[shark]

My ambition is to be able to lie on my back, with my lumbar flat on the floor, and lay my arms on the ground over my head. I have no idea how Long Term this goal is

I do for me: that boat sailed long ago.. and my methods are similar ....

I recall Shark saying that he can, and he climbs considerably harder than me and therefore (perhaps) has stronger lats etc.

@shark: what did you do to achieve this?

Sorry just seen this. It has taken a while. A few years ago I couldn't even lay my arms out flat to the side, or imagine I would ever able to do so.  I do some sort of stretching stuff 3 or 4 times a week. Apart from anything else it makes me sleep more comfortably.

Two key things for me is getting shoulders into position. Usual recommendation is to do it double handed in a door frame pushing shoulder blades together (see below) but I quite often just lean into a door frame. The other thing is to get a little more mobility into your upper spine by lying on a yoga block at base of shoulder blades grasping both elbows with arms over head. Breathe out with each stretch. Picked this exercise up from Steph Davis' blog a while ago.

The other thing I am now able to do is move arms in a full arc whilst lying on my back keeping back of hand in contact with floor throughout the movement. Sometimes can stretch my arms out further by manipulating shoulder and massaging out upper pecs where it goes to the shoulder. Aside from injury prevention Im sure it is possible to gain a bit of extra reach doing this sort of thing as well as improve range of movement on cross through moves etc. 




     

[petejh]

To gain strength, the body really needs to be pushed into it, especially if you are not that young any more.

Can relate to this.

I can't. What are strength gains?

[cha1n]

Where does having the worlds largest climbing shoe collection fit in with this.

Wow, powerclub attacks! Do you and Nai deadhang a lot or something? 

  but I only have 5 pairs of shoes at the moment actually because I sell them on when I discover they don't fit, though I appreciate that I've gone through a fair few models over the years (25 odd  ) Unfortunately I have Morton's toe and get Morton's neuroma in my feet and I usually have to wear a new model for many weeks before the pain starts, so no chance of wearing them around the house to find out.

Dave Macleod won't mind anyway, he places huge emphasis on well-fitting shoes!

[ghisino]

It is interesting that some people may have a completely different concept of what trying hard is. Sort of reminds me of this TEDtalk; https://www.ted.com/talks/emily_balcetis_why_some_people_find_exercise_harder_than_others#t-668019

It always amazes me when I read all the dedicated strength training the people on these fit/powerclubs do and they haven't even climbed 8a sport, especially ones who've been climbing for many years. Surely at that type of level you don't need to be doing anything specific other than trying hard when you're at the wall/out on rock to achieve that.

as you said, we are not all equal in terms of our ability to "try hard".

thats the main point.

i was recently in st léger with two friends trying to climb their first 8a, and although they were giving it their best efforts, and both of them could have done it, both failed and could have benefitted from proper training, defined as a structured prepation to their specific goal.

one of them ironically needed to train his ability try properly hard: you could see he was fighting, although it was a battle against his own psychological walls rather than the route...

[a dense loner]

You have Mortens toe? We've been looking for Pennils toe for years, have you got that stowed away or sold that on? Wouldn't think there'd be much call for it

[webbo]

Where does having the worlds largest climbing shoe collection fit in with this.

Wow, powerclub attacks! Do you and Nai deadhang a lot or something? 

  but I only have 5 pairs of shoes at the moment actually because I sell them on when I discover they don't fit, though I appreciate that I've gone through a fair few models over the years (25 odd  ) Unfortunately I have Morton's toe and get Morton's neuroma in my feet and I usually have to wear a new model for many weeks before the pain starts, so no chance of wearing them around the house to find out.

Dave Macleod won't mind anyway, he places huge emphasis on well-fitting shoes!

I only deadhang when I'm injured.

[galpinos]

It always amazes me when I read all the dedicated strength training the people on these fit/powerclubs do and they haven't even climbed 8a sport, especially ones who've been climbing for many years. Surely at that type of level you don't need to be doing anything specific other than trying hard when you're at the wall/out on rock to achieve that.

Wow. Middle aged men with restricted free time in effective use of training time shocker.

[tomtom]

:D

[comPiler]

Climbing masterclass dates at my wall
2 September 2016, 1:13 pm





I don’t get much time to run climbing coaching sessions these days but I have just put up details of sessions I am running at my own wall in early December and over the Fort William Mountain Festival in February. These always sell out so if you are keen, do ring and book your place.

In the past I’ve tended to run either full day coaching sessions for one individual or shorter group sessions. This time I’ve decided to try out a new format of full day group sessions/seminars. This way, there will be time for two climbing sessions in the day focused on particular elements of technique, training practice and additional exercises, as well as informal lecture/discussions over lunch and after the second climbing session to cover principles and practicalities of planning and customising your training as well as preventing and managing injuries.

