[tomtom]

STG regular climbing
LTG Back to where I was...

M: Osteo in the morning - gradual progression - movement to two week appointments (a good sign I suspect)

T: Had two molars removed first thing in the morning. Was very quick and painless - nethertheless, the copious amounts of local anaesthetic, associated bleeding and sore mouth things meant most of the day was a write off. Soup and more soup...

W: had to go into work - lots of snow on the Motorway, took 2.5 hours there, 3 hours back... knackered. But decided to have a beastmaker session.

I've revised my beastmaker routine now inlight of a couple of videos that were posted up... Firstly, I've been hanging pretty straight armed - with shoulders and arms 'engaged' (as in not fully slack) but not at the 10-15 degree angle suggested in the training vid.. This is interesting, as I can see now why the bent arm is not only maybe better for your arms/joints etc.. but also puts you in a better position mechanically to move or move the arm from that move.. so I have decided to start training all deadhangs with such bent arms. This hurt - they were not used to it!

Secondly, grips. As I understand it...
Crimp = Evil. Effective, but nasty to all things tendon in the hands.
Half Crimp = A little bit nasty, but much better than the evil crimp...
Open Hand = Angel. The best in terms of injury risk, but not necessarily the most effective....

Looking at how I climb (aside from fingerboarding) I really try and open hand everything due to previous injuries and I mostly do OK at this - especially on Grit... but due to the shape of my hands, when I open hand my pinky does nothing. Its not even touching the hold (its a fair bit shorter). Index and ring fingers are the same length - so same load. This is  interesting (sorry it is to me - its probably really dull to everyone else) because my back two and especially pinky are useless - very weak. its a weakness I'm trying to improve. So its little wonder my little fingers are so useless when I hardly every use them... Therefore, in order to get that pinky working I've started half crimping everything on the fingerboard.. its a plan..

Th: Bad back has been feeling fantastic this week (probably the paracetamol and Ibuprofen taken for the tooth!) I went to the climbing wall. First time climbing and testing out the bad back in over 10 weeks. Lots of gentle traversing (that seemed OK) and some V1/V2 up and downs (no jumping off). Lots of focus on movement, slow gentle movement - some minor tweaks when rocking up/pushing and twisting but it felt alright. Even did some easy steep stuff to get the shoulders working. Home and ice pack on the back...

Fr: Back felt a bit sore in the morning. As I (probably) have two squished discs - back pain manifests itself via my buttock, via the sciatic nerve.. my back itself just feels perma stiff.. A little arse pain in the morning (!!) and it took a while to wear off. Its a real tough one to judge this - have I made the back worse, or is this the aches and pains I'd expect from not doing any climbing for weeks... Anyway, new look Beastmaker routine in the afternoon.

Sa: Went up to Blackstone edge for a walk in the snow/slush. This proved quite a back work out too - lots of uneven steps, sliipping etc.. the odd mini jarr... Oh well seemed alright and was great to get out of the house.. 2 of 3 Beastmaker in the afternoon...

Su: All injuries feeling OKish today, a little stiff, but alright now... A full BM set (3 sets of 3) with bent arms and half crimps - small and large holds...

Great to be back pulling again... seems to be OK - its a tricky balance to make between recovery and making things worse... Planning to head to the wall again on Monday for some more gentle stuff...

[Muenchener]

Looking at how I climb (aside from fingerboarding) I really try and open hand everything due to previous injuries and I mostly do OK at this - especially on Grit... but due to the shape of my hands, when I open hand my pinky does nothing. Its not even touching the hold (its a fair bit shorter). Index and ring fingers are the same length - so same load. This is  interesting (sorry it is to me - its probably really dull to everyone else) because my back two and especially pinky are useless - very weak. its a weakness I'm trying to improve. So its little wonder my little fingers are so useless when I hardly every use them... Therefore, in order to get that pinky working I've started half crimping everything on the fingerboard.. its a plan..

Interesting to me.

I have short little fingers too - they barely reach the dip joint of my ring fingers. (I can't bring myself to say "pinky", sorry) I do manage to get them on the BM small edges, but they're probably not bearing much weight. I throw in some sets of back three to try to train them up a bit. Back two? Ha ha no chance.

I rarely full crimp and am hopelessly weak at it. Discovered this week that I can hang a small campus rung for exactly half as long in a full crimp as I can open handed.

[tomtom]

Not sure whether it's that short - but does nothing open handing a small hold... I much prefer OH things.. But may be missing a little extra boost from that finger..

