[Fingers of a Martyr]

how many people on here can do a 1 arm pull up. if so how did u train up to doin it. performing negs and locks at the moment but it still feels a long way away. also any tips on how to get better locks at 90 and 120 wud be appreciated. can hold for about 4 seconds with no assistance and with other arm on bicep can go on forever. cheerz.

[unclesomebody]

just climb steep stuff, on jugs, and do some pull ups every now and then.  Then just do lock offs and slowly slowly it will happen.  The first time I saw a one armer done was when I went to one of those Neil Gresham sessions (back in the day) and he wsa blabbing on, then all of a sudden ripped a one armer.  I decided that day that I will be able to do one.  6 months later, I was suddently able to.  Just through lots of steep, powerful climbing.  However, they are totally pointless and only a good party piece...

the question is how many can you do?

[Fingers of a Martyr]

i would disagree with the 'totally useless' part but cheerz.

[unclesomebody]

hmmm... do you know of a route/problem I could put these strengths to use?  as far as I have seen, there is no problem that REQUIRES a one armer... you can always use your other arm, or your feet.... but if you find one that necessitates a one armer let me know

[dave]

i think being strong enough to do them is useful. actually doing them probably isn't useful per se at all.

the famous point in case (wether its true or not) is the old "dave graham can't do a one armer" thing.

[Stu Littlefair]

Body strength in climbing is useful, but I reckon most climbers biceps are strong enough already. On a big lock you're more likely to be let down by your back or shoulders or stomach muscles than yer biceps.

It therefore follows that one-armers are as useless as climbing exercises come.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

i think that being strong enough to do them is very important but they are the ultimate test of the strength to weight ratio. if they're useless then why do top climbers such as parry, earl, moon and smith train them? however i totally agree that they're usless without the finger strength to back them up. think of it this way. if u can 1 arm dead hang first joint cimps and open hand then one amrers are totally neccesary.

as for the dave graham thing he don't need to do them cos he's clued to rock with his fingers so he can just slap and dyno for every small edge but a lot of people need to reach them statically or under a degree of control.

[Carnage]

Always struck me as a bit of a party trick. Or useful for showing the meatheads up in the gym. But thats about it. Never come across a problem with a move that can only be done through the use of a 1- armer.

Fingers are where its at.

[a dense loner]

after about 30 seconds locking off i get bored, mate sam n his mate paul used to lock off until they passed out in their heady trainin days. i did curls n negative one-armers to practice for one armers. i didn't do this for long tho, 3wks-a month. nowadays i find i can do one very easily or struggle to do one, there appears to be no rhyme or reason behind the two :?  i personally don't think they help at all, but i find them ok so who knows?

[cofe]

after about 30 seconds locking off i get bored, mate sam n his mate paul used to lock off until they passed out in their heady trainin days.

  stop it dense i'm crying    

i would have loved to see westie pass out though.........can it be arranged - kim could film it and sticj it on't net :up:

[clm]

i dont think they are important.  i am massively,hugely, enormously and obscenelystrong yet cant do a one armer.  itsall hype.  you guys are all thugs, all strength and no technique.

[dobbin]

I did a one armer in font once. Some people laughed at me. I haven't been back.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

hi guys, thought i'd just let u no that i , god knows how, managed to crank of my first one armer from 120 lock to full lock and back down. i was so surprised as i'd been bouldering for the previous two hours then had a two hours rest. i couldn't believe it . i did  it static as each centimetre seemed like an eternity when pulling up. can any of u do them on crimps? now that wud be useful to climbing, no?

[a dense loner]

stop it dense i'm crying  

i would have loved to see westie pass out though.........can it be arranged

i'm sure it can be arranged, i will take bets at what stage he stops laughin before goin under.  
not tried a one-armer off a crimp, doubt it very much tho

[Fingers of a Martyr]

do u them static or dynamic dense. as in one swift pull and you're up or does it takle while to get to full lock?

[a dense loner]

pretty slow, but you didn't see me climb today. don't matter if u can do em if you're toss at the crag. i was toss at the crag :cry:
doin em fast (i don't mean jerkin) n comin down real slow is also good, i should remember that i don't take my own advice tho :wink:

[a dense loner]

ps there are people on here who can do them a lot easier than me, but i've never liked them much anyway

[Fingers of a Martyr]

you're the only one replyin though :D  if u think u were bad at the crag u shud have seen me. simple 7b lip/roof. i've never been more angry in my life. fell off at the last move (not the crux) about 10 ten times then landed in sum sheep shit (brand new scarpa vision ruined ahhh:evil:  ). lol. good job there was ne one else around other wise wud have been reported or summit. scared all the sheep away with some loud obscenities though. lol

[Bonjoy]

If you really need to know about one armers check this link http://www.planetfear.com/climbing/forum/t.html?t=1183, be warned though don't blame me if your brain has turned to a rotten mush after wading thru 800+ postings of tedious muscle freak bullshit. I did like this one though:
[581/811] From KONG - Posted on Wed, May 26, 2004 at 9:52am hi my name is KONG, i am poor but warm-hearted. give me a moment and i will show you how to live a better life. can you help me i need to find a turkish tortoise, any kind will do but preferably one with a booofont wig and clicky claws and droopy eyes and cracky tough shell, with eyes like fire on water when oil is burned in a ring around my boat, on the pond, in the park, while you stood laughing on the bank throwing breadcrumbs and gravel;-(.
 :D

[T.H.]

I was keeping an eye on that thread too, but after the 500th post I gave up.  What a bunch of w*ankers.

Anyway, Blondie, it appears that one armers are decidedly uncool, but personally I've found them to be very good training.  I agree with most people that no climbing involves a one-arm pull-up, but that is not why people train them.  I do them as part of a whole training package designed to get stronger, and therefore make things easier.

