Sander
Junior Member
Posts: 61 
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Post by Sander on Apr 11, 2016 23:52:19 GMT -7
I have a steep home board (about 40 degrees overhanging) on which I've done a lot of bouldering on relatively small holds (max 2 pads). Lacking the ability to do ARCing or anything resembling endurance training, I got a set of round, juggy holds for my board. Last weekend I put them up and after 3 times 15 minutes of climbing on them (100-150 moves per 15 minutes) my skin is hurting like hell! All callusses got a deep red color underneath and it feels like I'm about to tear flappers on almost every finger. It's seriously holding me back on smaller holds as well, very disturbing.
Have other here experienced the same problem? How to deal with it? Is it temporary and do I just need to adjust to climbing on these holds? Hope to hear your thought!
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Post by erick on Apr 12, 2016 7:43:22 GMT -7
I have had this problem myself, and unfortunately there is no magic bullet. The best advice from my experience is to sand fingers down so you cannot tear those flaps, and use LOTS of chalk to help lubricate the skin so it does not grab and sheer on the holds. Eventually your fingers will better be able to take the load of your steep ARC route.
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Post by brendann on Apr 12, 2016 7:45:35 GMT -7
Shave or sand your calluses before they flapper. I also wear cotton gloves while sleeping to prevent skin splitting.
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Post by jcm on Apr 12, 2016 8:46:29 GMT -7
Having the right holds- ergonomic and skin friendly- will also help a lot, especially when ARCing on jugs on a steep wall. This applies to both hold shape and texture. For ARCing on jugs, well "broken-in" holds with the texture smoothed off will be much more comfortable; ARCing on textured new holds hurts. You might consider talking to your local gym and buying some of their smooth, worn out old holds. You can also sand down some of the texture on the holds you have.
I ARC on the treadwall at my local gym, and find that there is a big difference between ARCing on a freshly reset treadwall (textured new holds) and a few months later when those holds are smoothed out by many, many climbers. Textured holds feel nice to climb on at first, but after 20 minutes it is rough on the hands; my skin holds up better in the long run on the smoother stuff.
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Post by MarkAnderson on Apr 12, 2016 9:31:33 GMT -7
Agree with everything above, but want to add, some people will use copious amounts of tape around the 2nd and 3rd pads to address this problem. Never done it myself, but I could see it helping a lot. It would take a lot of tape though.
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Sander
Junior Member
Posts: 61
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Post by Sander on Apr 12, 2016 11:18:16 GMT -7
Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback! I already started sanding my callusses more aggressively, hope it helps. I think regarding the shape the holds are pretty ergonomic, but the texture is very rough as they are brand new. I'll try sanding them down a bit and experiment with taping up the critical pads...
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Sander
Junior Member
Posts: 61
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Post by Sander on Apr 26, 2016 0:58:41 GMT -7
Two weeks have passed and it seems I've found a way to not kill my skin! Basically, I can climb on the holds every day as long as I keep to two 'rules':
* Don't do more than 15 minutes. I can get up to 200 moves done in 15 minutes and after that my calluses feel sore, but the next day they're ok.
* Do it at the end of a session. I'm not really sure why this is so important, but it is. When I start with the ARC type climbing straight away, my hands hurt much more and it affects the rest of the training. Maybe skin needs to warm up as well to get more flexible.
Additionally, sanding the calusses down agressively during sessions really helps.
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