I’ll be running two separate one-day sessions on the weekend of December 3rd and 4th. 10am-5pm at my wall in Roy Bridge. Spaces will be limited to 6 climbers per day, £120 per person and climbers of all abilities are welcome. My wall is well suited to running sessions of this type folk operating at recreational grades right through to as strong as you like beasts!

I’ll also be running another one day seminar on Feb 19th 2017, over the Fort William Mountain Festival, as well as more traditional three-hour technique masterclasses on Feb 18th (£60 per person for these).

Full details and contacts to book a place are up on my events page here. See you there!

Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Online Climbing Coach

[comPiler]

Failure to sleep 8hrs = failure to train
6 December 2016, 10:01 am



This is a fantastic lecture by Kirk Parsely on why you need (NEED!) 8 hours sleep per night, and why if you don’t get it, your training, studying etc is at best impaired and at worst a complete waste of time. Kirk lays it on the line. But if you don’t have the hour to watch it right at this moment, here are a few headlines that I hope will encourage you to watch it at the first opportunity:

1. The research shows that everyone settles out at 7.5 hours sleep or more. Genetic exceptions might be more resilient to short term sleep deprivation, but that’s all. They are still slowly breaking themselves by chronically sleeping less.

2. The sleep deprived adapt to feel like they can cope with the deprivation and perform normally. But the research shows that they do not. Their performance remains significantly depressed. They just don't realise it.

3. Are you sleep deprived? It’s extremely likely.

4. Digital screens, caffeine, light in your bedroom, noise in your bedroom are all problems. If you want to respond to your training, you need to address them. Thankfully, they are all fixable.

5. To sleep, cortisol must fall to low levels and melatonin must be released. Nutrition plays a role in both and you can easily manipulate this to make sure you have the raw materials to make what you need.

6. Can’t lose/control weight? It may well be the sleep.

7. Injury risk skyrockets for the sleep deprived. Dose-response relationship.

8. The bottom line - failure to sleep = failure to reach potential. It is therefore the foundation on which any training plan must be built. Don’t kid yourself otherwise.Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Online Climbing Coach

[fatboySlimfast]

aaaah that why Im so shit

[bigtuboflard]

Can someone tell my employer this? Having to regularly get up at around 5am to travel and put in 12 hour shifts followed by me then trying to squeeze in a run, swim or very occasional boulder probably explains why I'm a bit crap at all of them. That said, just applied for a new job which if it comes off will mean me only ever having to work in Sheffield for probably the rest of my working life. That would be really good.

[lagerstarfish]

Ah, I understand the plan now - ensure that as many medcs and nurses as possible are sleep deprived during training and early work life so that they fail to reach their potential and so are less attractive to foreign employers - so we get to keep them

[user deactivated]

It all sounds a bit fishy to me, like one of those TedX talks where they're always quoting 'science' but it's actually a load of crap dressed up as fact.

[webbo]

I haven't used an alarm clock or the like in years. I will go to bed about 10ish and usually wake up between 5 or 6 regardless whether or not I need to get up. Shirley if I needed 7.5 hours plus I would just keep sleeping.

[Duma]

I haven't used an alarm clock or the like in years. I will go to bed about 10ish and usually wake up between 5 or 6 regardless whether or not I need to get up. Shirley if I needed 7.5 hours plus I would just keep sleeping.

Shirley 10 till 5:30 is 7.5hrs?

[SA Chris]

I usually go to bed at 11, but rarely sleep beyond 6, often wake at 3 or 4 and take an hour or so to get back to sleep.

[tomtom]

Been away from baby for last 3 nights. Comfy bed - fairly quiet... slept 6 hours every night... no more...

[webbo]

I haven't used an alarm clock or the like in years. I will go to bed about 10ish and usually wake up between 5 or 6 regardless whether or not I need to get up. Shirley if I needed 7.5 hours plus I would just keep sleeping.

Shirley 10 till 5:30 is 7.5hrs?

I know that but the article talks of having 7.5 hours plus. I didn't mention the frequent waking 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock and so on.

[SA Chris]

But you can have afternoon nanna naps now.

[webbo]

I'm too busy doing nothing to have time for a nap.

[Rocksteady]

This article stuck with me:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

The premise being that our 'natural' bodyclock segments sleep into two parts. The 8 hour sleep was invented in the Victorian era. I find this accords more with my natural rhythms than a block of 8 hours. In fact, often I feel pretty sluggish if I get more than the 7ish hours I'm used to. Might be worth a try over the holidays but in the working week I find it very hard to go to bed early enough to get 8 hours, and have any sort of 'out of work life'. Would rather pack more into the day and sleep less, even if this means I might not be training/recovering/performing at my optimum.

[Duma]

http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=30153&utm_content=buffer1693f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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