working for me.
 

[nai]

for general core work incorporated into a weights routine try some of the example exercises in this link from Paul B recently. I tried this for the first time this week and can confirm it's an absolute wrecker.

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1515405

[SEDur]

If you have access to a good 45 degree project board, that may be a good place, as using bad footholds forces you to develop body tension. I don't think there are many exercises that fit body tension training quite so much into climbing style conditions, then just climbing.

Don't forget, your core is more then just your abs. Think back, quads, hip flexors etc.

If you are looking for an intense core workout, P90X:
Here is a 10min clip.


Core stability should also be something to consider specifically.