[tomtom]

Evening all... Groundhog day post this week :D

Mon: "Rest day" (Wife out at work - me at home with the nipper)

Tue: 1 arm day. 2 x -15kg, 3x -8kg, 3x -4kg (hard at end of set) 2 x -15kg. Then tried on a 35mm one pad edge. Oh. Thats quite different - complete failure :D

We: 1 hour board session. Felt clumnky, took a while to repeat problems from earlier.. left elbow feeling a bit tweaky on the pinches

Th: 1 arm day. 2x =15kg, 3x -8kg (hard today), 1x -4kg DNF, 2x -8kg, 1x -15kg. Hard today - right tricep/shoulder felt not tweaky but not like it was working completely - but no pain.

Fri: Board day: Good session. Repeated crimp problem I couldnt do on weds - did pinches with a high rockover on left foot. Felt really good. Worked but couldnt complete a couple of other problems.

Sa: 1 arm day. Started with a new quite fun exercise - on the large BM1k jugs - with -15kg assist pulling up on both - then dropping to one arm - tapping my leg with the free arm - get the jug - -reposition and drop other arm and repeat. In effect monkeying from one arm to the other with a few secs on the one arm. First session lasted 25 secs - second 40 seconds.
Then back to the hard work. 2x -8kg - really hard - right arm/tricep felt tweaky 2x -4kg. Had to stop in second set as my right arm didnt want to pull any more.. Tried 20mm edge again. Found I can open hand it with -20kg easily on right - not on left, similar with half crimp but -25kg.. Finished with a set of 1 arm hangs 7 on 3 off -15kg until failure.

Sun: Great board session. 90 min (getting better!). Did a couple of new problems - managed one I didnt do on friday. Excellent. Some rather dull highlights below:



Overall - up and down week. Good progression on the board - getting used to how to climb it with the larger footholds. High feet toes down pull in. Very different from using the shit feet. How or what it improves me or not who knows!

Right shoulder/tricep is a weird one. No pain - during or after (or DOMs etc..) on Saturday it kind of just said - nope. Not doing that pull and wouldnt. Was totally fine on the board today. Its possible I need to consolidate a bit more on the assist weights for the one arm work before dropping weight off. It'll effectively two days off one arm training - so see how it is on tuesday. Having to manage my left arm tennis elbow - but its keeping under control.

[Will Hunt]

Throttle back on the fingers a bit. Fingers felt a little bit of pain/tweakiness on last board session. Not sure if this is bad or a sign of strengthening or just goes with the territory when trying hard. I've never had a finger injury so not really sure what sort of pain might precede one.

M - planned to do core session. Unfortunately was in a fairly low mood after having to deal with some unwanted shit.

T - board. Was still feeling lacklustre when I started but felt great at the end. Decent sesh. Struggling again to find the balance between too easy and impossible. Set two new problems which went pretty quickly. Believe in G and Bully Boy. Made a little progress on the unnamed project from last week but didn't put serious time in.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_in8hdjyN4/?igshid=1r6oxj9veywj3


W - pull ups. 864864 with 5kg on. Failed on the second 6 and took the weight off and did 2 x 4 to finish. Then a long rest and felt like going again. Did 864864 again with no weight, failing on last rep.

T - core. Ab ripper X. Big yyfy. I completed the Fifer Scissors with much gurning from me and eye rolling and tutting from my wife.

F - pull ups. Tried the #SamMarks protocol. Add 12kg and do 3 pulls every 2 mins. He takes a ten minute rest after 5 then does another 5. I eschewed the rest, finished the next block, then took the weight off and went into 864864 on the minute, failing on the sets near the end.
Evening ride. About an hour with some effort on a long but never steep hill. I used to quite enjoy going up hills but it feels unduly like hard work now. The fact that it's hard work tells me I should keep doing it to at least so a little bit of cardio.

S - rest.

S - board. Started maybe a bit soon after lunch and felt sluggish and generally exhausted. Set a couple of new projects, dumbed down the crux of The Ratline a little to make it possible, and finished off the previously unnamed Riot Act at the end. Riot Act was satisfying as the climbing had felt nails and even when I sorted the foot beta it felt hard, but ultimately it was a cruise on the successful go.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_uzOexDVnp/?igshid=8meytw5hxazf

[Murph]

Brilliant stuff boys.

