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guppy posted:I am introducing friends to the hobby, with some success. A lot of them are fit and take to it no problem, but I have one friend who -- although she has been very gung-ho -- is having a lot of trouble getting going because she's out of shape. She isn't even doing routes right now, just using whatever handholds are handy, and still can't reliably get up the wall, and generally only manages 1-2 attempts per evening. Anyone who can climb a ladder can get up easy routes with decent technique (not pullups). Just avoid overhanging stuff for a while and she'll be fine.
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Aug 18, 2013 05:13
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Anyone wanna trade left ring fingers with me? Or fix it with a miracle cure? Mine seems to have tendonitis.
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Aug 18, 2013 05:27
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Just rest it for a few days and gently climb on it in such a way that doesn't hurt it is my reccomendation. If you've truly hosed it to the point it hurts doing anything with your hand then rest it and ice it. Also as the tendons have a phenomenally crap blood supply, do some cardio to get blood moving around as that's helped me with multiple ligament and tendon injuries in the past. Prevention is worth a mention as well, does it hurt when doing any sort of hand hold in particular? If it is open handing holds then it could indeed be the tendon. If it is crimping that hurts then you've probably tweaked a flexor pulley.
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Aug 18, 2013 15:00
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guppy posted:I am introducing friends to the hobby, with some success. A lot of them are fit and take to it no problem, but I have one friend who -- although she has been very gung-ho -- is having a lot of trouble getting going because she's out of shape. She isn't even doing routes right now, just using whatever handholds are handy, and still can't reliably get up the wall, and generally only manages 1-2 attempts per evening. Maybe try doing traverses across the walls (side to side) using whatever holds are available? It depends strongly on how your gym is setup but this can be fun and can have a mix of challenging and easier sections, while also teaching you some of the technique of how to grip various holds without wearing you out quite as much as climbing up the wall. E: I'm talking about a bouldering wall here in case that wasn't obvious. WhatEvil fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 15:03
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guppy posted:I am introducing friends to the hobby, with some success. A lot of them are fit and take to it no problem, but I have one friend who -- although she has been very gung-ho -- is having a lot of trouble getting going because she's out of shape. She isn't even doing routes right now, just using whatever handholds are handy, and still can't reliably get up the wall, and generally only manages 1-2 attempts per evening. This presumably pretty long routes? Does your gym have a bouldering wall as well? If she can literally only go up a couple of times a session, then doing short bouldering routes will allow her to do a lot more routes, which means quicker improvement and more successes.
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Aug 18, 2013 15:55
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WhatEvil posted:Maybe try doing traverses across the walls (side to side) using whatever holds are available? It depends strongly on how your gym is setup but this can be fun and can have a mix of challenging and easier sections, while also teaching you some of the technique of how to grip various holds without wearing you out quite as much as climbing up the wall. This sounds like a good idea, thanks. I'll try that. Magnus Manfist posted:This presumably pretty long routes? Does your gym have a bouldering wall as well? If she can literally only go up a couple of times a session, then doing short bouldering routes will allow her to do a lot more routes, which means quicker improvement and more successes. Not entirely sure I'm following. We do have a bouldering cave, but the limiting factor isn't time, she's just pooped after a time or two up. Wouldn't bouldering be harder for her? (edit: I generally find "easy" bouldering problems more demanding than "easy" top-roped routes. guppy fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 17:07
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Bouldering problems tend to have fewer holds than some of the taller roped walls. At my gym they range from about 5 to 15 holds depending on the type and location, so if stamina is an issue it could be good to use some of the shorter routes. That said I'm not all that experienced (~8 months) and I've only ever done bouldering so I don't actually know how roped climbing compares in practice.
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Aug 18, 2013 17:37
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She just needs to be made aware of the fact that if you are new to climbing then it takes a while to adjust to the new demands on your body, especially if you are already quite unfit. I started climbing a while back as a bamboo thin weakling with zero muscle who came from playing computer games all day. It took me like 6 months to do a single pull up and for a man I am told that is fairly bad  . But I stuck at it and after that first few months were over I got a lot better and it's onwards and upwards from there. Also I am still a bamboo thin nerd body type, but hey at least I can climb now 
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Aug 18, 2013 19:14
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Also, different people have different motivations. If she's having fun by her standards, it's not really up to you to make sure she's also having fun by your standards.