[csl]

January Goals

V8 indoors or 1-4-7 on the campus board.
3 days out 2/3
Lose 2kg - done. Down to 74kg from 77.

Mon
Tue
Arch - Ancap.
Found it difficult to get into this, could really work out where in the new wall to try and set an AnCap problem. But it turned out the new system board was perfect. 8 Reps of 12 moves 3 mins rest. Core + Pullups.
Wed
Westway - 4x4's
better than last week. Starting sets with routes up to 7a+ then 3 much easier to complete each set.
Thu
Fri
Sat
Swanage
Didnt get much sleep + half the crag was a waterfall so didnt get much done.
A few easy things and tried two 7a+'s.
Sun
Seem to have come down with a horrible flu/cold. Crap!

[kelvin]

Not sure whether it's that short - but does nothing open handing a small hold... I much prefer OH things.. But may be missing a little extra boost from that finger..

My index finger is slightly shorter (in relation) than yours but the rest are pretty much the same in relation to the others.

So front three open handed, I still have to 'chisel' the middle finger to get them sit level. Back three works well, as they are in line and I'm about as strong with that as I am with front three, if not stronger. I'd say my index finger is the weakest to be honest but seeing as I can only mono the middle, it's hard to actually know and it may just be the way the fingers sit on holds that it feels so.

Maybe get the pinky involved by working the back three to start with?

[fried]

Lots of small, niggley aches and pains.

M - Knackered, picked up a sore calf on sunday, did some stretching. I can probably scratch together 30mins if I include walking to work. Bah. Slept for 10h.

T - Indoors, went to Hardbloc for a change of scenery, tough, tough grading, but fun, even the easy stuff needs a bit of technique which is rare for wall with such a large number of overhangs. Long session 3.5h, just did easy stuff with lots of rests.

W - Floor work, stretches, planks, russian twists.... 40mins
Th - Walked back from Champs-Elysee to home 50mins. Then did Duncan's 400 except the one-legged squats.
F - Indoor, Finished 3 blue probs, weights to finish - 2h, decide to have a go at some assisted one-leg squats, tough when I got home my knee wasn't feeling good.
S - Suprised to wake up with an O.K knee, walked to La Chapelle to pick up Indian supplies - 1h. plus shoulder exercises.

Su - J.A. Martin, got spanked, went to do the orange circuit, but the tops were still a bit damp and everything felt desperate. I'd only slept a couple of hours Saturday night that's my excuse. Knee aching, back aching. Play around on a 6A, fell from the second move and ached everywhere.

I need a break, ruined by Sharkathon and Duncan's 400. Cheers boys.

Weight 76.3kg. Finished off the christmas chocs/ biccies at the beginning of the week, then found a half kilo box of liquorice allsorts.

[Sasquatch]

M - Bouldered-felt shit, did ok.  OS up to 7a/+, but then not a prayer on anything herder in the gym.  In hindsight it was better than I expected.  I haven't actually pulled hard in nearly two months, and had done a hard FB workout the day before.  The intent was not to boulder, but to do an easy recovery session, but had to let off some steam.
T - Yoga - Huge core session
W - FB, Shoulder Str - ok, session.  Consistently about 15% below where I was in October. 
Th - Yoga, Active Rec -3x15 easy traversing
F - off
S - FB, Shoulder Str - good session.  Better, about 10% off october. 
S - Active Recovery

Lots of home and work stress this week, so not as solid of a week as I had hoped, but still a good week. 

[Sasquatch]

I've revised my beastmaker routine now inlight of a couple of videos that were posted up... Firstly, I've been hanging pretty straight armed - with shoulders and arms 'engaged' (as in not fully slack) but not at the 10-15 degree angle suggested in the training vid.. This is interesting, as I can see now why the bent arm is not only maybe better for your arms/joints etc.. but also puts you in a better position mechanically to move or move the arm from that move.. so I have decided to start training all deadhangs with such bent arms. This hurt - they were not used to it!

Due to hold mounting issues, I did a wide grip FB set for a few cycles about 2 years ago.  My pull strength got surprising strong.  I've been thinking about sawing my BM in half so I can control the width.  (also because the pockets are too close together.)

Secondly, grips. As I understand it...
Crimp = Evil. Effective, but nasty to all things tendon in the hands.
Half Crimp = A little bit nasty, but much better than the evil crimp...
Open Hand = Angel. The best in terms of injury risk, but not necessarily the most effective....

