[Muenchener]

(I actually wrote this before I saw "hug a newbie week")

Please allow me to introduce myself: I am in my late 40s, and re-started climbing this year after a break of over ten years. Used to onsight around E2, F6b/c. My current goal is to get back to onsighting sport routes in the F6s.

As a working parent I only get outdoors or to a leading wall once or twice a week. However, the gym at my work has a small bouldering cave, and I could also get on that for short lunchtime sessions a couple of times a week. So I thought I would ask the combined wisdom & expertise of ukb: how could I make the best use of my training time there?

Power and single-move technique seem don't seem to be the issue just now: in the summer before I injured my finger I was doing font 6A problems (indoors) onsight or in a handful of goes, but I'm not routinely onsighting F6a yet. I generally find the moves easy on the routes I'm trying: what stops me is getting pumped and/or scared.   

I'm also concerned about finger safety: the fact that I'm currently recovering from an A2 pulley event suggests that I might already be pushing too hard, too soon.

I can take around an hour for lunch. After walking to the gym, getting changed etc. that means I'm bouldering for 40 minutes or so. Pre-finger injury I was doing around 10 minutes warming up on very easy moves, 10 to 20 minutes trying hard problems, 10 to 20 minutes grinding out circuits.

How can I optimise this? I assume (a) trying to cover everything in such a short session won't work well, (b) given my current goals, I should focus more on the "grinding out circuits" bit. But: problems are more fun. But: problems are more dangerous - the wall is pretty fingery, with almost no decent sloper problems.

[shark]

 

There are a few things you could do but some form of interval training strikes me as being a good solution.

Pick out a problem at a lower level that you can reverse back down from to a shake-out hold - take 1 minute to shakeout then repeat doing 10 reps. This will reduce the risk of injury and target anaerobic capacity (I think  ) and recovery.

As as you are at a gym how about the following for your 40 mins:

5mins Dumbell  complex to warm-up 
5mins Warm up problems
5mins rest
15mins interval set described above
5mins rest 
5mins Dumbell  complex to warm-down 

As you get better at repeating the problem make it progressively harder or choose a new problem and/or choose a poorer hold to shakeout from

[Muenchener]

Thanks. I'll give the 4x4s & intervals a go - they sound less tedious than trying to cling on for ages on circuits.

- you don't mention your weight. A stereotype conjured up of the middle-aged climber getting back into climbing is someone who hasn't realised that that they are physically rather bulkier than their younger self.

I'm six foot and a little over 80 kilos - not Ondra-shaped by any means, but only 3 or 4 kilos over what I was in my 20s.
(Although I was disappointed to haul my old harness out of the cellar, only to discover that I had to go and buy a new one immediately.)

I was reasonably fit & active most of the in-between time, just doing other things than climbing. Mostly ashtanga yoga, bits of mountain biking & snowboarding. Part of my road back to climbing was living near the Alps and going on big hiking trips with my wife that were getting progressively steeper & rockier as she got more experienced & ambitious. At the point where the "paths" started to have UIAA grades, she signed up for an introductory course at the wall, and I followed shortly afterwards.

[ghisino]

Power and single-move technique seem don't seem to be the issue just now: in the summer before I injured my finger I was doing font 6A problems (indoors) onsight or in a handful of goes, but I'm not routinely onsighting F6a yet. I generally find the moves easy on the routes I'm trying: what stops me is getting pumped and/or scared. 

this alone makes me think about

-as many moves as you can during your session, so medium intensity and very small rests :as soon as you are fully warmed up, aim for a medium pump. Do not recover 100% and try something at your limit, get on the holds when you feel 70-80% "fresh". Link 3-4 boulder problems with very small rest : climb, jump off, climb again.

then you have a recovering pulley injury, so you'd better focus on technique drills (that match well with medium intensity-high volume work)

-focus as much as possible on execution quality, that means : fast, dynamic AND accurate at time. You should not be climbing slowly and static all the time, you should not be pulling so brutally that you start messing up your footwork. Work a lot on finding the happy medium.
-use the momentum from the previous move. Eg, if you have to cut feet lose, aim for the perfect foot placement on the swing back in, do not allow you a second swing. Same for every side oscillation/twisting, see if allowing a bit of it can make the start of the next move easier.
-do not readjust your hands on the holds, unless it is a major readjustment during a complex move. But generally speaking, the way you grab it, you pull it (immediately, no dead time on holds). Aim to get holds "right" the first time.
-If it doesn't make things significantly harder, choose beta where climb on 1 foothold and use the other leg for balance. Even better if you can link several hand moves without moving your feet (example: 2:32 @     4 hand moves with the same right foothold, quick qnd effective)

[Muenchener]

It took a while, but this week I felt confident enough in my recovering finger to put some of this into practice. I did:

20 minutes warm up / Hague & Hunter flagging exercises
20 minutes straightforward overhanging problems with vertical rests on jugs/heelhooks, trying not to step off. Managed in two blocks.
10 minutes warm down: reverse wrist curls, rotator cuff stuff.

Felt worthwhile. I'm currently trying to get on a leading wall (or Real Rock) two days a week; will add one session like this for the time being and aim to build up to two.