Friday glee is not entirely convinced by that mat arrangement

[rydra_wong]

The Friday post of glee is where you get to tell us about your climbing-related happiness this week.

It can be a new achievement or adventure, or just that you climbed and had fun; it can be that your favourite climbing wall is expanding or that you bought new rock shoes or that you found a cool ice-climbing vid on YouTube. No glee is too small -- or too big. Members are encouraged to cheer each other on and share the squee.

N.B. Please feel free to post your glee on any day of the week; the Friday glee is just to get the ball rolling.

To enhance this week's glee: Ryan Pasquill onsights James Pearson's route "Power of the Darkside" as a highball boulder problem, then gets his finger stuck in the roof. Featuring the mat stylings of Dan Varian.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

\o/ \o/ \o/

In my experience, climbing tends to involve muscles that very few other things do -- which is why they hurt like hell right now. *g*

It also involves a lot of small tendons, which get stronger much more slowly than the associated muscles do.

So when you're starting out, it's probably best to focus on climbing and acquiring technique (which will take a lot of the weight off your hands and arms). Grip strength will develop on its own. "The best training for climbing is climbing" is the usual advice.

If you want to do cross-training stuff, then something like yoga for flexibility and/or strength training that works the "push" muscles (to prevent muscular imbalances, which can lead to overuse injuries) would be a good bet.

[tea]

I was not anticipating that the thing that limited me the most was not strength in pushing/pulling *up*, but rather forward and in. However, I was pleasantly surprised that even though I have the worst hands with a lot of constant pain from the elbows to the finger joints, they actually felt fine - if not better - while climbing.

So I should train myself to actually be able to do push-ups, hm? Erm, yes. Good idea! :D

Yoga & stretching in general would be such a good idea for me, as I have very inflexible hamstrings. I can bend back very easily, but I can't even sit at 90 degrees with my legs out straight.

Thanks for the advice! Since I really just want to climb a bunch right now, the "best training" advice is just what I wanted to hear.

[rydra_wong]

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:

http://www.stumptuous.com/mistressing-the-pushup

Comms you might find useful:

lifting_heavy_things (for all kinds of strength training, bodyweight exercises included)
sun_salutation (yoga)

[tea]

Whoooaa. I am a physicist and when you pointed out the straight-arms thing, the force-body diagram popped into my head and said "oh, duh". It'd especially help with keeping feet on small holds by pushing into the wall rather than only down! Gorgeous.

Thank you for the comm links! I'm definitely adding them.

[rydra_wong]

Oh, if you geek out on force vectors, you will love this stuff so hard. It's one reason why I always get so excited about bridging problems: get the geometry right, and you can make holds where there are no holds!

I really rec a book called The Self-Coached Climber, which is a fantastic guide to the various strategies of climbing technique and why and how particular moves work (with diagrams!).

It may not be coincidental that John Gill, the guy who was instrumental in establishing bouldering as a sport in its own right, is a maths professor.

[emperor]

I love corner climbs! I can get my feet implausibly high, and push straight against the two walls, and then let go with both hands! It makes me feel like a Real Climber :-)

[rydra_wong]

Oh yes, no-hands rests definitely make me feel like I r SRS CLIMBER. *g*

Indoors, I keep wanting to bribe someone to bring me an espresso on a problem where I can get a no-hands rest ...