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Aug 18, 2013 19:20
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magicalmako posted:Anyone wanna trade left ring fingers with me? Or fix it with a miracle cure? Mine seems to have tendonitis. I'll give you my middle finger for your ring finger. Torn collateral ligament 
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Aug 18, 2013 19:32
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Whenever I crack climb I fear for my collateral ligaments. Like a pulley or tendon tear I have coped with in the past, but torquing a finger out sideways and tearing the joint capsule is a potential injury that terrifies me  What's the sort of recovery period on those? I've become quite acquainted with pulley injury care but collateral ligament injuries seem a lot less documented.
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Aug 18, 2013 20:07
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guppy posted:Not entirely sure I'm following. We do have a bouldering cave, but the limiting factor isn't time, she's just pooped after a time or two up. Wouldn't bouldering be harder for her? (edit: I generally find "easy" bouldering problems more demanding than "easy" top-roped routes. Literally just that they're usually much shorter. So if you were too tired to do another long top-rope climb, you might be a able to do a couple of short ones and get a bit more climbing in? I'm going to a bouldering only gym at the moment so we have a really good range - obviously not good if there aren't many easy ones or it's mostly overhangs or whatever.
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Aug 19, 2013 01:12
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If she's just barely starting she just needs to climb more. Her technique will suck, her grip will suck, everything will just suck. Bare bones starting technique, I'd just tell her about straight arms and remembering to breathe. Gettig used to straight arms is the biggest improvement - it really isn't that intuitive, like dropping your rear end down so you can make easy foot movements & such.
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Aug 19, 2013 03:43
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JustAnother Fat Guy posted:She just needs to be made aware of the fact that if you are new to climbing then it takes a while to adjust to the new demands on your body, especially if you are already quite unfit. The nice thing about being a skinny weakling when starting climbing is that you don't weigh much. Climbing is actually good for us rail-thin guys as far as getting really good at it, I spent last winter bulking up, gained about 15-20 pounds of muscle and then stopped eating so much and lost the weight and I've never been stronger on the wall. I'd rather do that than be the big person who has to suffer through cardio and less food to lose the pounds necessary to climb harder.
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Aug 19, 2013 05:37
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Thanks for the advice guys. She's overweight, not under, so the rail-thin stuff doesn't really apply.
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Aug 19, 2013 12:20
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JustAnother Fat Guy posted:Whenever I crack climb I fear for my collateral ligaments. Like a pulley or tendon tear I have coped with in the past, but torquing a finger out sideways and tearing the joint capsule is a potential injury that terrifies me Well my doctor did verify that it was most likely my problem when I showed him the exact spot that hurt but it's not 100%. I've been reading that it's one of the slower injuries in terms of healing and recovery but I can actually climb on it still. It's not a full tear but it hurts pretty drat much whenever I put pressure on the right side of the finger, finally taking some time off to try and let it heal fully but it's hard to keep myself from doing anything. Most things I do aggravate it so I have my middle and ring fingers buddy taped 24/7 but the worst thing is that my job involves typing all day. I think that and using a mouse is what really prolongs any kind of healing. Although my finger occasionally dislocates sides slightly. Gotta pop it back into place a few times a day. It was healing fine but then I was a silly boy and climbed on it a bunch and now I'm back to square 1. Beth Rodden has a pretty cool post about a few collateral ligament injuries that she's suffered http://blog.bethrodden.com/2012/03/collateral-ligament-injuries.html
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Aug 19, 2013 13:03
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Today I set some routes, and managed to have an extendable ladder de-extend itself onto my hand, chipping off part of my thumbnail and ripping a huge chunk of skin off my middle finger. Then my manager decided to throw a bolt into a bucket, just as I was reaching into said bucket. Needless to say, I'm out of commission for a little while. Also halfway through putting up a route the head setter took the ascender I needed. No problem dude, I'll just do one arm pull ups on the rope, dunno why I bother with that thing anyway. Setting is literally a party all the time.
