RRC Archives

and rjackson, although I know it has been killing you to be inside the last few weeks, your body thanks you.

pigsteak wrote:

twan wrote:So the solution to not get injured during climbing season is to quit for a month? Interesting.

absolutely..if you have been pushing it during your peak season, you have so many micro trauma/tears that you don't even realize how tight/close to serious injury you are...take a full month off, and you will literally feel your body coming back. if you feel nothing, it only means you didn't really push it during the climbing season.

none of this applies to trad wieners of course...you guys are recalling the 8 pitches you did the whole of 2010, and now discussing ice climbing...

I agree that you should take some time off to recuperate, but a whole month? That seems like a long healing session. I have a training schedule that I try to follow, but sometimes life and school interrupt, but its train 12 weeks at 3 days a week at most, then rest a full week. I don't know, I'll have to look into this one more.

I agree with taking a month off of training or climbing hard... if you're a full time climber, constantly training or pushing it, or your body is breaking down. However, since I don't know a single climber who couldn't benefit from technique training on easy climbs, or 30 minute jug sessions on the wall, I think quitting cold turkey is a bit ridiculous. Since cardio doesn't get you a single thing when applied to climbing, it seems even more silly to do just that, but zero climbing.

Also, I'm not sure what you guys are doing during the season that causes such beat down, but my training season puts me far closer to injury than my climbing season does. Especially at the Red... its about as low impact as a sport can be. Maybe the problem is that you aren't trained adequately before jumping in... because you took a month off.

As far as "other interests" go, if you can't pursue other interests during the climbing season, then maybe you should learn a little (or a lot) about scheduling some variety into your life. If you climb and train smarter, it takes up far less time than most people seem to be talking about...

Of course, if you like to just start over, and spend most of the season getting back to where you were, taking a ton of time off is a good thing.

Saying that cardio doesn't get you a single thing when applied to climbing imo is just wrong. The most obvious application is keeping the weight down, i.e. strength to weight ratio. The average person genearlly requires some type of calorie burning activity, especially in a lull of activity and especially when you start getting crusty. Besides the obvious, weight reduction or mainentance, I'm curious how people convince themselves a healthier heart would not help their climbing performance, there are other benefits as well but it seems ludicrous to try and convince "athletes" to do cardio. However, not saying replace everything with cardio for a month, that's ridiculous but if you haven't been doing cardio and start doing it you will see reap the rewards in many ways. I agree though that cardio doesn't stand on it's own by any means if the goal is to become a better climber, or in general a more fit person. Without a core/ strength conditioning program as well, a person could come out of a month of "rest" in a weakened state that would require a lot of time to just get back to square 1 again. Resting climbing specific body parts does not translate to sit on your ass for up to a month. It means let your shoulders, fingers elbows etc rest from the repetitive nature of climbing movements and replace them with other activities which will maintain overall fitness and keep you ready for when the body/psyche has recovered enough to get back at it.

I agree with Lateralus and on a more physiological level, increased fitness means more nitric oxide (NO) output. NO relaxes the smooth muscles of your hollow organs such as your blood vessels and if that is relaxed, you get more blood flow. Cardio is a sure path to that - or you could just load on Arginine, if the studies are right. Oh, and don't confuse it with Nitrous Oxide (N2O) aka "laughing gas" - a common mistake.

512OW wrote: Also, I'm not sure what you guys are doing during the season that causes such beat down, but my training season puts me far closer to injury than my climbing season does. Especially at the Red... its about as low impact as a sport can be.

seriously. if you're used to bouldering/training cycles, a full season in the Red feels like rehab.

I didn't do shit for cardio this season and I felt pretty good as far as climbing goes. I used to do a ton of cardio while training for climbing but I think it just made my climbing recovery slower. Michelle did a ton of cardio (along with weights and stuff) but no climbing training and she had a great season. I guess it depends.

Matt Nasty's cardio consists of pulling Dell of of people's legs and he crushes like a 15 year old female competition climber.

Cardio is certainly not the most effective or efficient way to burn calories, or lose weight. It also isn't the end all to having a healthy heart. Some studies show that very little, as low as 3%, of running cardio transfers to biking cardio, and vice versa... so what percentage will transfer to sport climbing? The transfer that does come is from muscular use, and why you would need stronger, heavier legs to sport climb, I'm not sure.

At any rate, light climbing puts those "injured" areas to use... which increases blood flow and promotes faster healing. I've yet (and I hear many similiar stories) to have an injury heal well without climbing on it. For the past few years, I've climbed through every minor "injury", and amidst all the stories I hear of months off from the similiar injuries, I heal completely in a week or two.

Like I said before, every climber I know could benefit from time spent doing easy climbs perfectly, and learning about technique and movement. If your goal is to improve your climbing, your time would be far better utilized if you spend it learning about climbing, instead of running.

Meadows wrote:I agree with Lateralus and on a more physiological level, increased fitness means more nitric oxide (NO) output. NO relaxes the smooth muscles of your hollow organs such as your blood vessels and if that is relaxed, you get more blood flow. Cardio is a sure path to that - or you could just load on Arginine, if the studies are right. Oh, and don't confuse it with Nitrous Oxide (N2O) aka "laughing gas" - a common mistake.

You act as if long easy climbing sessions won't improve fitness.

I have yet to see someone gain local forearm endurance by running or biking. I've seen multiple people significantly boost their capillarity through extremely low impact 30 to 40 minute sessions on big holds.

Light climbing through injuries. A definite for me. If I can bear the pain then I'll keep climbing. I'm just coming off of 2 weeks off of any climbing at all but only because it was just too painful in both arms to pull on anything. Finally reached a point where the pain was bearable, hit up Rock Quest for some easy crimpin' yesterday, and feel like a million bucks today. Back in action!