UKC

Appreciate this may be difficult to give a definite anwer before but am looking for other peoples experiences...i'm 5 foot 10 and 12 stone, all things being equal how much of a difference to my climbing will loosing 1 to 2 stones...obviously it'll make some difference but wondering if eg- 3 months of weight loss will do more for strength to weight ratio than 3 month of pull-up's...anyone with any experience of their own weight loss?

In reply to phja:
I lost around 16.5 st to 13.5 st a few years back. it made virtually no difference to my sport grade until I lost the last 5 kg (maybe 1 sport grade befopre that) I then shot up about 1 full sport grade ie 6A+ before the wight loss to 6b during to 6C during the last 5 kg.

In reply to phja:
Loooking at yr bmi unless youi are unusually broad it's likely it's technique holding you back not weight IMO.

In reply to phja: Hi this is kind of an opposite scenario, when i first started climbing i was 10.5 stone and 6ft, flyweight really, now 10-12yrs later i'm around 13st. I had a spell of not climbing for a couple of years now i'm climbing again and harder and better than when i was lighter, my grade hasn't changed that much I climb E1-3 depending on route and how i'm feeling on the day. For me weight was not a part of how i climb, the other things such as technique, route reading, confidence, experience, pushing, taking falls etc were more important. focusing on weakness and your approach to how you can climb well would probably serve you better than weight. hope this helps.

In reply to phja:

do both, they kinda go together.

for an indication, chuck 1 or 2 stones worth of weight in a day pack and do some routes.

In reply to phja:

Personally I'd say it depends a lot on what's holding you back. If you're bouldering or sport climbing where the limit that you are running into is your physical ability to pull hard moves then every pound you lose will boost your ability. If your limit is more in your head or your technique then the difference will be a lot less because you're improving something that isn't your critical weakness.

In reply to phja:

I'd drop one stone, not two. Then see how healthy/fit you feel (irrespective of climbing performance).

Combine this with power training, ideally on 45% boards. If you can't do this, then go for more general bouldering. If you can't do this, do pull-ups - but mind your elbows.

Combine this with better technique (e.g. we can all have better footwork).

Combine this with learning about redpointing.

The result? As long as you avoid injury (be patient!) your redpoint grade will probably go to F7a or higher - possibly much higher.

Translate these gains into a higher onsight grade on sport routes and (careful here!) a higher onsight grade in trad. Go for steep, pumpy and safe for grade breakthroughs.

Hope this helps. It worked for me.

Mick

In reply to phja:

I noticed a fair difference when I was sick for a few days and dropped from 70kg to 67kg - I almost felt weightless on old benchmark boulder problems and had a decent trip abroad several days later.

I'm not sure if I would have got things done just as fast without dropping the few kg or not. I did notice I was fatigued faster than usual.

In reply to phja: Dave MacLeod says in his book that weight is one of the four key factors in performance - along with technique, strength and endurance.

In reply to phja:my experience of this came after climbing for over a decade, trying to break into the 7's by training hard, climbing upto 4 times a week and not getting anywhere. I changed jobs to a much more active one, and cut out the booze, not really to help climbing.I lost about 3/4 of a stone and have gone upto on sighting 7b's. Not many, but some.I have trained a lot harder but not climbed as well as I do now.