Looking at how I climb (aside from fingerboarding) I really try and open hand everything due to previous injuries and I mostly do OK at this - especially on Grit... but due to the shape of my hands, when I open hand my pinky does nothing. Its not even touching the hold (its a fair bit shorter). Index and ring fingers are the same length - so same load. This is  interesting (sorry it is to me - its probably really dull to everyone else) because my back two and especially pinky are useless - very weak. its a weakness I'm trying to improve. So its little wonder my little fingers are so useless when I hardly every use them... Therefore, in order to get that pinky working I've started half crimping everything on the fingerboard.. its a plan..

I'm definitely a believer in training 1/2 crimp, but I wouldn't go full on first thing.  build up to it slowly to make sure you don't hurt yourself

 

[tomtom]

I'm definitely a believer in training 1/2 crimp, but I wouldn't go full on first thing.  build up to it slowly to make sure you don't hurt yourself

I can regular crimp all the holds on the BM (that 4 fingers go on..) so its feeling fine 1/2 crimping them.. Though I like to mix my repeaters up, ie small edge, med edge, small edge etc... rather than all small, all med... Fingers feeling alot happier than when crimping though... (takes less effort to peel them back to normal shape!)

PS - sorry to hear you;ve had a shite week,...

[Muenchener]

STG: (January) Indoor 7a redpoint. Sort of. The goal was actually a route inna upward stylee, but that would have been tricky - or bold - given that I have yet to tie onto a rope indoors this year. Did tick a 7a circuit at the bouldering wall though.
   (March) indoor 7a route
MTG (2015): 7b redpoint
            Beastmaker 5A routine
            Muscle-Up
            Sautanz
LTG (<= 5 years): Big alpine rock routes: Totenkirchl West Face (Dülfer), Marmolada south face (Vinatzer-Messner)

Winter pretty dismal here at the moment: too cold to climb, not enough snow for snowboarding. Glad I got a decent trip in at New Year, otherwise maintaining training motivation might have become a challenge.

M: Mobility, knee physio, hammer curls, core: 40 minutes.

T: Wall, Thalkirchen. with M jnr. Boulder competition night. Spent as much time coaching / encouraging / brushing holds for M jnr as climbing myself, but a good time was had.

W: Read up on pec minor stretches. Performed same, and other thoracic/shoulder mobility stuff.

T:   Fingerboarding. Did some benchmarking and discovered that I have improved my max hang time on a medium campus rung by 25 percent since November (yyfy). Also that I can hold a small campus rung for twice as long open handed as full crimping. In real life I almost never crimp anything, but if I want to start redpointing harder climbs with (therefore) smaller holds I should probably start learning/training.  See gme's recent comments on being a natural open-hander and training crimps. But how is it actually possible to full crimp the slots on the bottom row of a beastmaker? The middle row gets in the way of my knuckles.

F:
S: Wall, Boulderwelt. An hour's moderate bouldering to warm up then ticked my 7a project on the circuit wall (yyfy). Half an hour shoulder mobility/stability stuff.
s: Wall, Thalkirchen. 2 x 25 minutes ARC

Am working explosive chest-to-bar pull-ups as the road to a muscle-up (2015 goal: power maintenance for the older "athlete"). Progress on these feels good: can pull sets of three decent nipples-to-thumbs reps, and am starting to get the feel of pushing down at the top of the movement.

[jfdm]

There is a first time for everything!
My first power club post!

Sun - went to new arch climbing wall - mucked around on lots of problems
Mon - nothing - underweather.
Tuesday - Swissball core routine week 2 - routine talked about last week on threads
Wednesday - fb using bm app with about 4kg taken off did 5a routine
Think tomtom right about fb engaging arms etc more of workout.
But also fb is just that for getting strong fingers not arms etc?
Thurs - Swiss ball routine from Tuesday
Fri - nothing
Sat - arch - did some blues, worked on comp wall, and circuit board
Last week got about 1/2 way round white circuit and fell realised then it was a hard 7a!
Sun - arch - same as sat. Struggling on comp wall prob v4 and circuits.
Any technical ideas for hand cross over/ through on steep board?
Keep falling off as I move across holds?

[Muenchener]

Wednesday - fb using bm app with about 4kg taken off did 5a routine

 

[jfdm]

Wednesday - fb using bm app with about 4kg taken off did 5a routine

 

Thanks muenchener
For all the beastmaster hype, the grading sucks!
In order to do 5a routine with body weight will either have to lose 4kg or get stronger?
Started at about 7kg a few weeks ago! So going in the right direction?

[kelvin]

My first power club post!

