Originally Posted by
chefisaac
Mr. B: Thank you. I am hitting the gym more since the weather is changing and days are getting shorter (and I have to work). Is there anything in the gym I can do to help me climb better?
In the absence of Mr B, I'd say not much that is climbing specific. Anything you do to get fitter will help, of course, and working on your core will certainly be of benefit.
One candidate is a stepping machine, like stairmaster or its equivalent. It only approximates the experience of climbing out of the saddle, but that can be helpful because one of the techniques for recovering on the bike while climbing is to shift
up one or two gears, stand up out of the saddle, and proceed at a lower cadence than you were employing while seated. If you can slow the cadence down to the sort of rhythm you'd use on the stepping machine, you can use your bodyweight to give your quads a break and get your HR down a bit before resuming a seated position and shifting down again.
Oh, and outside the gym, always choosing the stairs rather than the lift isn't a bad idea either. Every little helps. But there's no doubt that the best training for hill-climbing is hill-climbing.