M-5k jog
Tried some kettlebell squats in the evening went 16,24,32kgs and sort of regretted it for the next two days for hamstring reasons.
T-
W-5k jog
T-
F-5k jog
S-
S-

Unless I get back to climbing training soon I think I'm going to bail out of power club. I dont really belong here but sort of like to keep some pretence at being a motivated climber during the current curfew. Injury phobia is winning out at the minute.

There we go I'll make a little promise that unless I can do something on at least 3 non-jog days I'll not darken your doors again.

[teestub]

W - pull ups. 864864 with 5kg on... Did 864864 again with no weight, failing on last rep.

1,729,728 comfortably bests the current world record of 7600 in 24 hours.

[Footwork]

W - pull ups. 864864 with 5kg on... Did 864864 again with no weight, failing on last rep.

1,729,728 comfortably bests the current world record of 7600 in 24 hours.

[teestub]

😂

[Will Hunt]

W - pull ups. 864864 with 5kg on... Did 864864 again with no weight, failing on last rep.

1,729,728 comfortably bests the current world record of 7600 in 24 hours.

I was watching that clip and Daisy walked in and said, "that's like you when you're doing your workout".

 

[shark]

11.9-12 Average 164.5 (up 0.4lbs)

M.Noon. Bachar ladder. Ok session. Slightly below what I managed on Friday. Maybe bach off it for a while and replace with pull-ups. Eve. Density hangs. Again slightly below par confirming going a bit stale on this too. Week off or new routine - probably both?

T. AM Front lever attempts and assisted one armers. Gratified to find I’m stronger on these from going on bachar ladder. Eve Rings Ys and Ts Static OH press 37.5kg x3, x4,x4, x4 Straight leg DL 97.5kg x6, 100kg x6, 102.5kg x 6 Hip thrust 117.5kg x6, x6, x6 Front squat 52.5kg x6, x6, x6 10 pull-ups

W Wiped out

T Still tired

F Pulled onto board and knocked scab off fingertip and it was healed over underneath. Good news. Messed about for 5 mins on board but too weak so stoped

S. PM Systems Board On warm up felt weak and unmotivated. Skipped benchmarks and did 2 sets of 20/10s (AeroCap) followed by 2.5 hours of hardcore gardening

S Tired

Wheels came off this week. No idea why but in a physical and mental trough. Not fat but weighing very heavy. Utterly lacking in motivation.

Well done anyone else keeping their shit together

[Duma]

Bachar ladder. Ok session. Slightly below what I managed on Friday. Maybe bach off it for a while and replace with pull-ups.

Like what you did there

[JohnM]

Weight: 145-146lbs

M: Shoulder stability exercises + core. Pullups (travelling, assisted one armers). 5 x pulley assisted one armers (11.75kg left arm, 10.5kg right arm). Max. hangs. A few weeks back I was doing 32kg on a 15mm edge which according to the Lattice assessment you can submit online was 8% weak for my grade. However, the edge I am using is smaller and not incut so I thought I was probably around the right level. Today's session was terrible and I could barely hang with 25kg. Hopefully, just a temporary blip and just because my tendons were still tired from climbing a lot on the Saturday.

T: Run 22.85km with 909m elevation gain.

W: Repeaters half crimp on 15mm edge. (6 seconds on 4 off for a minute, 1.5 minutes rest x 6). Jog/hike 4.87km 336m elevation gain.

T: Rest

F: Climbing at Götterwandl. I wanted to try an 8b there I had tried once last year. I had this route in mind during the lock down when all I could do was pullups and finger boarding as it is pretty basic so the training might be directly relevant. Unfortunately the bottom half was soaked. I managed to aid to just below the crux which I did pretty much first go and then linked the full sequence to a rest. Finished by linking the top 7c/+ section. Quite pleasing to find the crux so easy as I could only do it 1 in 5 times last year. Tried an 8a+ with a shouldery crux that I got completely shut down on last year. This also felt much easier this time. Had a redpoint go but didn't have enough power left to finish the route by that stage. A good session despite not actually completing a single route!