 

Worked 7 days this week and a few evenings pretty late BUT...

Mon - Worked late. Rest day, knackered.

Tue - Worked late. 100 pressups. 2hr boulder and tried bloody hard - felt loads stronger. Much better on V3s. Best session in ages.

Wed - Worked late. Teatime boulder 1.5hr. Worked V3/4 and did some foot on campus stuff, but no structure.

Thu - Started a 15 minute blast at lunchtime which involves, pressups, squats, mountain climbers and wide-outs in sets of twenty. Managed 180 before I collapsed. Will get stronger on this. Tried the P90X ab ripper thing at teatime, again - some stuff okay, useless at others. 1hr yoga class in the evening.

Fri - 3hr boulder. Ticked a pesky V3, worked 3-5 and learnt lots of in terms of foot angle on holds. Felt strong for me in general. Left knee (medial) really inflamed, so need to watch that.

Sat - Worked. Felt like I needed a proper rest, so did.

Sun - Boulder. Finally ticked an awkward problem on the 30°... V0! Happy to get that  Played on V3-5 but felt tired today (14 days straight at work now) but pulled some progress out of the bag. Felt really strong on the start of the V5 but the first foothold is what's playing up the medial ligament, so will stay off that now. Then smallest campus rail 5 x 20 hand movements with 6 extra on the last go. Foot on. Short rests.

Quite like the new set, lots of stuff that's just out of reach, both physically and technically but that feels doable in the six weeks it'll be up on the panels.

Started the week struggling for psyche but finished happy with what I got done.

[nai]

Not sure whether it's that short - but does nothing open handing a small hold... I much prefer OH things.. But may be missing a little extra boost from that finger..

your beastmaker looks nothing like mine

[krymson]

Interesting thing that pinky business - I love training on half crimp but I wonder if pinky injuries are common due to the shorter pinky not being worked in a crimp position usually and then when you bear down on a pinky that's used to just open handing -- pop.

STG - stay healthy and fit for a few low 7s in HK
MTG - boulder and trad more

Tuesday Outdoors
      Started with sport - warmed up on 6a+, cruised a 6b+(repeat).
      Switched to trad - Flailed on an airy, 6c finger-rail traverse. Followed a 6c clean.
Thursday Indoor steep lead wall w/ a girl from london who used to set at the Castle
     Worked routes around 7a. Did some roof climbing -- everything changes -- definitely a weakness
     Finished off with feet on fingerboarding.
Saturday Outdoors w/a friend from Germany
   Warmed up on 6c slab. Did a 6a+(repeat). Sent a 6c. Cruised a 5a, sent a 6c(repeat), tried the crux of a bouldery 7a via TR.
Sunday
   Yoga,  .

Good - sport lead gettng better and better. able to do moves dynamically and smoothly when the route is known.
Improve - trad head needs work. Need to learn to think clearly while being pumped so i can place gear and climb better when there are no good stances.

[the_dom]

 Bit of a YYFY for me this week - ticked a 7C for the first time in ages, and for the first time since I restarted climbing. I've done it before, but years ago and I remember it feeling really hard back then too.

Mon: Early morning weights session - deadlifts, dumbbell snatches and kettlebell swings

Tues: Hangboard after flying home from Johannesburg in the evening. Tried one arm hangs on my 2cm rung for the first time in ages and pleasantly surprised myself. Did a modified version of the CWP workout and some repeaters.

Wed: 40 min trail run.

Thurs: Bouldering - evening session at a local boulder. Repeated problems up to 7Bish

Fri: 75 min hilly hike in a forest on the slopes of Table Mountain. Felt quite tired.

Sat: Early surf in really fun beachbreak peaks. Afternoon hangboard (modified CWP) and leg rehab. Heavy day.

Sun: Bouldering - repeated stuff up to 7Bish and YYFY 7C tick. Good to feel like things are starting to flow a bit more.

Overall a good week - weight is also getting consistently lower and I have kept up with the sharkathon.

[mindfull]

Inflammation of the left anterior deltoid  Got a week of rest from real training. Only did flexibility, tai chi, and front squats. Met my accupuncture teacher yesterday who tried to balance out the heart/left arm vortex.
probably went up too intense and too quick after my recovery from nerve surgery with my shoulder exercises such as overhead press and upright row. Today it already feels better. Hope to start over quickly.