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Aug 21, 2013 06:37
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Covert Ops Wizard posted:Today I set some routes, and managed to have an extendable ladder de-extend itself onto my hand, chipping off part of my thumbnail and ripping a huge chunk of skin off my middle finger. Then my manager decided to throw a bolt into a bucket, just as I was reaching into said bucket. Needless to say, I'm out of commission for a little while. Also halfway through putting up a route the head setter took the ascender I needed. No problem dude, I'll just do one arm pull ups on the rope, dunno why I bother with that thing anyway. The good thing about setting here is it's just two dudes, one ascender for setting rope, and enough area to ensure the other has plenty of time to work bouldering problems. Still a small as hell area though. A good place to cut your teeth on setting though.
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Aug 21, 2013 13:58
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went climbing in california for the first time today i on-sighted a 5.10c which was awesome cause i can normally barely do 5.10's at all at the gym i go to in a few days im gonna go to yellowstone, thats looking to be hella dope
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Aug 22, 2013 06:33
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jryand posted:went climbing in california for the first time today It's almost as if the numbers are a totally arbitrary system based on the personal opinions of a small handful of people who set gym routes or write guidebooks (they never do both).
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Aug 22, 2013 17:03
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Speleothing posted:It's almost as if the numbers are a totally arbitrary system based on the personal opinions of a small handful of people who set gym routes or write guidebooks (they never do both). I was just going to say this, climbing route grades should only be compared to the other routes on that crag/gym.
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Aug 22, 2013 17:24
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I'm going to Devil's Lake with friends to do some bouldering in a few days, anyone have any recommendations for the V2-V4 range?
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Aug 22, 2013 18:35
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My regular partner's been out injured and the person I've been introducing to climbing is out of town, so I've been going bouldering and putting my name up on the "looking for a partner" board and it's been going great. I've made some new friends and gotten a whole bunch of wall time. Climbing is neat. I stepped up to 5.8s and I'm bringing another new friend tomorrow night. I seem to be hurting the ball of my foot occasionally by standing on that instead of on my toes -- it's nothing serious but it's sore sometimes when I walk on it, especially barefoot. I climb in climbing shoes, but just cheap Evolvs. Other than the obvious ("stop standing on the balls of your feet") is there anything I should be doing? It's not a severe injury or anything, I just want to make sure it's okay to keep climbing while it recovers and that I don't need to be doing anything in particular to treat it.
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Aug 22, 2013 19:14
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The balls of my feet hurt when I started wearing toe shoes (not climbing) and it just went away after a week.
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Aug 22, 2013 19:56
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I've been trying these out (girlfriend gave me one) on my sore fingers between problems at the gym, and it's kind of a nice sensation. I'm quite sure the benefits are not nearly what they're made out to be, but it does seem to loosen up my finger a little bit each time I use it. It's a given (at least for me) that when your finger hurts you'll usually be massaging it by squeezing the painful section, so this kind of does the same thing but in a more even manner. Looks like an evil cock-ring but you're just supposed to roll them back and forth along the section of your finger that hurts. If you have a torn such-and-such, of course seek appropriate medical attention instead.
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Aug 22, 2013 21:05
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I lightly sprained my left ankle the day after my first climbing class (and I wasn't even climbing at the time). It kept me off the wall for a week and a half, and really I probably should have kept away for a full two weeks. But I almost lost my motivation to keep going with this climbing thing so I forced myself back to the gym when my foot was still a bit tender. Luckily I managed not to re-injure myself! I've been back a couple of times since then and am back to having a blast. But the loving flappers just keep on coming. I've had two more this week despite judicious use of ClimbOn, ugh.
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Aug 23, 2013 07:16
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French Canadian posted:I've been trying these out (girlfriend gave me one) on my sore fingers between problems at the gym, and it's kind of a nice sensation. I have a buddy who has one of those and he loves it to death.
