Bouldering training substitutions

[troy]

I'm not able to boulder due to an ankle injury, backstory here rockprodigytraining.proboards.com/post/6683

I'm just about to start campus board training but I'm looking for substitutions for the

 - warm-up boulder ladder

 - hard bouldering

 - linked bouldering circuit

 - intervals

Thanks,

Troy

[jcm]

I'm confused. You injured your ankle in April 2015. Shouldn't this be totally healed by now? If it isn't, getting that back to 100% should be priority #1. Find a good PT. If it is fully healed, and you are just avoiding bouldering out of an abundance of caution, this is really something you need to move past. Bouldering is an essential component -- the essential component -- of training for and improving at climbing. Literally everyone does it. Permanently avoiding bouldering will severely hinder your ability to improve as a climber.

Yes, you hurt your ankle bouldering. This can happen; bouldering is risky. But the answer is not to never boulder again; the answer is to be smarter and more cautious. Be very conscious of padding and landing areas. Consider using a spotter. Avoid, or at least be conscious of, risky moves or positions high above the ground. Maybe start by just doing short boulder problems, or do just the sit-starts of boulder problems, and hop off when your feet get a meter off the ground. You need to get used to bouldering again.

What you don't have to do is boulder high above the ground. You can use bouldering very effectively to train without ever having to get more than a few feet off the ground. When limit bouldering, you are only doing 2-4 hard moves, so if you start from a sit start you will still be very close to the ground. Much of my limit bouldering takes place on an 8 foot tall wall. It works great. For PE and ARC training, think about doing traverses. This has some disadvantages from a technique and specificity point of view, since traversing is different from climbing up, but it is still a good way to train with a low risk of injury.

Lastly, just from looking at your numbers (boulder V6 consistently, and up to V8; aspiring to climb 12a), your power base is more than adequate for your rope climbing goals. Remember that 12a=V4, and 13a=V7. You have plenty of power to climb 12a, and probably just need to improve your endurance, efficiency, and sport-climbing technique/skills/tactics. You can gain all these simply by climbing on a rope as much as possible. So, in the short term, you can get by without bouldering. Use "bouldering on a rope" on hard routes for power, route intervals for PE, and mileage climbing for ARC. These can happen outside and/or on the lead wall in the gym. In the short term, for you, emphasizing route intervals and outdoor mileage, plus a lot more practice at good-old-fashioned projecting, will provide the greatest gains and get you to your goals the fastest.

But eventually, avoiding bouldering will catch up with you, and you will need to start bouldering again to improve. Better to do this sooner rather than later.

[troy]

I appreciate the feedback/suggestions. I should have been more specific on the injury/rehab - I did PT twice a week for six months but regardless I have permanently lost some mobility due to the severity of the injury. Basically when I try to go into a squat position my right foot is restricted so it's not synchronized with my left, the heel picks up off of the ground sooner then the other foot as I squat lower. My fear is with that without the coordinated body symmetry, compressing the lower half of my body when taking falls over and over again is either going to affect some other joints/parts of my body and/or reinjure my ankle.

[jcm]

If bouldering really is off the menu, there are still lots of good options. Consider:

Warmup:
-Traversing. Stay close to the ground.
-Treadwall. Try to figure out a way to get access to one. These are fantastic tools. While you are still looking at a bouldering-style groundfall, you stay pretty close to the ground.
-Route climbing "warmup ladder". Up to and including some "bouldering on a rope"

-Or really just any of the other activities listed (such as rhythm intervals), with the intensity dialed down to warm-up levels). Whatever helps you get warmed up.

Power:
-Campusing, though be careful here; falling off a campus board is the same deal as falling when bouldering.
-"Bouldering on a rope", Work really hard crux boulder problems on routes in the gym or outside. Rumney offers great opportunities for this. Requires a patient belayer
-Max hangs on a hangboard (including 1 arm hangs) for recruitment
- Short, hard sit-start problems on a steep woody, moonboard, or systems board. Yes, it is bouldering, but when you fall off are close enough to the ground that you land on your butt. A very, very effective way to build power.

PE:
Traverse circuits (same principle as LBCs, but sideways and close to the ground, so falls are safer)
Route Intervals
Treadwall
Foot-on campusing (up-down-up-down, etc...boring as hell but effective)
Rhythm Intervals: (Steve Bechtel has written about these; google it)

ARCing:
Again, traverses, treadwall, or route mileage.

[Otis.]

Hello Troy,

I fell off a 20' extension ladder about 5-6 years ago and ended up with a plate and 6 screws on one side and two long screws on the other side to put my left ankle back together. I still suffer from stiffness and immobility in my left ankle with the heel rising when I squat. My left foot also flares out a bit more now. So I am not sure exactly how close the severity of our injuries are/were, but do suffer from at least some of the same issues post injury.

I personally started bouldering again about one year post surgery. I explained bouldering to my doctor and he said my risks weren't significantly different than they were before the break. I did take my time getting back into bouldering and still choose to down climb most of the time to this day. I also won't do any highball stuff or anything over crappy padding. I would recommend talking to your doctor and explaining bouldering/padding and get his/her take on how far you could safely fall.

I am also a big proponent of limit bouldering at low heights for building strength and power. You can do 4-6 move really hard problems without your hands going over 9' in height, so about the same height most men could jump. I've used this with a lot of success and virtually no risk of further injury to my ankle.

In regard to improving mobility, one of the things I have found very useful is doing front foot elevated split squats. They allow you to build some strength back up in the ankle while also pushing the range of motion. You should be able to google them if you have never seen them before. You can set the box as high as you need to get your ankle to just slightly lift as you reach the bottom of your range of motion. Over time, my ankle has loosened up some, but I do anticipate that I will probably have to have some of the scar tissue scoped at some point in the future.

Best of luck on your ongoing recovery.

[jonfrisby]

If you can't Boulder go try Diabolic at Farley and Big Kahuna and bottom feeder at Rumney. You can rap in and place TR on Diabolic and stick clip through the cruxes on the other two. those have v6 cruxes