[Twiglett]

Starting to climb again following a 10 month layoff (none injury related, Uni and life related!) and also having gained approx 1.5-2st in extra muscle/flab from occasional gym work and not so occasional curry and cake. Pre layoff I had climbed E7/font 7bish/French 7bish).

After a few sessions back my arms feel pretty good, not great but pretty much as you would expect, but obviously my fingers are struggling to cope with the sudden extra weight they need to lug. I've found I can climb problems up to a pretty decent standard all things considered (mid to high 6's), but get knackered much faster, but unfortunatley I can already feel pain at the site of an old finger injury when closing my fist  .

My problem is that I find the easy stuff easy, but i'm afraid to venture onto anything harder as my fingers will need to play catchup with the extra weight. Obviously i'm dieting and trying to run a bit to shift as much as possible, but want to know -

1. Others experiences of returning as a human weights vest after a layoff.
2. Suggestions for training to allow the finger strength to grow. My wondering is that would fingerboarding be safer than bouldering on hard problems to build strength in a controlled way?

Obviously after my finger calms down I'll do the usual jug pulling etc, but have it in mind to try and get back to pre-layof shape by the end of 2012.

Any thoughs or suggestions would be much appriciated 

[tomtom]

From my limited experience, stamina takes longer to come back than strength, surprised to hear the fingers hurting - might just be niggling some scar tissue?

To me the worst thing about coming back after a lay off is going back to the old problems you used to piss and finding them nails.. I found it was better to go somewhere I'd not been before and start with a clean slate as it were..

Finally, it'll come back much quicker than you think.. one day you'll just find yourself moving like you used to - the flow will come back etc..

[SA Chris]

Is losing weight too obvious an option? Get on a bike, run, swim?

[Twiglett]

Obviously i'm dieting and trying to run a bit to shift as much as possible

[SA Chris]

Ok, but I'm saying mix it up a little so you don't get bored. And end up with fucked knees, shins, ankles.

[Twiglett]

Yeah I see what you're saying. I know that losing weight is the best option, and that’s something I’m doing through diet and cardio + generally climbing again. I’m just trying to work out the best way to training again to avoid injuries…

[Paul B]

Take it slowly, it'll be more appealing than a fresh injury and a blow to motivation.

I've had plenty of time off climbing over the last 5 years and it always feels absolutely brutal on both skin and fingers. All of my old scar tissue flares up too (I know others that suffer from this), unless it feels like a fresh injury, I would say its likely scar tissue (but what do I know).

I found icing, hot/cold treatment and deep frection massage helped.

[duncan]

Starting to climb again following a 10 month layoff ... having gained approx 1.5-2st ...

Impressive!

... unfortunatley I can already feel pain at the site of an old finger injury when closing my fist  . ...

Very common.  Whether it is due to old scar tissue or reorganisation of the pain neuromatrix (the pain sensing equivalent of never forgetting how to ride a bike) the management is the same: keep climbing at an easy standard and gradually increase the dose of training at a rate a little slower than you want to.  Increase volume (number of moves) first before intensity (difficulty) would be my suggestion.  A little soreness as you climb shouldn't be a problem, increased soreness the following day is a sign to take it a little easier.

Medical advice from a random on the internet is probably wrong and dangerous.

[Twiglett]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The first few sessions were totally brutal on my skin, flappers on practically every finger, and only managing less than an hour before I was totally boxed. That’s improved to around two hours now, and my skin is already getting accustomed to climbing again. The pain in my finger is in the same area as one of the worst finger injuries I’ve had, so I’m being catious with it whether it’s scar tissue or a new irritation. It looks slightly darker around the area, which might indicate a bit of bruising, and slightly swollen (which it always was pre layoff anyway). The base/socket of the finger is also a bit ‘clicky’. Not sure if that fits the mould of aggrivated scar tissue or new injury?

For the next few weeks I think I’ll focus on quantity like you say, just getting plenty of mileage on easy stuff before trying to move up a gear. Could also get in some core work too. Bit frustrating but much better than not climbing all together…

[Pebblespanker]

had the same issue when I got back into climbing about 6 years ago after a considerable layoff. I too had accumulatecd considerable pub and post-pub related ballast and the biggest issue I had was that what I remembered being able to do was vastly different from what I could now do  Other minor issue was that I was now in my early 40's (past it in other words lol) and battling unfitnes, weakness and age - oh what fun we had.

Had the same finger injury issues too, absolutely no doubt exacerabted by the extra lard, basically it was like trying to suddenly pull your usual hard/hardest moves (based on what I used to be able to do) with a 28lb weight vest with no gentle ramping up from 0lbs as you would do if training. Thus surprise surprise I kept getting tendon tweaks and iffy joints. In the end I gracelessly accepted the new weakness, stopped trying to crank my fat little bod up stuff I used to or thought I should be able to do, accepted the lower standard (for then), went on decent diet, slowly lost weight, bought a fingerboard and used a sensible structured approach to training, the result is I now boulder better than I used to and have very few injuries 

All the advice from the guys above about icing is bang on and worked a treat on my fcuked old carcass, that and also being patient by accepting a longer recovery period than when I was younger

[Twiglett]

That’s one of the more frustrating things, seeing stuff I would have previously done easily now looking as climbable as 8B. I’m 23 so my recovery period isn’t too different to what it once was, at least not since I’ve been climbing over the past weeks.

After reducing your level to easier climbing, did you also fingerboard to build finger strength inline with your (then) current weight? That’s what I’m thinking – combined with a diet to lose weight, fingerboarding might be a good way to begin to build up my fingers to withstand my new weight.

[SA Chris]

I personally think overdoing it on the fingerboard might be a good way of injuring your fingers with your new weight, unless you take it very very easy.

Get some mileage in just climbing in general before hitting any training regime.

[Twiglett]

I think that's bang on. My plan would be to do a few weeks of general climbing to build back up a bit, then fingerboarding on all four fingers, on the jugs on the beastmaker. Thinking repeaters/short sets on the jug type holds than max hangs or anything like that...

[Pebblespanker]

That’s one of the more frustrating things, seeing stuff I would have previously done easily now looking as climbable as 8B. I’m 23 so my recovery period isn’t too different to what it once was, at least not since I’ve been climbing over the past weeks.

After reducing your level to easier climbing, did you also fingerboard to build finger strength inline with your (then) current weight? That’s what I’m thinking – combined with a diet to lose weight, fingerboarding might be a good way to begin to build up my fingers to withstand my new weight.

Thats about the size of it  I did PE type work on the larger holds for a few weeks before gradually starting to work out what my max hangs were, each and every time very gently lowering my (not inconsiderable) weight onto the chosen finger holds , low reps and always towards the middle of a set so I was well warmed up. I then moved into a phase of increasing the number of max strength boarding exercises per set to replace a PE one until the sets were mostly Max strength for a few weeks - hope that conveys what I tried to achieve. The other big no-no was being tempted into trying anything too fingery on the tweaky feckin plastic when down the wall but to rigidly follow a routine that conmbined a steady progression from easy to harder probles in almost a pyramid - beware training with mates who get bored after a few easy probs and want to start working harder ones ... at least until you are confident as cold weak fingers + nasty crimping =  another mistake I made!

[Twiglett]

beware training with mates who get bored after a few easy probs and want to start working harder ones ...

Sounds more like me 

Thanks for the advice Pebble's, i'll give it a go. Mileage on easy shit for now, then adding a bit of structured training in a month or so. Combined with a no cake diet and a bit of cardio I'll be back on form in no time!