the shizzle > diet, training and injuries

slabs versus overhangs as we age

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rodma:

--- Quote from: jwi on April 16, 2024, 12:33:05 pm ---Many middle age male climbers still jump higher than all female 9a climbers.

--- End quote ---

That's like one of these tricky logic true-or-false maths exam questions.

stone:

--- Quote from: SA Chris on April 16, 2024, 09:53:30 am ---Or maybe just do problems in a style you like and don't worry about grade? Or just do problems in all style to make you a more all rounded climber?

--- End quote ---
To clarify, I wasn't seeking to get the max lifetime grade haul. What I was after was to ensure that I could pass my days without running out of inviting challenges close to home. As an example, today I was at Beef Buttress, Roche Abbey. I'm saving Sundance there. I've got similarly saved problems dotted around local crags.

Fiend:
Most things are going to get worse for climbing as you get older at that sort of age, especially muscularity, raw power, injury resistance, and bravery / foolhardiness (also worth noting that if you plan on putting on any extra weight, as well as the power-to-weight detriment, there's the secret anti-bonus that it's bloody terrible for the effects on skin / finger pulp, thus being able to tolerate tiny holds gets worse too).

A few things can get better - technique, tactics, wisdom and cunning, and any untapped areas that you haven't previously tried to train (this being the illusion of progress as you get older) / tackle - as you say, stretching, for example.

The general concept of "get the burly stuff done whilst your body can still tolerate it, then bimble up slabs when you're a shuffling bag of injuries / weakness" does seem sensible, but taking into account the above, there's more nuance than that. As Barrows mentions, tweaky stuff is best done sooner rather than later (not the same as burly stuff), and other injurious problems could include anything wildly dynamic, drop knees, heel hooks, etc etc, again get them out of the way while you're more resilient (or just avoid because it could fuck things up for quite a while as you get older). Conversely, there could be other styles that are worth saving in addition to slabs - anything that's particularly complex, sequency, and knacky where you can use your wise old brain further down the line, or anything that requires a lot of nouse to get conditions and sending tactics right (which the yoof of today with all their damp grit climbing and resting 20 seconds between attempts usually lack).

And of course there's generally a lot of sense to saving easier problems until you're old enough that you can't do hard ones and the easy ones are then hard. And taking advantage of the massive amount of bouldering development and documentation that gives us vastly more options these days - one advantage to this current ridiculous bouldering fad.

peterbeal:
Re: height of bouldering walls, absolutely. The trend towards building higher, slabbier walls, presumably to accommodate parkour-style holds and setting is a disaster waiting to happen for climbers of all ages but especially older ones. The bigger the fall, the worse the impact, and the higher the chances for serious injury regardless of skill at landing.

SA Chris:
As well as putting huge volumes for people to run on at the bottom of the same vertical wall as there are the interesting thin balancy crimp problems. TE take a bow.

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