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What’s helped you improve your climbing?

One Day Hero

19-Sep-2006
5:00:09 PM

On 19/09/2006 bluey wrote:
>Harsh, One Day hero. And I don't think your comments are particularly astute
>either.
>
>Core strength is crucial to climbing. There's no point having fingers
>of steel if they've got a pile of wobbly crud hanging off them. Having
>strong core muscles means you can get your body to hold the best position,
>keeping you balanced and supporting the hard work that your fingers and
>limbs are doing.

You would be amazed to see what's been accomplished by some people with little experience but steel fingers. How does grade 23 onsight, first day on rock sound?
>
>As for plastic, I agree with Paulie - I sometime fails to see the advantage
>of practising at indoor gyms - the holds are greasy and the routes are
>mostly steep and reachy. It helps for strength but I wouldn't be surprised
>if it undermines technique.

It doesn't undermine technique, it just doesn't help that much. But then again, neither does pilates and neither does sitting on the couch. What it does do is strengthen the muscles and tendons which need to be strong. So that when you get a month off work and spend the first two weeks at the crag getting your technique back you have the strength ready to go and you are less likely to get injured.

One Day Hero

19-Sep-2006
5:03:58 PM

On 19/09/2006 kd wrote:
>I think core muscles are particularly important holding body in position,
>especially around roof/lettes... that way you can use body positioning
> to help you out, rather than brute chin up force, which us girlies generally
>arn't so good at...

Maybe if you did less situps and more woodying you would get a bit of that brute force. Work your weaknesses and all that....

Ronny

19-Sep-2006
5:08:08 PM

I'm fairly sure that no one is suggesting you should just lie on the couch and watch a pilates dvd once a day and you'll climb better. This might have been evident where Paulie said 'Apart from lots of time on rock...', but I guess not.

Climb lots. But when you start to get diminishing returns from just doing as much climbing as you can fit in, (as a generalisation - yes I know generalising on chockstone is a bad idea - this will likely be in the mid 20s somewhere) start to look to some other specific training - such as pilates/situps/campusing or whatever.

One Day Hero

19-Sep-2006
5:43:06 PM

On 19/09/2006 Ronny wrote:
>What a pile of shit! Sounds like this hero only climbs slabs and is giving
>you advice on doign the same...
>
>Sure finger strength is crucial, and technique is mandatory, but alone
>they won't get you up anything steep - believe me, I've got plenty strong
>fingers, not half bad technique, and a majorly jelly like middle, and I
>can run up and down slab all day, but put me on a steep route of the same
>grade... hopeless.

Let's work through your logic rronny
Strong fingers: check
Slab technique: check
Jellybelly: check
Perfomance on steep routes: gay and pathetic
Conclusion: the problem is lack of bodytension

Here are a few suggestions
Maybe you have never developed technique for steep climbing (there is lots of stuff to learn and gyms can help for some of it)
Maybe your strong fingers only know how to crimp but have never learned to slope and pinch (again, a gym could help)
Maybe you can't crank! Full blown cranking doesn't happen much on slabs but can be the only way on some steep routes.
Or maybe it is the gut (why not do some situps and all the stuff above)

DJ Biggs

19-Sep-2006
8:46:34 PM

Reading sanctimonious posts from climbing gurus on the internet who definitely which ever way you look at it are the best climb the hardest and most likely drive red sports cars.

19-Sep-2006
10:35:49 PM

Also found this link somewhere on the web... lots of stretching/ strength work that may complement any
other training regime you may have...

http://www.bodyresults.com/S2Climb10e.asp


Paulie

20-Sep-2006
12:17:48 PM

On 19/09/2006 Ronny wrote:
>Sure finger strength is crucial, and technique is mandatory, but alone
>they won't get you up anything steep - believe me, I've got plenty strong
>fingers, not half bad technique, and a majorly jelly like middle, and I
>can run up and down slab all day, but put me on a steep route of the same
>grade... hopeless.

Maybe we should all look to Malcolm and see what has made him IMO the best all round climber in Oz.

Paul


nmonteith

20-Sep-2006
12:34:03 PM

On 20/09/2006 Paulie wrote:
>Maybe we should all look to Malcolm and see what has made him IMO the
>best all round climber in Oz.

Freak genetics, extreme motivation for perfecting technique, solid training regime and a photographic
brain for route sequences!


gordoste

21-Sep-2006
12:55:37 PM

One Day Hero = troll


manuinthewoods

21-Sep-2006
2:31:18 PM

A lot of people seem to advocate for loosing weight and getting stronger. My method is to put on weight, so I carry an extra few kg all the time (like training with a weight belt, but made of fat instead of lead!).
Then when I want to crank (i.e. holidays) I loose some weight and benefit from the training...

That way you can eat whatever you want and feel good about it...

Actually, I'm just making that up so that my extra-eating created by stress and procrastination doesn't bring me down.

One Day Hero

21-Sep-2006
6:45:58 PM

On 20/09/2006 Paulie wrote:
>Maybe we should all look to Malcolm and see what has made him IMO the
>best all round climber in Oz.

Don't do that, you'll just get the same old obvious method of being good on rock; climb lots, train hard, be super fit, blah blah blah

Instead, why not look at people like Dave Jones and Mike Law. They climb really hard too, but good luck explaining how!


Paulie

21-Sep-2006
7:36:56 PM

On 21/09/2006 One Day Hero wrote:
>Don't do that, you'll just get the same old obvious method of being good
>on rock; climb lots, train hard, be super fit, blah blah blah

In a stupifyingly ironic twist you just answered Claire's question by summing up what everyone here has alluded to in this thread in one fell swoop...well done...I think.

Paul


sliamese

21-Sep-2006
8:36:17 PM

at the end of the day i think you just have to be psyched. you have to WANT to be a good climber. not just thinking 'yeah it would be nice to be strong', you have to want it. first things first IMO is try to stay away from 'hanging' in gyms. you wont find any inspiration in a gym. looking at the latest 'black' route is no substitution to standing under Serpentine. yes they are a good place for people who are working etc to go. but if you really wanted to climb 32 you wouldn't work a job that gave you 4 weeks a year.

one of the best things ive been told is to write out a list of what you want to acheive. have short term and long term goals. this gives you a reason to train etc.

There are 53 messages in this topic.