I'd suggest you've got two ways of improving.  The eccentric contraction training method where you pull up with two arms, and then remove one hand and as slowly as possible lower yourself down, adding weight as it gets easier.  Or the complicated method where you put up a pulley system to remove some of your weight so that you can do a few one armers, reducing the weight as you get stronger.  Either way is going to get you stronger and in no time you should have a great party trick.

Remember, you only need to train a muscle group in this way two or three times a week, any more and you won't improve, and you'll be heading towards a good dose of tendonitis.

[Doylo]

that planetfear one armer thread had a right load of hommes on it, fucking scary it was.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

the thread is interesting. two very different opinions from vince and samson both claiming they get the best results. going to failure or not is the big thing they disagree on. both seem to know their stuff. i'd go with samson failure isn't the way to go. aaaaah stop calling them a party trick they're pretty much the ultimate strength test which WILL :!:  translate into (with the finger strength to back it up) being a better boulderer.

[T.H.]

Sorry Blondie, I was only joking when I called it a party trick.  Keep training.

I agree with you about front levers aswell, the owen.  http://www.ukbouldering.com/media/images/timFrontLever.jpg   :

[Fingers of a Martyr]

impressive. is that u?

[dave]

less impressive when you notice his knees are archored to the roof - CHEAT.

[T.H.]

You don't understand the pain I had to go through to get those hooks inserted in my knee caps.

[Stu Littlefair]

You're all wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.

Look, I spent ages learning to do one armers, front levers etc, etc. It did me so little good for all the time I spent training it. Now I'm so weak I can't do a true one armer at all any more, and I can only hold a front lever for a minute or so  :wink:

...but my overall body strength for climbing is at an all time high. Why? Postural exercises, getting the antagonistic muscles strong, getting a strong back, getting stronger CALF MUSCLES. The point is that one armers are all very nice, but it's not your biceps which are your weak point for climbing, it's all the other little muscles. It's the muscles you're neglecting, like the ones that hold your shoulders back when undercutting.
Training one armers will give you a minimum improvement, but focussing on other muscles will let you see more improvement in your climbing.

Rant over. I'll admit One armers are pretty cool. I rate Malcs one armer at the tor as the hardest problem in britain....

[Rocketman Rob Smith]

HI Stu

quite intrigued to find out exactly where malc's one armer is. Is it on the pinches wall? Its just some one showed me where it supposedly is and it looks pretty impossible.

[Tim Heaton]

Stu,
Have you been training your antagonists in the gym specifically or just generally through climbing? I had to have two months off recently due to a finger injury and decided to go to the gym instead, my regime consisted of 2 days a week doing the following compound exercises, varying the reps but never any more than 5:

Day 1:
Squat
Military Press
Rows
Dips

Day 2:
Deadlift
Bench Press
Pull Ups

When I started back up again although my body positioning and balance was shot to pieces for a couple of weeks and my fingers were obviously weaker I hadn't actually regressed much at all and within a week was probably better than I ever had been. What exercises have you been doing? Can you recommend any good ones?

I would really recommend Squats and Deadlifts as although they may seem pretty useless in climbing movements they really improved my vertical jump and since they pretty much work every muscle in the body can give you pretty awesome overall strength. I've been told that these exercises in particular help release growth hormone so that your muscles get stronger. I don't know if this has a basis in fact or not but I wasn't going to argue with the bloke who told me, hhhhuuugge!!!

 

[Tim Heaton]

Malc's one armer is indeed on Pinches wall. Imagine you are doing the whole set of problems on the right that start off the slopey sidepull thing and use use various holds up to the jug. For one of the easier problems you go up with your left to a good 3 finger edge then to the jug (this is the same hold you use for the rock over problem which starts on this same sidepull and cross through with your right to this hold and then rock over to the line of broken jugs on the left), now just slightly to the right of this is a much poorer slopey crimp (using this to the top is another very similar but slightly harder problem).
I think Malc's one armer is on this hold but someone who has been more than 3 times may correct me. It is awesome to conceive that someone could hang this  :shock:  :shock:
(Note: double shocked)

[Stu Littlefair]

Tim - that's bang on about Malcs one armer. Ru got as far as locking off the hold at ninety degrees. Maybe the most significant repeat in british bouldering isn't far off  :shock:  :wink:

I've been doing very similar exercises to you, bench presses, press ups, leg raises and dips. Also lots of "theraband" shoulder work. I've added some climbing specific stuff, where I'll climb an undercut problem on big jugs, but pay close attention to my posture, making sure that my shoulders are pulled back. Also, systems-type training doing long locks of big jugs on a very steep wall with poor feet a la malcom.

All seems to paying off, and can be done with my seven month ongoing bout of codfinger.

[webbo]

when i started climbing again after a 6year lay off i could barely manage 5 two arm pull ups on a bar after climbing 3 times aweek 2 in 1 out i could do a front lever and a one armer without specific training so i belive climbing makes you strong for pull ups etc rather than the other way round

[Johnny Brown]

Seem to remember Ru doing the full one-armer last time I was there, much to his own surprise. Would hardly call it the hardest problem in britain, though perhaps the worst. As you know though, Ru's tiny body is full of helium - he says its science.

[dave]

wasn't the malc one-armer on that hold actually a one-arm pop for the jug? i.e. much harder? the true challenge awaits.

[a dense loner]

ru din't do it completely, came off thro shock i think more than owt else.

[chummer]

Tried one of these this week and fuckin managed do one!   

I've always thought one armers were a load of bollocks and people who did them show offs but now Ive done one I think theyre fucking awesome and am now going to try and do more and more, especially when its busy in the wall. 

[a dense loner]

Where's fingers of a martyr when we need him?