[cheque]

I always wonder how you are recovering. I know you don’t “have a choice” as it were, but I am always seriously impressed by people who don’t just give up after such major set backs in life.

Cheers Matt! 

Going pretty well thanks.

This year’s climbing really illustrated to me how weak and inflexible my lower body still is. Just getting shut down by really pretty easy routes with high rockovers, bridging or any kind of sustained legwork so right now is all about training that.

It’s quite easy as time goes on to think “why am I still so weak?” and “why didn’t I just train this earlier?”but you have to remind yourself that it’s a project like restoring an old car or something- you want to fix all the bits but you can only do so much at a time and you have to fix some things before you can even start looking at the others!

Regaining flexibility’s just been a slow drip more than anything though. As I’ve got fitter I’m less often too knackered to make myself stretch in the evening and lots of the ROM seems to come back over time and as I do more exercises- everything is reciprocal really.

[User deactivated.]

Given Matt's post, I assume you had a pretty bad injury. Training flexibility as an adult is hard even without an injury! I couldn't touch my toes 18 months ago, then having never done any flexibility/mobility training whatsoever, I decided to make it a big part of my life (hopefully forever). I've made it part of my night time routine and I aim to do 30-60 minutes of full body work every single day. Inevitably this usually ends up being 3-4 days a week due to life, but when you get into the swing of it, it's not so bad, and I definitely feel a lot better for it in a morning!

Progress is absolutely glacial though, for me. I seem to be able to just about maintain current flexibility on 4 days a week, and more is needed to make any progress. Less and I start losing it again! At the beginning of the year I aimed to get my side splits, but pushing too hard leads to minor injuries and it seems i'm not going to get there in time. Maybe next Christmas instead!

Moral of the story - if touching your toes was a goal for you (it was for me at one point) then well done as progress is hard for anyone. It seems any stretching is good and more is better.

[Steve R]

Read a rule of thumb somewhere that the number of good sessions per week you stretch should be at least the same as the number of decades you've been around.  ie. 3 sessions pw if you're in your 30s, 4 if you're in your 40s, etc. Sounds about right.  I know it's worth it, not just for climbing but to generally feel better/younger too.  Still don't do enough though...

[User deactivated.]

I must have had a hard paper round as a kid then if I need 4 sessions per week to maintain 

[slab_happy]

I touched my toes just now. 

Woohoo!

[mrjonathanr]

Read a rule of thumb somewhere that the number of good sessions per week you stretch should be at least the same as the number of decades you've been around.  ie. 3 sessions pw if you're in your 30s, 4 if you're in your 40s, etc. Sounds about right.  I know it's worth it, not just for climbing but to generally feel better/younger too.  Still don't do enough though...

I’m not looking forward to being 90 then.

[Duma]

Given Matt's post, I assume you had a pretty bad injury.

understatement...

So, just over a month ago I took a 25m groundfall while lowering off a route in Spain due to an incomprehensible not-retying-the-safety-knot error (entirely my fault).

Somehow I lived but the litany of injuries is;

-Left femur in three pieces (long since bolted back together in a similar manner to Will’s above)

-Unstable pelvis fracture; sacrum principally but I had a pubic bone dislocation as a result (had a operation to pin this back together as well- I would not wish this injury on anyone)

-Various rib, sternum & vertebrae breakages, all of which stayed in place but I have to wear a hellishly uncomfortable back brace to keep it all stable for another two weeks

- Sprained left thumb which has been, somewhat understandably, overlooked but I’m now realising might be quite bad

[Wellsy]

Crikey

[SA Chris]

Crikey is right, a sprained thumb can be a real bummer

[cheque]

  That was before I had the thumb x-rayed and found that I’d actually pulverised one of the little carpal bones  I was over optimistic about how long I’d have to wear that fucking brace too and yet to learn the full extent of some of those other injuries, let alone all the cool proper names for them. That was only a month after the accident itself, a day after I’d come out of hospital I think. Madness to think about now.

Check your knots everyone. It’s not great having to start climbing again from scratch and still be working on recovering years later (amongst all the other downsides) but the far more likely outcomes of my fuckup all involve death or some form of paralysis so I still just feel like I’m lucky to be here every day.

Anyway, like Liam I aim to do a fairly comprehensive upper and lower body stretching routine every evening before bed (takes about 20 minutes) and will actually complete the whole lot about 5 days most weeks.

[User deactivated.]

Damn, properly smashed yourself up there! I'm glad your making a strong recovery. Tell me to do one if you don't want to think/talk about the experience, but while falling do you remember getting any typical near-death experience effects e.g. slow motion, light at the end of the tunnel, etc? That stuff fascinates me, but my own experiences have only ever been chemically induced 

[cheque]

No I didn’t experience anything like that until the drugs kicked in.