S: Rest. Drove around doing water drop offs for a self-supported ultra marathon. Unfortunately got caught in traffic with people desperate to get to the big shopping centres on their first day of opening. We saw people in huge queues stretching all the way across the car parks waiting to get into TK Max and MediaMarkt. Why? In the evening had a group zoom chat with Italian climbing coach Roberto Bagnoli as a kind of feedback/client needs session. Really interesting and super nice guy. He wants to start offering online video analysis for climbers although he said it would probably mostly benefit people in the lower grades where technique can be the most significant limiting factor.

S: On the Saturday I was meant to be running the Master of Innsbruck trail ultra (108km) which has been postponed until September. I decided to try and run the course anyway, but today as the weather was better. Started at 5am and arrived at the halfway point at about midday. The second half however was a navigational nightmare with really obscure trails or non-maintained trails covered in fallen trees or partially washed away. I got lost so much that by the time I got to the final town before the final section I had already run over 100km. As it was getting dark and my primary goal was just to try and run over 100km I decided to sack off the final part. I will hopefully finish the full course in September with the benefit of course markers and aid stations.

A good week apart from the disappointing max. hang session. I will try again this week and see if I can get back to where I was. I might add in a power endurance session on the fingerboard (like the one Neil Gresham has posted on Insta) as I think that is what I am lacking at the moment. I have seen improvement in my ability to do certain moves or sequences outside but my power tails off very quickly at the moment.

[mr chaz]

Goals:
i) Exercise everyday
ii) End lockdown fitter
iii) Maintain current finger strength

M. 20 minute HIIT. Fingerboard - 1 arm hangs.

T. 30 minute HIIT, indoors coz rain.

W. Fingerboard - repeaters.

T. 20 minute HIIT.

F. Fingerboard - 2 arm hangs. Slight progress on the 2 lots of awful Moon crimps, can hold for 6s now.

S. BeMilitaryFit^TM free workout, 1 hour, kept up with the hardest routine. 15 minutes of Yoga in the evening.

S. 20 minutes HIIT workout. 20 minutes on the fingerboard, 5 pullups on each hold.

Little and often feels like its really working for me at the moment, feeling fitter than I have ever done before. Fingerboard intensity feels about right to maintain where I am, and maybe make some possible gains. Keep forgetting to push on with the hip and leg flexibility 

Also, despite being a regular part of my weekly life for nearly 10 years, I'm really not missing climbing indoors one bit. The lockdown has been an opportunity to demonstrate to my girlfriend (and imminent house co-owner) that I can quite happily sustain my midweek climbing habit with a decent woody and fingerboard setup.

Allez

[cheque]

M- Rest.

T- Beastmaker repeaters. Same session I always do. Bigger holds felt easier than previously, small ones harder (figures bear this out) which fits with having done lots of pull-ups and no climbing or fingerboarding in the last month while gaining weight.

W-Rest.

T- Deadlifting. 5x20kg, 5x35kg the 2x 60,70,80,90&100kg. The second rep at 100 wrecked me and I couldn’t move 105 at all so the world record’s safe for now.

Got my glamourous assistant to film me again and improved my form. It felt like this made all the lifts harder which would make sense I guess. My back looks absolutely scary even on the lighter weights I do with perfect form (god knows what people thought when I was lifting at the gym!) but that’s just how it is these days. It’s very useful to have a visual record of what correct looks like to compare the heaviest lift of each session with.

F- Came up with a dumbbell complex I can do sitting at the computer while working. Did that three times over the course of the afternoon with 3.8kg. Rewarded myself afterwards by chucking a scoop of protein powder into a freshly made Tassimo hot chocolate. Won’t be making that mistake again. 

S- 3 hour walk to Rivelin Reservoir via the huge network of woodland paths I didn’t know existed before lockdown. Pleasant.

S- Pull-up and push-up session scheduled. Didn’t feel like I’d be able to hit my target of 3x9 & 3x40 respectively and I was right- did 8 pull-ups then 35 pushups then ground to a halt after two more pull-ups. 

Increased the volume this week and did some fingerboarding too. Should adapt to the bigger load and be be able to complete my session on Sunday this week!

My leg’s been weird this week and this morning I weighed in heavier than I have for two years. Need to do some cardio.

