Post by rockobabble on Feb 26, 2019 9:36:56 GMT -7
Hi All,
New to the forum. Hoping for general guidance advice, which is prompted by pulley strains and medial epicondylitis.
My background: (nearly) 38y/o. Climbing off/on sporadically, never seriously until now, since high school though with large (years) gaps of non-climbing (mostly due to living in non-climbing-culture places). Finally in a place to climb at will, frequently, indoors (Portland, OR). I picked-up bouldering as I love it the most and the gym next to my house is conveniently a bouldering-only gym.
Anyways, before resuming 2-3x/week bouldering last June, I had been doing bodyweight strength-training for over a year. Basically I'm in the best shape of my life with a very clean (no-judgment, just works for me) paleo diet. Core strength is progressing, slowly, but surely. Flexibility has been a parallel focus of mine, as has Tai Chi. In a nutshell, my general fitness has been on a very positive trajectory for going on 2 years.
However reading everything that I have and noticing for myself, this general fitness is not directly translating to climbing proficiency neatly, per se. I do think my baseline fitness at this stage allowed me to suddenly flash every V4 in sight after re-starting bouldering last June. (as an aside, I only ever red-pointed a V3 once before that, 4 years prior). Very quickly I hit the V5s and have been smacked in the face with my technique inefficiencies. And that I've come to terms with cause I want to learn more efficient, flowing technique.
So with that out of the way (thanks if you're still reading), I'm wondering how to balance (again, in a general sense) injury prevention with technique improvement and strength/endurance progression.
1) Reading Dave Macleod's books I realized that I should probably be hangboarding an open-hand grip (which is woefully weak). However, he sites that "once hangboarding has replaced climbing, it's not helpful." .... hmm, makes me think I need to spend some of my climbing days doing hangboard training and practicing open-hand grip on very easy routes to get used to it (like V0-V2). Is this sensible or anyone with experience?
2) Elbow tendinitis: the flexbar has been great for rehab and I'm also using it as a pre-hab... I'm basically using it everyday. However, I noticed that I was suffering mild/intermittent/brief tendinitis even before my recent return to bouldering: when I was doing ring-rows for my bodyweight training. Curious if anyone thinks that, assuming the arms are kinetic chains, that if I strengthen my finger pulleys with hangboarding, wrists with conditioning, and scapulae with specific exercises, I can slowly build a safer approach to pulling on handholds (I have a difficult time with biceps overactivation even on brief lockoffs). Am I missing the mark or is this line of reasoning sensible?
3) I know people tend to cite that doing front lever progressions have translation value for core-body tension in climbing. Seeing as how I was already doing these progressions in the time before I returned to climbing, I can see it's value in my leap in difficulty levels despite years of non-climbing. Wondering how others fit core body training exercises around climbing cause if I'm pushing hard on exercising core, my climbing will inevitably be fatigue-ridden (and vice-versa)...
4) I don't want to underestimate the importance of technique building. Someone told me to just ride my current flash level (V4) and perfect the technique much more of my climbing time than to spend lots of time on a V5 project. Was wondering if I should only focus on improving individual moves on V5s as a way to slowly build technique and avoid injury. If I try to climb the whole route, I tend to get hasty on hard moves and crimp too much, lock-off my elbow too-much, etc.
Wow I'm gonna stop typing now. Thanks for any experience others are willing to share that might help!
New to the forum. Hoping for general guidance advice, which is prompted by pulley strains and medial epicondylitis.
My background: (nearly) 38y/o. Climbing off/on sporadically, never seriously until now, since high school though with large (years) gaps of non-climbing (mostly due to living in non-climbing-culture places). Finally in a place to climb at will, frequently, indoors (Portland, OR). I picked-up bouldering as I love it the most and the gym next to my house is conveniently a bouldering-only gym.
Anyways, before resuming 2-3x/week bouldering last June, I had been doing bodyweight strength-training for over a year. Basically I'm in the best shape of my life with a very clean (no-judgment, just works for me) paleo diet. Core strength is progressing, slowly, but surely. Flexibility has been a parallel focus of mine, as has Tai Chi. In a nutshell, my general fitness has been on a very positive trajectory for going on 2 years.
However reading everything that I have and noticing for myself, this general fitness is not directly translating to climbing proficiency neatly, per se. I do think my baseline fitness at this stage allowed me to suddenly flash every V4 in sight after re-starting bouldering last June. (as an aside, I only ever red-pointed a V3 once before that, 4 years prior). Very quickly I hit the V5s and have been smacked in the face with my technique inefficiencies. And that I've come to terms with cause I want to learn more efficient, flowing technique.
So with that out of the way (thanks if you're still reading), I'm wondering how to balance (again, in a general sense) injury prevention with technique improvement and strength/endurance progression.
1) Reading Dave Macleod's books I realized that I should probably be hangboarding an open-hand grip (which is woefully weak). However, he sites that "once hangboarding has replaced climbing, it's not helpful." .... hmm, makes me think I need to spend some of my climbing days doing hangboard training and practicing open-hand grip on very easy routes to get used to it (like V0-V2). Is this sensible or anyone with experience?
2) Elbow tendinitis: the flexbar has been great for rehab and I'm also using it as a pre-hab... I'm basically using it everyday. However, I noticed that I was suffering mild/intermittent/brief tendinitis even before my recent return to bouldering: when I was doing ring-rows for my bodyweight training. Curious if anyone thinks that, assuming the arms are kinetic chains, that if I strengthen my finger pulleys with hangboarding, wrists with conditioning, and scapulae with specific exercises, I can slowly build a safer approach to pulling on handholds (I have a difficult time with biceps overactivation even on brief lockoffs). Am I missing the mark or is this line of reasoning sensible?
3) I know people tend to cite that doing front lever progressions have translation value for core-body tension in climbing. Seeing as how I was already doing these progressions in the time before I returned to climbing, I can see it's value in my leap in difficulty levels despite years of non-climbing. Wondering how others fit core body training exercises around climbing cause if I'm pushing hard on exercising core, my climbing will inevitably be fatigue-ridden (and vice-versa)...
4) I don't want to underestimate the importance of technique building. Someone told me to just ride my current flash level (V4) and perfect the technique much more of my climbing time than to spend lots of time on a V5 project. Was wondering if I should only focus on improving individual moves on V5s as a way to slowly build technique and avoid injury. If I try to climb the whole route, I tend to get hasty on hard moves and crimp too much, lock-off my elbow too-much, etc.
Wow I'm gonna stop typing now. Thanks for any experience others are willing to share that might help!