[T_B]

86.8Kg

M -
T - School p.m. Some bouldering on the 50 degree (weak/heavy) and then working the 7c+ circuit (still not quite 2 sections).
W - Foundry lunch. Recovery / light AeroCap
T - School lunch. 7c+ circuit as per Tues. Better link.
F -
S - Arranged to meet Dave at Rivelin. Drove down the valley at 1230 through a heavy rain shower, but decided to take a look anyway. MK was wet, but we warmed up on Cool Runnings and tried the crimpy direct. Then headed over to Sparks. Lots of goes later managed to do it via big move off a pinch. Hard for 7B I thought. Great to be out on the grit again.
S -

Relatively quiet week climbing-wise. Off to Scotland on Tuesday to see how my ankle copes doing some winter stuff.

[ummagumma]

STG - Train 4 times / per wk
MTG - Climb new project

M - Rest with some basic core exercises.
T - Indoor Bouldering session focusing on power. Moving dynamically between good size holds.
W - Rest
T - Beastmaker session. strength training. 3 Sets. 6 Reps. 7 sec on, 2.5 mins off.
F - Rest
S - O/D Bouldering Session. Good session. Climbed 6A, 6A, 6A+ and getting close on 7A+. Working 6C roof problem.
S - O/D Bouldering Session. Short session as was tired. Getting close on 6C Roof Problem. A Power endurance battle.

Solid Week. Weighing in at 73.7kg (lost 0.4kg).

[tomtom]

Heal fast Mindful - and excellent 7C Dom...

[cheque]

STG- Maintain (and ideally improve) climbing abilities while making film.

MTG- New grades this year.

LTG- Dawn Wall onsight.

M- A bit of core.

T- Pressups, pullups, clean-and-press. Added weight on the bar- a mighty 40kg now 

W- Rest.

T- Notts Depot. Ticked off another comp problem- now on 10 points more than I managed last month. Worked some more hard stuff after. I find it very satisfying getting technical sequences for sections that I'm too weak to power through, even if I don't end up doing the problem.

F- Rest.

S- Rest.

S- Black Rocks filming. Superb day- lots of climbers (for Black Rocks) there, good atmosphere and got great footage of an inspirational ascent- well worth the three visits it needed. Uphill carrying as usual plus pullups and front levers on parents' doorframe.

Utterly psyched by yesterday. Got a window to focus on my own climbing now.

[nai]

Looking at how I climb (aside from fingerboarding) I really try and open hand everything due to previous injuries and I mostly do OK at this - especially on Grit... but due to the shape of my hands, when I open hand my pinky does nothing. Its not even touching the hold (its a fair bit shorter). Index and ring fingers are the same length - so same load. This is  interesting (sorry it is to me - its probably really dull to everyone else) because my back two and especially pinky are useless - very weak. its a weakness I'm trying to improve. So its little wonder my little fingers are so useless when I hardly every use them... Therefore, in order to get that pinky working I've started half crimping everything on the fingerboard.. its a plan..

Interesting to me.

I have short little fingers too - they barely reach the dip joint of my ring fingers. (I can't bring myself to say "pinky", sorry) I do manage to get them on the BM small edges, but they're probably not bearing much weight. I throw in some sets of back three to try to train them up a bit. Back two? Ha ha no chance.

I rarely full crimp and am hopelessly weak at it. Discovered this week that I can hang a small campus rung for exactly half as long in a full crimp as I can open handed.

Little finger about the same as yours tomtom but index slightly shorter. When open handing low slots with mid 3 my middle finger will be bent at about 120 degrees, when hanging all four fingers it's about 100. The only way of properly open handing is to perform mid 2.
And when half crimping the big slots the pinky is straight (unless I bury the rest of my fingers deep in the slot which doesn't feel worth it), doesn't feel like it's doing much but the hang is much harder without it so it must be.
I never full crimp on a fingerboard, it's my strongest grip but still feels dangerous.

[Dolly]

M Pilates
T Beastmaker weight vest hangs before breakfast. Gym for weights in the evening
W
T Kettlebell sess in the morning
F Toproped 10 easy routes in 35 minutes at the gym in the evening.
S
S Cratcliffe as we thought it was bound to have at least one boulder which would be dry. Did Low Slung which I dont think I'd even seen before


A busy week with too much work, but at least managed to get something done.

[nai]

STG - strength phase

Been snowboarding in St Anton all week, averaged about six hours out each day though the last day was with the kids so somewhat shorter and slower than the previous five which killed the averages somewhat, covered 210km and descended just shy of 40,000m.  Ahead of the holiday I thought of it as a bit of active rest ahead of starting a strength phase but I'm feeling a bit too battered to try and pass it off as that now.