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Aug 23, 2013 09:46
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Kefit posted:I lightly sprained my left ankle the day after my first climbing class (and I wasn't even climbing at the time). It kept me off the wall for a week and a half, and really I probably should have kept away for a full two weeks. But I almost lost my motivation to keep going with this climbing thing so I forced myself back to the gym when my foot was still a bit tender. Luckily I managed not to re-injure myself! I've been back a couple of times since then and am back to having a blast. I would guess you are gripping way too hard.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:34
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Whenever I grab a "full hand" jug, I always bounce it a couple times for a optimal re-grip. Watch other climbers and you'll see them doing this too. It helps relieve any pressure points (skin folding in a weird direction) you might have caused by gripping something quickly/poorly, so it probably helps reduce flappers. Also, it should be obvious, but lots of dynamic swinging moves can destroy your skin pretty fast and should be avoided when you don't have the calluses for it.
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Aug 23, 2013 18:24
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spwrozek posted:I would guess you are gripping way too hard. When you eventually get into harder problems you'll only use your finger tips anyway, haha!
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Aug 23, 2013 20:05
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Or the most vile pinches known to man.
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Aug 23, 2013 22:49
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deck posted:Whenever I grab a "full hand" jug, I always bounce it a couple times for a optimal re-grip. Watch other climbers and you'll see them doing this too. It helps relieve any pressure points (skin folding in a weird direction) you might have caused by gripping something quickly/poorly, so it probably helps reduce flappers.
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Aug 24, 2013 00:11
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PYF chalkbags: http://www.yamaclimbing.com/index.html She's a friend of mine, but they're really durable and the closing mechanisms work very well. New designs are posted all the time and she can do custom stuff.
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Aug 24, 2013 00:15
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Discomancer posted:You see a lot of climbers doing this, but it's not very good technique--the goal should be to grab the hold the right way the first time. If you're doing a lot of repositioning to get the right spot, you'll tire yourself out a lot quicker. Approaching the hold slower/more static until you have the move down right will help build up the muscle memory here, and help sequence into the next move. Great practice for this is to keep doing a route and not move your hands once they're on a hold. You'll see that going from one move into the next is a lot smoother because you aren't stopping to adjust between handholds. Yeah I used to readjust a lot, I think it's a phase. Well my pulley tendon is finally healed up, and I'm climbing as hard as ever, and now my elbow tendonitis is coming back. Woo. I think I'm going to have to back off for a while and hope it settles down. The nice thing about the injuries I've gotten is that I can usually climb easier stuff without aggravating them, so as long as I just go outside and climb moderate trad or easier sport I can keep climbing.
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Aug 24, 2013 00:20
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modig posted:Yeah I used to readjust a lot, I think it's a phase. Do you do dips or any tricep work? I find adding a few sets of those after climbing helps a lot when my elbows start aching.
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Aug 24, 2013 00:29
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French Canadian posted:PYF chalkbags: http://www.yamaclimbing.com/index.html I was actually looking into custom bags recently. This might be my answer.
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Aug 24, 2013 01:33
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Discomancer posted:Do you do dips or any tricep work? I find adding a few sets of those after climbing helps a lot when my elbows start aching. I've done some tricep stuff on and off, and its never been clear if it was helping or not. I might start trying again. Never really did dips.
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Aug 24, 2013 01:52
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modig posted:I've done some tricep stuff on and off, and its never been clear if it was helping or not. I might start trying again. Never really did dips. Skullcrushers are better and less likely to exacerbate internal rotation.
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Aug 24, 2013 02:43
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Any Colorado folks want to get out this weekend?
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Aug 24, 2013 05:26
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I took a gnarly fall at the bouldering gym today. I was making the last move of a problem, reaching up to grab the top of the wall, and before I knew it I was on the floor. I don't really know how it happened but I landed on my hip and shoulder and I hit the mat so hard that my glasses came off. My shoulder hurts right now and I can tell that it's going to hurt tomorrow. When I first started climbing it took me a while to work through the whole "I'm kind of high up and I'm nervous about making this next move" mental state and now I'm back there in a different way. Any advice on how to break through the mental stuff? I've found that I've been having issues climbing problems on aretes and problems with lots of volumes. I'm worried about falling and hitting my head on something on the way down. I know that the answer is always "climb more" and that is my plan, but I would like to hear about your personal experiences in advancing the mental aspect of your climbing ability. Right now I feel like my physical climbing skill is ahead of my mental skill and I need to find a way to get them in synch.
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Aug 24, 2013 06:04
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