[Ged]

After asking on a different thread, the knowledge seems to be to look after your elbows and shoulders for a succesful font trip.  I've got lots of experience treating golfers elbow with the hammer drill exercises, but any advice on preventative stuff would be great.

My vague plan for the next 7 weeks, alongside fingerboarding and bouldering, in terms of elbows and shoulders is:

Lots press ups, trying to progress to feet being raised higher and higher.

Some hammer drill stuff for the elbows

TRX, IYT type things

TRX press ups

Scapula pull ups and press ups

Wrist curls.

Anything else that people have found useful for; a) not getting destroyed elbows after the first day there, and b) crushing everything in sight upon arrival.

Cheers

[Mike Tyson]

The best way is to have someone ratchet strap you to your bed on rest days.

[sheavi]

The best way is to have someone ratchet strap you to your bed on rest days.

This above, and what you're already planning on doing.

[tomtom]

Diamond press ups. I find them really hard and can old do them from my knees - but work lots of bits regular pu’s don’t.

[SA Chris]

Some stretching might help too. I suffer worst due to deadpointing for slopers and shockloading elbows.

I'd recommend some pastry and cheese consumption to develop some tolerance to high fat content food.

[cheque]

Diamond press ups. I find them really hard

That's diamonds for you.   

[andy popp]

Diamond press ups. I find them really hard

That's diamonds for you.   

I'd never heard of them before; very good.

[Andy W]

Diamond press ups. I find them really hard

That's diamonds for you.   

I'd never heard of them before; very good.

I'm a jaded old git, but I have been finding Font increasingly depressing. Isatis has a massive shit and toilet roll problem as do many other popular areas. The time of the year you are going is (for an old git) the worst, if you are prone to dissilusionment I would head to the most obscure places and boulders you can.

[tommytwotone]

Might be a bit late but session fitness / power endurance bit me last time. I could climb to the max same as normal, but I totally powered out after an hour or two, when previously I've been able to kind of stop start my way through a day.

[r-man]

As someone who has battled elbow issues for years, I've never found antagonist exercises to be especially useful. I've done my fair share. I'm sure they'll do you some good in some ways, but I've come to the conclusion that if you actually want to prepare your elbow tendons for the stress of deep lock offs, you need to gradually increase the load they can handle.

Lots of the rehab exercises for golfer's elbow can be good prehab, especially if you progress to heavier weights. Eccentric rotations with a weighted bar (useful to do this in various positions, including deep lock off). Wrist curls maybe. Negative bicep curls with increasingly heavy weights.

But if you're anything like me, this will all seem like a bit much hassle. So if you're worried about elbows flaring up, try to avoid getting too carried away on circuits and slopey topouts. Repeated lock offs and topout grovels will likely do more damage when you are climbing tired.

Might be a bit late but session fitness / power endurance bit me last time. I could climb to the max same as normal, but I totally powered out after an hour or two, when previously I've been able to kind of stop start my way through a day.

That's a good call. Session fitness is definitely something you can improve in a few weeks. And will also help with injury prevention.

[Andy W]

Diamond press ups. I find them really hard

That's diamonds for you.   

I'd never heard of them before; very good.

I'm a jaded old git, but I have been finding Font increasingly depressing. Isatis has a massive shit and toilet roll problem as do many other popular areas. The time of the year you are going is (for an old git) the worst, if you are prone to dissilusionment I would head to the most obscure places and boulders you can.

Well I put this post in the wrong place, should be in the first time Font visit, whoops, sorry.

[kelvin]

Yeah, same as mentioned above - avoid lots of topouts on the circuits if you want you elbows to last. The orange circuit at Sabot destroyed my elbows on a 'rest' day...

[thekettle]

I'd consider making your rings push-ups into revolver push-ups to give a 'font-topout' experience for your shoulders.

Maybe coming up with a rigorous self-care schedule for rest/recovery time when you're there. Stretching routine, massage tools (Armaid or Rolflex if you're feeling flush), and nutritional trickery (protein supplementing, maybe tart cherry capsules for inflammation etc).
My elbows hurt just reading your list of exercises, so go steady on the volume of them! On that note if your shoulders can handle it I can recommend german hangs (aka skin the cat) on a bar, with palms facing as an epic loaded stretch for the biceps, pecs and front of shoulders if you pause hanging between rotations. Doing these has hugely reduced the grumbliness of my elbows.

[tc]

The best way is to have someone ratchet strap you to your bed on rest days.

My golden rule was always "two days on, one day off; one day on, one day off then rest and repeat".
I've been going to Fontainebleau for forty years and I've broken that rule every time. I'm like a kid in a sweetie shop when I get there.

[Ged]

Thanks everyone, great stuff. 

The session fitness sounds like a good call.  Since the baby came along, I've managed to stay fairly in shape by fingerboarding, but when I get outside I just power out so quickly.  Any thoughts on good regimes to work on this? Ideally on a fingerboard.  I have a pretty good boredom threshold for this sort of thing.  I did start dabbling with Horsts 3 mins on 3 mins off for a while.  That seemed to induce a good burn.  When I used to do long distance running, I used to find two session days were good for supreme stamina.  But then again, I was in my early twenties.

[SA Chris]

Diamond press ups. I find them really hard

That's diamonds for you.   

Takes forever to complete a set though.

[nai]

Lots press ups, trying to progress to feet being raised higher and higher

Rather than just hammer out loads and loads you might want to look into strict / military pressups, basically twist your elbow pits  forward, engage the scapula and keep arms into your sides through the movement.  Probably find you drop halve teh number you can manage
And why feet higher and higher, doesn't that just deploy more and more shoulder? the variations I'd work on would be planche presses, coming down to your waist; or pike presses to deploy more shoulder then work on elevating the feet with the pike.

What's going to screw up your elbiows in Font is compression. Avoid limit that, take approrate rest and you'll probably be ok.

[sheavi]

Push up variations

https://twitter.com/i/status/1082344506127798273

[nai]

Nice, thanks, some of them are a bit tasty.

[sheavi]

Push up variations

https://twitter.com/i/status/1082344506127798273

Do these plus the Arnold Press and you're shoulders will be good enough for Font I reckon.

[SA Chris]

Push up variations

https://twitter.com/i/status/1082344506127798273

I think that that plache push would make my elbows burst.