|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 20, 2015 14:09:39 GMT -7
So yesterday I was supposed to go climbing with my former roommates but one had a bum shoulder and the other had wrecked his hand drinking, so I did the sensible thing and rested my dislocated finger. Today I played some pick up basketball, was very low intensity. The other guys are really out of shape so I was running fast breaks all day. Tomorrow I'll be going with some of my better climbing buddies and I'll try focusing on body position and static climbing. Trying to touch a hold for 3 seconds before using it. This should help increase my lockoff strength according to people on the climbharder subreddit
|
|
|
Post by jetjackson on Oct 21, 2015 10:19:24 GMT -7
There is a whole chapter on strength training packed with useful info. Its mainly focused on finger strength but there is some core stuff in there too. Mainly its just extremely informative about strength training in general which allows you to make better training decisions. Good luck with the progress and sorry to hear about the pinky, I've done the same playing basketball and football (soccer). Hey Rob, thanks for the advice! Do you think it's applicable for a climber who isn't 100% dedicated to climbing? I mean, I like to play basketball twice a week and I also go kayaking 1-2 times per week. Does it make sense to get the book if I don't have enough time to dedicate all my training time to hangboarding, campusboard, etc etc.? Also, unfortunately it's pretty expensive. Tried to look it up on amazon and it's like 200$ for used copies there. Your goal is to compete in local competitions - so you would have to look at what grades the local comp climbers are climbing at. I don't think you could win that comp without purely dedicating yourself to climbing - not this late in the game (30) - unless the standard of climbers locally is lower than what it would be at most gyms internationally. If you want to climb for enjoyment, awesome, but if you want to climb to compete and win, then you are going to have to sacrifice other sports. I would think you would want to be climbing in the V3-4 or above range to not look like a total idiot - so that goal is probably achievable on only a couple of days a week with other sports involved. It really depends on how you define 'not looking like an idiot'. Unfortunately your gym isn't very great for grading. In terms of bench-marking yourself. Three colours to cover grades ranging from V2 all the way up to V15 is rediculous. I'd try and find a gym to go to that uses Font or Hueco grading so you can benchmark yourself properly. $200 for the book seems crazy. I think I paid around $30 USD.
|
|
|
Post by rob on Oct 21, 2015 14:29:30 GMT -7
Do you think it's applicable for a climber who isn't 100% dedicated to climbing? I mean, I like to play basketball twice a week and I also go kayaking 1-2 times per week. Does it make sense to get the book if I don't have enough time to dedicate all my training time to hangboarding, campusboard, etc etc.? Also, unfortunately it's pretty expensive. Tried to look it up on amazon and it's like 200$ for used copies there. I think if you want to get better at climbing, even if you cant dedicate enough time to follow the RCTM program, you will still benefit from getting the book. Its explains the principles of training (not just for climbing but for all sports) so well and so logically it's hard to argue against it. I've read lots of other training books and studied exercise physiology as a minor at university, but I still think I gained a better understanding of effective training strategies from the RCTM than anywhere else. It will make you a better athlete, for all your sports. Can't believe its that expensive! You must be able to get it cheaper elsewhere, I'm in the uk and got it for around £30 with delivery I think.
|
|
|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 22, 2015 1:50:50 GMT -7
Your goal is to compete in local competitions - so you would have to look at what grades the local comp climbers are climbing at. I don't think you could win that comp without purely dedicating yourself to climbing - not this late in the game (30) - unless the standard of climbers locally is lower than what it would be at most gyms internationally. If you want to climb for enjoyment, awesome, but if you want to climb to compete and win, then you are going to have to sacrifice other sports. I would think you would want to be climbing in the V3-4 or above range to not look like a total idiot - so that goal is probably achievable on only a couple of days a week with other sports involved. It really depends on how you define 'not looking like an idiot'. Unfortunately your gym isn't very great for grading. In terms of bench-marking yourself. Three colours to cover grades ranging from V2 all the way up to V15 is rediculous. I'd try and find a gym to go to that uses Font or Hueco grading so you can benchmark yourself properly. $200 for the book seems crazy. I think I paid around $30 USD. You're probably right. I'm not sure what the standard of the climbers at my gym is compared to the rest of the world, but I'll probably have to dedicate myself a little more and read up on how to train smarter. About the benchmarking, you're right. It's not really ideal. All the climbing gyms in Copenhagen benchmark the same way. Maybe I'll have a better idea once I go to Stockholm to climb / Watch the 'La Sportiva Legends Only' event in late November. For now I'll just be working on my core, my finger strength and of course overall strength. It looks like I could buy the book directly of this website with international shipping, something inside me just hates shipping a little book from one side of the planet to the other. Doesn't seem very eco friendly lol, maybe there's an ebook?