[Johnny Brown]

There was the 'maybe it's for the best' moment though?

[cheque]

Yeah, it was a near death experience for sure (the entire first week or so after the accident was a near death experience really…) and it was absolutely terrible but the accident itself and immediate aftermath wasn’t accompanied by any trippy “follow the light”/ life-flashing-before-your-eyes-type things at all.

[Anoesis]

Good luck with the rehab…I took a ground fall in May this year but landing like an upturned beatle onto a large boulder.  Nothing that could be done and no-ones fault, the rock basically exploded after the gear was weighted.
The consequences for me were broken vertebrae and an ankle, so months spent ‘walking’around like Robocop in a brace.  The worst part was effectively being waterboarded through a face mask as waves broke over the bow of the lifeboat.  The crew were fantastic but the sea was rough…..on the plus side I’m now climbing again as part of the rehab….

[SA Chris]

Oof, where did that happen?

[Anoesis]

South Wales near Bridgend…..I wasn’t even supposed to be climbing that day either 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Having broken my large lamp the other day, I set off for Broomgrove with a couple of cycle lights, and discovered it in all it's festive splendour.
1.30a.m. this morning. Then it started snowing.
First chilblains of the winter 

[SA Chris]

Are chillblains even a thing anymore? When I was little I was always told by my gran not to put cold hands too near a heater or else you will get them. But have never got them in spite of spending a lot of time out in the cold

[moose]

I get chilblains pretty badly (probably a package deal with my Raynauds).  If I let my feet get too cold, for a week or so afterwards my toes can feel like someone's blow-torched them (and the swelling makes rock shoes even more uncomfortable than usual).

[Fultonius]

Are chillblains even a thing anymore? When I was little I was always told by my gran not to put cold hands too near a heater or else you will get them. But have never got them in spite of spending a lot of time out in the cold

Big resurgence of chill-blain like things due to the 'rona. I had them in April / May last year for the first time ever, 6 weeks or so after getting the virus the first time.

[SA Chris]

OK guess I'm lucky. Partner has Raynaulds, not fun

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Are chillblains even a thing anymore? When I was little I was always told by my gran not to put cold hands too near a heater or else you will get them. But have never got them in spite of spending a lot of time out in the cold

Clearly this is what grannies say 

Along with things like "Mind you don't step on Casius' feet. He'll bite" .. and other horrors.

Edit. chillblains are a thing. Get them fairly often after cramming feet into small boots when it's cold.

"I get chilblains pretty badly (probably a package deal with my Raynauds).  If I let my feet get too cold, for a week or so afterwards my toes can feel like someone's blow-torched them (and the swelling makes rock shoes even more uncomfortable than usual)." - me too. And wrt Raynauds.

I should just say, Broomgrove is such a flippin great little wall. It was a bit glassy last night, but really sweet too. There's often an owl in residence during the night.

[remus]

I had one of those board sessions last night. Tune out now if you don't want all the scintillating detail.

It felt pretty humid to start with but the usual warm ups were feeling good, with some little inklings of that 'locked in' feeling you get. I didn't want to get too excited as it doesn't always translate on to the harder stuff. FInished off the warm up going a bit harder than usual which was another good sign.

On to the projects. Number 1 was probably the hardest of the bunch, 4 moves between some tasty little crimps with slippery feet that are hard to stick. I'd done some good links on this before but never felt close to sticking move 3 from the start and have never felt reliable on move 2. To be honest I didn't feel great on it to start with, the first move is kinda fiddly to get just right. After a few abortive attempts I remember thinking, right, let's stop messing around and just squeeze the shit out of it. I had a couple of goes getting to move 3, then the magic go where I hit move 3 absolutely perfectly and smashed the relatively easy move 4 to the top. Just getting this done would have been a great session. 8-10 sessions over 8 weeks on this one.

Next up was a pinchy number a friend set a couple of weeks ago. Probably the easiest of the bunch but it didn't feel that close last time I was on it. I'd been faffing around trying to get a foot to stick on this big move, but harnessing the board power I just sacked the feet off and held the move by squeezing the shit out of the pinches. One wild move for the top and another one bites the dust. 2 sessions on this one.

Last up was a vintage project from the early days of the board. A pretty steady top but with a savage shouldery first move where you make a long move left from a good edge to gaston another decent edge, but end up really spanned out and have to seriously engage your shoulder to make it stick. Previously I'd tickled the left hand edge but never felt close to engaging on it. Today was different. The gaston edge was a rock solid crimp, the holds closer together, the feet like little incut jugs and the top a lap of victory. 10-12 sessions on this one over 6 months.

The psyche is real 

[User deactivated.]

Good job Remus, I enjoyed the detail. I reckon the 3rd problem would be up my street.

I bet most of us have climbed harder stuff on our boards than we have outside!