Friday glee fits between the fridge and the wall

[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: Piggy the cat is more hardcore than you. I link to her nonchalant demonstration of the inverted back-and-footing downclimb so that we may all watch and learn.

Comments

[astridv]

Wow, that cat wins at climbing.

I have glee. Well, more like a recommendation! I tore off a callous a week ago and someone on LJ rec'd me this stuff: http://www.climbonproducts.com/climb-on-bar-1-oz/
So I ordered a jar on Amazon (the things you can buy on Amazon...) and it works exactly as advertised. If you generiously put it on the raw skin and stick some tape on top you can climb on it without even feeling the spot. Healing speeded up rapidly too, soon as I started using it.

[rydra_wong]

Ooh yes, Climb On is great stuff. It's also great to smear a little bit on your hands before you go to bed, to keep the skin in good shape generally.

The other tip I've found very useful is to sand/file your callouses down -- the skin stays strong, but it smooths down the bits that are rough or ridged up and liable to rip off.

[rydra_wong]

I am working diligently on training to get some power-endurance. It's not a very gleeful process, but I feel pleased with myself.

And one of the climbing walls I visit has a new feature wall featuring a fist-jamming crack. \o/

[astridv]

What kind of exercises do you use for endurance?

[rydra_wong]

I am not an expert on this, but for power-endurance (anaerobic endurance, as opposed to aerobic endurance), I'm trying 4x4s.

Basically, you pick a boulder problem (or short route) and repeat it 4 times without pausing, then take a break to recover. That's one round. Then you do three more rounds, separated by breaks. Thus, 4x4.

Details (whether you do the same problem or a set of 4 different problems, how long you make the breaks, etc.) are variable, but the basic idea is that the problems should be hard enough that you get seriously pumped doing them without pausing, and on the last round you should be struggling to finish it. Basically, if it's not gruelling, you're working at the wrong intensity. *g*

But it is apparently the business for building up power-endurance.

For aerobic endurance, I believe you want to work at the level you can climb without getting pumped (or only getting slightly pumped) for a looooong period of time. So, doing circuit bouldering at an easy level, or going round and round and round on the traverse wall. Not nearly so important if you're primarily bouldering rather than doing routes, but it's good for overall conditioning and you can use it to practice technique.

[astridv]

Basically, you pick a boulder problem (or short route) and repeat it 4 times without pausing, then take a break to recover. That's one round. Then you do three more rounds, separated by breaks. Thus, 4x4.

That's interesting, I'll try that. How long are the breaks, like a minute?

[rydra_wong]

Longer, as a whole. I've been doing 4x4s on routes, and taking 10 minutes or longer between rounds.

Neil Gresham suggests somewhere that the breaks should be at least 1.5 times the time you spend climbing.

Then as you improve, you can make it harder by increasing the difficulty of the problems/routes, and/or shortening the breaks.

But as I understand it, you want to get seriously pumped, then almost completely recover between rounds, so it's just the last round that destroys you. *g*

[wpadmirer]

Ooo, fist jamming is cool. I suck at it, but I love the move.

[wpadmirer]

I love that cat video!

I've climbed twice now in the past week, and I'm supposed to climb again tonight. I'm, getting my form back! I was able to do a couple of 5.8s that had tricky footwork, which makes me feel like I'm back on my way again after being away for so long.

[rydra_wong]

Yay footwork! \o/

[fadeaccompli]

I finally got RL stuff squared away enough to get myself out to the gym three times a week instead of just two. (Since the usual two both involve classes--yoga or powerhouse--they're not either really full climbing sessions.) A tiny win, but a win nonetheless.

[rydra_wong]

Yay win! So does your gym have classes as well as climbing? That's interesting.

[fadeaccompli]

Yeah, it offers yoga once a week at one location, and powerhouse a few times a week at each location. (Plus a weights class, I think?) It's also got climbing classes and such, but the yoga and powerhouse are free to members. It's a nice setup, not least of which because it helps remind me to come in regularly.

[rydra_wong]

I forgot to ask -- what's powerhouse?

[fadeaccompli]

It's a 20-30 minute class focused on building core muscles. Lots of short sets of rather painful exercises, about half of which I can't complete in full. Thank god it's short, because it's brutal.