|
|
|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 22, 2015 1:55:18 GMT -7
Does anyone know how to multiquote? So I don't have to quote every single reply in a new seperate reply?
Anyway, yesterday I went climbing with my original climbing partners. The gym was very crowded, my pinky was in bad shape and overall I wasn't really feeling it. On top of that I had to check my ego at the door in order to try working some problems statically. I did this by taking a step down to some of the easier problems in my range and then trying to complete them statically (touching holds for three seconds before actually using them). It proved to be a big challenge but it also forced me to get into better positions with my body and it felt like it was good for my lockoff strength and my core musculature. So all in all I didn't send any new amazing routes but I learned things about my bodypositioning in particular.
|
|
|
Post by jetjackson on Oct 22, 2015 10:49:49 GMT -7
Nice! You should get outdoors anyway, plan a trip to that Bornholm place or something. I don't know if there is an e-book, that's a Anderson Bros. question. I've been taking climbing seriously for about a year now. My long term goal is to get French 8a. Here's my blog if you're interested - goal8a.wordpress.com/ - see the issues I have struggled with.
|
|
|
Post by sorvad on Oct 23, 2015 4:37:57 GMT -7
|
|
|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 23, 2015 13:51:45 GMT -7
Nice! You should get outdoors anyway, plan a trip to that Bornholm place or something. I don't know if there is an e-book, that's a Anderson Bros. question. I've been taking climbing seriously for about a year now. My long term goal is to get French 8a. Here's my blog if you're interested - goal8a.wordpress.com/ - see the issues I have struggled with. Yeah, I'll consider going to Bornholm. There isn't much bouldering there though, so I might have to go to Sweden (a place called Kjuge). I took a look at your blog and tried deciphering your excel sheet but I wasn't completely successful. Maybe I'll take a more thorough look at the spreadsheet again later
|
|
|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 23, 2015 13:52:12 GMT -7
What is your experience with the book? Thanks for the link
|
|
|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 23, 2015 14:02:36 GMT -7
Did a late night trip to NKK, climbing with a bunch of friends. Started out by warming up, did some static climbing on some easy routes and then worked on a few blue projects that I've been looking at. I have four blue projects in the pipeline:
1) A slabby route with few, very small holds. 2) A vertical route in a corner with few very big horizontal pinches and two small slopers at the top. 3) A horizontal overhang coming up over a ledge. Big jugs, has a dynamic move (crux) going from overhang to vertical 3 holds from the top. 4) A vertical route that starts with a dynamic move to a shallow 2-finger pocket.
I think over the next couple of months I will be doing mostly yellow problems. Getting that finger strength up, working on my body positioning and hopefully dropping a few pounds. Then every time I go, just give each of these four projects a few shots here and there. Work on the sequence of them. I've been working project '3' for a while and I've got the sequence leading up to the crux down. At first I was losing my feet all over the place but now it's very smooth!
|
|
|
Post by sorvad on Oct 25, 2015 14:50:44 GMT -7
What is your experience with the book? Thanks for the link I got nothing but love for the book! You won't learn much technique from it (if that is what you want buy self-coached climber, great book as well), but for everything else training-wise it is the best you can get. I don't follow everything it says strictly, as I don't always agree 100% with all the stuff. But the book laid out a solid base for my training, and tweak it to my liking. With that being said, I don't think you can speed up you training much, when you are this new to the sport. You will gain a lot just by climbing. But it surely would hurt to implement a few of the principles from the book, just focus a bit more on time spend climbing, over hangboarding, campusing etc.