[nai]

M -nowt

T - Board - more setting and working, now have seven projects from basic-brutality-done-all-the-moves-just-need-to-link to can barely do a move
4RR on small holds - improvements.
HI Core
Bands Y&Ts to finish

W
light shoulder warm up and spent a while working out what makes my shoulder twinge and where. Hit the spot with massage balls, etc
stretching

It hurts here (anterior deltoid?):

IMG_20200501_103305257 by Ian_Thomas, on Flickr

Doing this:

IMG_20200501_103207879 by Ian_Thomas, on Flickr

Obviously quite avoidable in a climbing sense and only hurts at about 3/10 but the shoulder is weaker and it's not getting any better.  Based on previous experience I've decided to back off from max for sessions and warm it up and massage regularly to promote blood flow and hopefully repair. But if any physios, even the clueless NHS ones, have any ideas I'd be very grateful to hear them.

T super tired - spot on shoulder quite sore

F -
mono pickups, quite a bit of conditioning work, mostly bodweight but a few weights and bands and full HI core. Stretch Eve

S- 3x10 30kg Front Squat, 2x15+ 30kg hip thrust, 1x12 x 40kg , DL 3x6x60 kg, 3x 50kg Farmers carry, 3 sets of hamstring ext. variations.

S - knackered (again).
light shoulder warm up and massage
Almost did some strecthing but eldest commandeered the lounge/mat to do stretch and splits or do this EVERY day for ultimate abs or something I don't understand

[Nibile]

Hey, judging from the spot I'd say it could be an inflammation to the long head of the bicep in its insertion.
It could be coherent with the increase in proper training.

Try avoiding undercuts and supination in general and see how it goes. Other than this I don't know.
HTH.

[nai]

As I was mulling I realised the area that I feel the pain could possibly be one of the bicep attachment points. Have been doing a lot of hangs, pullups and scap pullups, although I was taking lots of rest too.

[nai]

Cheers Nibs, beat me to it.

[Bradders]

Sixth week of no rock climbing and just training so after Monday wanted to do a bit of a de-load, I.e. volume low, intensity medium.

M - magic board session. After warm up tried 19 different problems (basically all but one of the "harder-than-a-warm-up" through to project level problems I've set so far). Did 13 of them 1st go (including several that had taken me more than a session before), one 2nd go, one 3rd go and got close on the other four! Felt good. Wondered whether everything is actually really soft.

T - nothing

W - half hour yoga

T - short board session. Struggled with things I did 1st go on Monday. Made up some new projects and did some of the moves. Kept it short and stopped very early.

F - nothing

S - 10km walk. 25 mins yoga and stretching after.

S - another short board session. Felt properly lacklustre all day and the session was no different. Feel heavy and weak. Just did a few advanced warm ups and failed on a couple of things I did easily on Monday.

Wish I could bottle whatever got into me on Monday. Everything felt so easy. Did what I wanted for the rest of the week at least and kept volume really low. Keen to get back on it but after a low activity week just felt fat, tweaky and slow instead of rested and fresh  feel a lot better today though so maybe just need to get moving again.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - board climbing. One foot only + 8 kg on problem 1. Then regular climbing + 2 kg with 5" pause on each move. Brilliant. Push ups. Very satisfied considering a solid 3 kg weight gain.
Tue - recovery session, 8' of overhead carry.
Wed - BM pockets x10. Strong despite (or thanks to?) weight gain. Weights. Rings.
Thu - weights.
Fri - boxing bag, loaded carries.
Sat - Bar work, DL 5x5 80 kg, front lever pulls, clean and press 5x5 40 kg. Tiring.
Sun - board climbing, circuit. Pull ups, loaded carries.

[spidermonkey09]

Buckle up...

M- rest.

T- max hangs. Attempted 33.75kg after the PB last week. Started well but fell off a cliff in the second half of the session. Finished it off anyway. Felt a bit heavy after lunch but more likely ite the next thing to aim for when I do the next block of two arm hangs. Finished off with some TRX and did some maximal, single pullups. Got up to 40kg added which is all my weight anyway.

W- repeaters. Anderson hangs. Failed on last second of last rep of the 10mm plus 10kg; taking that as a success. Finally completed the full set on the 35 slopers which was pleasing. Failed on final few reps on the edges which continues to bear out the theory that this is due to coming up against the 80% of max hang ceiling. Decided to take a few rest days and then start a new block of one arm max hangs.

