I was not anticipating that the thing that limited me the most was not strength in pushing/pulling *up*, but rather forward and in.
That's a natural response when you start -- pulling yourself in so you're closer to the wall, and clinging on for dear life. But it's actually counter-productive, since (as you've found) it tires out your forearms really fast, so you lose grip strength.
As you get more confident, it helps to work on hanging off straight arms as much as possible -- that uses far less strength. Climbing technique is all about using your feet and your legs and your hips and your body position and anything other than your arms to do as much of the work as possible.
So I should train myself to actually be able to do push-ups, hm? Erm, yes.
I knoooow. But they do help balance things out. Useful link:
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That's a natural response when you start -- pulling yourself in so you're closer to the wall, and clinging on for dear life. But it's actually counter-productive, since (as you've found) it tires out your forearms really fast, so you lose grip strength.
As you get more confident, it helps to work on hanging off straight arms as much as possible -- that uses far less strength. Climbing technique is all about using your feet and your legs and your hips and your body position and anything other than your arms to do as much of the work as possible.
So I should train myself to actually be able to do push-ups, hm? Erm, yes.
I knoooow. But they do help balance things out. Useful link:
http://www.stumptuous.com/mistressing-the-pushup
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