|
|
|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 26, 2015 0:32:10 GMT -7
What is your experience with the book? Thanks for the link I got nothing but love for the book! You won't learn much technique from it (if that is what you want buy self-coached climber, great book as well), but for everything else training-wise it is the best you can get. I don't follow everything it says strictly, as I don't always agree 100% with all the stuff. But the book laid out a solid base for my training, and tweak it to my liking. With that being said, I don't think you can speed up you training much, when you are this new to the sport. You will gain a lot just by climbing. But it surely would hurt to implement a few of the principles from the book, just focus a bit more on time spend climbing, over hangboarding, campusing etc. I hear a lot of people on reddit and at the gym talking about how beginners should mainly just focus on climbing for at least a year. We'll see what happens. I want to see if I can lose a few kg so that gravity may become my friend instead of my nemesis. That and of course strengthening my fingers, but that should come inherently from the climbing. What grades do you climb at CB?
|
|
|
Post by sorvad on Oct 26, 2015 5:04:37 GMT -7
I got nothing but love for the book! You won't learn much technique from it (if that is what you want buy self-coached climber, great book as well), but for everything else training-wise it is the best you can get. I don't follow everything it says strictly, as I don't always agree 100% with all the stuff. But the book laid out a solid base for my training, and tweak it to my liking. With that being said, I don't think you can speed up you training much, when you are this new to the sport. You will gain a lot just by climbing. But it surely would hurt to implement a few of the principles from the book, just focus a bit more on time spend climbing, over hangboarding, campusing etc. I hear a lot of people on reddit and at the gym talking about how beginners should mainly just focus on climbing for at least a year. We'll see what happens. I want to see if I can lose a few kg so that gravity may become my friend instead of my nemesis. That and of course strengthening my fingers, but that should come inherently from the climbing. What grades do you climb at CB? I can climb all the blue ones (except maybe one or two on the slap) without much effort. Usually I can climb about half of the red ones, but lately it seems like they have become quite a bit harder (same goes for the blue ones but I can still climb them effortlessly). Could be the routesetters, could be because I have put on a few kg's, or could be because I have not been able to climb as much as I like to lately.
|
|
|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 26, 2015 6:08:03 GMT -7
I can climb all the blue ones (except maybe one or two on the slap) without much effort. Usually I can climb about half of the red ones, but lately it seems like they have become quite a bit harder (same goes for the blue ones but I can still climb them effortlessly). Could be the routesetters, could be because I have put on a few kg's, or could be because I have not been able to climb as much as I like to lately. Ah, that's pretty nice. How long have you been at it? It seems as if the extra added weight really makes a HUGE difference. Since I've been trying to finish up my thesis I haven't had a lot of time to go out and exercise. That coupled with me eating more unhealthy takeaway food has definitely resulted in a few extra kgs on the stomach (I can feel it when I go for my weekly seakayak as my wetsuit is starting to become a little tight). It seems like the extra weight is really pulling me down, not allowing me to climb like I did when I was a little lighter. Can't wait to get this shit handed in and get back to my old routines while making some real money.
|
|
|
Post by chemicalclimber on Oct 27, 2015 5:55:19 GMT -7
Yesterday I did two hours of bouldering. Not very high intensity as the gym was pretty packed (That's what I get for going at 8pm on a Monday). I had the opportunity to work on the slabby route that I was projecting the other day. This time I made some good progress and made it to the last move repeatedly. Unfortunately I'm stuck with a a high left foot, a very small hold in my left hand and nothing for my right hand. I'm not really able to stand up on the leg as it's too high for me and there's not enough hold for me to pull with my left hand. I'll have to revisit it and see what I can do. The rest of the time I worked on some problems that had 'non-jugs'. Pinches and 'semi-crimps' mostly, as I do have a tendency to neglect these and opt for the big jugs.
Later today I'm going to play some pick up, hopefully we can get enough players for some good runs. Tomorrow it'll be time for some bouldering with some dear friends (whom I'm also going to 'La Sportiva Legends Only' with). Should be good fun, both the bouldering and the trip to Stockholm!
|
|