T- rest.

F- rest.

S- max hangs. Shortened hang time from 10 seconds to 7 seconds to try and train strength a bit more efficiently. Completed a set with 6.25kg assist reasonably comfortably which was good; already less assistance than I consistently needed on the last block. Tried one at 5kg assist at the end to see how it felt. Nails. Not sure the fabled bodyweight hang on the bottom middle edge is very close yet! TRX to finish.

S- Anderson hangs. Planned to do 5 grip types, adding in 3 finger drag on the battery edge. Started well, upped the base weight on the 10mm and slopers to 1.1kg and failed on final few reps on the last set. 3 finger drag set felt pretty steady which was good as I dont train this grip type much. Felt knackered on the bottom outside set so sacked it after that.

Pretty good week, although they are starting to blend into one. The railway bridge just outside of Leicester is starting to look like Ceuse in my minds eye after so long without going outdoor climbing. Hopeful of at least a partial lessening late this week/early next week so I can go and shuttle around doing some endurance training there at least. Have got good gains from the anderson hangs but think I need to decide what intensity I want the session to be and adjust the number of grip types accordingly. 5 is way too many if trying to operate at 80% of max as I just power out.

[dunnyg]

What is your typical bag routine nibs?

[HarryBD]

Well done keeping it going. Massive effort on the Ultra John. Glad your finger is better Shark. Bit of a low week for me but not all bad. Managed to mostly rein in the eating when I felt rubbish which I don't usually manage, had my biggest run week for about 5 years and massive PB on the fingerboard. Avg. 80.9kg

M - 5 x 5 pullups + 8kg and managed all sets at that weight. Chuffed with that. Core routine. FB Max + Density hangs which I cut short due to tweaky ring finger when dragging/open crimp. Don't feel very comfortable in this grip and feel it's all on the tendon.

T - Bad day

W - Run 25min fast which cheered me up loads. Pullup 5 x 5 - did first 3 sets with 16kg and failed on 4th rep of 3rd set, went down to 8kg then finished at BW. Core routine. FB Max Hang test - up to 102.6kg which is about 17kg more than last test ~6 weeks ago. Lattice form says I'm no longer weak as fuck for my grade so hopefully will manage to get up some stuff I previously couldn't when we can get out.

T - Run 95mins sloooowww in the rain. Lovely

F - Nowt

S - Run 150mins v. slow, nice to be out. Twisted my ankle towards the end as soon as I got back on the road which was daft. Pullups 5 x 5 +16kg (2mins rest this time) managed 3 on the last set and did 2 +8kg. Felt strong. BD core

S - Run 45mins on the flat & on road/hard path rather than on the moor. Felt like I had an elastic band pulling me forwards.

[Nibile]

What is your typical bag routine nibs?

Hey!
As with everything, I have a few sessions already planned, so that I can play according to time availability, energy levels, and so on.
On a side note, with time I found out that having a few different sessions planned and ready for every training tool is crucial to fill in the small gaps when everyday's life gets in the way of training. No need to skip the planned session altogether, just pick the suitable one and score another session (you can vary, intensity, duration, work/rest ratios etc.). I have different sessions ready for fingerboarding, board climbing, weights, bag, everything.

Anyway.
For the bag, I have two different sessions at the moment, in terms of aim of the session. If I'm doing it as a recovery session, I just go very light in the hits, using it as a bland form of HIIT. For instance 50 gentle hits then 5 hard ones, or intervals of 1', or moving around the bag, changing stance and hitting, etc.
Then the other session is focused on power. Hard hitting with good rests, focusing on accuracy and speed. I also do speed training only, setting the distance so that I barely touch the bag: this is very good not only because you train speed and therefore power, but also because not hitting the bag hard forces you to actively stop the movement of the arm and reversing it, and it's a sort of plyometric training. It eats your biceps.
I also have a set of different combinations, from 2 to 4 hits, that I go through, again in various fashion: speed, power, recovery, etc.
Other times I (try to) follow a YouTube video with Teddy Atlas yelling timed combinations, that's brutal rhythm.

In general these sessions don't last more than 40 minutes. Of course work/rest ratio varies a lot depending on the aim.

[dunnyg]

Thanks, much appreciated! Having a few different sessions ready for energy/time/life variations sounds like a good idea across the board. Mostly looking to use it as a HIIT, but more power is always good too.

[monkoffunk]

M - Slow warm up. Few aches. Campus BM problems. Further experiment with one arm hangs. Metronome very useful. Left seems way stronger than right. Perhaps form? Will play around a bit more.
Long rest.
Anderson hangs. One of the best sessions since lockdown began. Feels like one of the best ever, but can’t be sure of that. Maybe a totally clean session with no failure is possible though! Imagine this is a combination of some gains and some return of form after time off. Very motivating.

T - rest. Yoga x2

W - Weighted pull ups. Sets of 5.
+ 0kg, 10, 20, 30, 30, 30(4), 25, 27.5(4.5)
Hanging leg raises
Front level reps.

T - rest

F - Yoga
Series of body weight hangs, removing fingers. Pockets a weakness and back two disproportionately weak (or at least that’s my perception).
10,10,15,20,25,27.5(8sec)26.25(7sec),22.5
Short hard ‘boulders’ 1 on 1 off total 4 mins(!)
Leg raises, front lever reps, thrusters (10kg dumbbells), press-ups. 

S - Enforced rest day

S - Finger tip pyramid. 5 at top.
Trying different set ups to take off weight with one arm.
Hangs on different combinations of fingers. Weak on pockets.
Front lever reps, hanging leg raises.


Good week, plugging away. Gonna have some rest at start of coming week with work. Gonna aim to do some proper hangs with one arm this week as think I’ve worked out a set up that works. Also working on pocket combinations, seems to be an area with lots to gain, although not sure what a decent benchmark is!

[measles23]

66.8kg

Was about 72kg after Christmas so chuffed with steady loss by simple low carbing..

A bit stagnated last week, so deload week spent building campus board (a sheet of 4x8 at 20 deg hung long-wise, and a 40 deg board to moonboard dimensions. Then spend several days putting up all the eBay holds I’ve been hoarding over the last 10 years in anticipation of this moment - it’s quite a busy board now is that a bad thing??

M- Building boards
T- Building boards
W- Building boards
T- Building boards
F- Building boards

S- Max hangs BM2k smalls open crimp pulley assists: 16 sets with several at -12kg x 5s on left and -10kg x 5s on right. Settling into good technique on these, it’s taken some time..

2 hours board familiarisation - apparently I am super shite at setting with the grade range going from 6B (too hard for anyone else to do) to 7C without anything much in between - I am not popular with the rest of the family and will have to cover it in offensively big jugs now - at least the boy loves it, but mainly because the space round the back of the board makes an excellent den!

S- Ring muscle-ups: 7 sets with a PB of 5
Weighted pull-ups: 8 set pyramid up to +45kg x3. Finished with 3 sets wide grip pull-ups +20kg x 3s

PS don’t go Nick!

[Murph]

Thanks matt. Hanging in there. Another strong week dude and congrats on the 5kgs.

[Bradders]

it’s quite a busy board now is that a bad thing??

Massively good thing in my book, more holds the merrier!

[Coops_13]

M: 50 pull-ups. Two arm max hangs, 10s hangs. 14mm +30lb, 10mm +5lb, 14mm +35lb, 10mm +10lb, 14mm +35lb, 10mm +10lb. Wrist didn't restrict max hangs but couldn't do finger curl hypertrophy

T: 1.5 mile run, 12:35. Max HR 181.
TA-core. Weights - Biceps, shoulders, chest, lateral and front raise * max reps * 2 sets. 30 press-ups on dumbells - not comfortable


W: 75 pull-ups. Beastly 6C repeaters. Lower body stretching

T: 1.5 mile run, 11:27. Max HR 192

F: 100 pull-ups 13:30, well off my best time. 300 core movements

S: 1.75 mile run, 15:27. Max HR 197 but kept in HR zone 4 for most of run, 1/4 mile sprint to finish

S: Three Sisters Park. Too warm for this venue. Started at Pachyderm boulders. Too warm for the slopers of the classics so did Small Mammal V5 and Alien V4. Moved up to Energy but skin wrecked. Finished the day painfully trying some problems at Subterranean Wall

Wrist partially tweaky but improving again. Skin and ability to move on rock diminished...