UKC

Well just done my 1st VS 4c 3* Great Harry at Lawrencefeild this weekend, feeling really good, recently i lost 3st and my climbing improved, the turning point for me was doing Christmas Crack which was my 1st HS 2 weeks ago, before this i only managed HVD/S without problems.

Just wondering if any-1 else has similar feeling about weight loss and improved climbing grades?????

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:
Woahh top effort!!

I've yo-yo'd like mad but when I lost around 1/2 a stone I could tell.
leading things I could only previously do on a tight rope etc..

But I've come to terms with the fact that I cant loose any....I think its the beer

In reply to scott quinn:
Cheers i also meant so say these were my 1st HS/VS leads, i also did tyrone which is a HVS after my partners arms pumped out and came down, i went and completed it.

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:
Great Harry is a formidable climb, particularly on lead. Once graded HVS if I'm not mistaken. I found it nails on second. Well done that man!!

In reply to BnB:

I found it very pumpy, my arms n shoulders are feeling it now, but a good lead climb especially liked the start.

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:

Congratulations. 3 stone is lot of weight to lose, and it's great that you've seen the difference in climbing. Your heart, joints, and general health will appreciate too.

Losing weight is clearly a good way to improve your grade - as long as you make sure that you keep climbing regularly and eat plenty of protein, in order to minimise muscle loss.

I've lost 11kg (approaching 2 stone) since christmas and seen a clear jump in my climbing level.

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:

Well done, Great harry is a great route and a tough VS (graded HVS 4c in some older guidebooks). just as you think you have done the crux it gets harder again!

isnt it obvious that weight loss will improve your climbing? can you imagine climbing great harry again with a 15kg weight vest on? the less weight you are moving upwards, the less 'work' you have to do to transfer kinetic energy into gravitational potential energy, ie. lift your mass from point a (ground) to point x (top of crag)

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:

As long as weigth loss doesn't become an obsession and that you have things to lose then it makes sense.

It's all about the right balance of enjoyment, health and progress.

I haven't got a lot to lose, it'd probably be muscle mass in legs. The sacrifices i'd need to make to lose weigth are unappealing and I have more gains to make from getting better technically. It's all about case by case.

Well done though for both weight and climb. If you're stoked, it's all that counts!

In reply to French Erick:

Yeh, im not saying everyone should loose weight if they want to climb harder, but at face value if you loose weight it will make climbing easier. I certainly have no weight to loose that wouldt seriously impede my other sports and activities (rugby and climbing dont realy compliment each other in body type!)

In reply to Webster:

If you lose fat then great, your climbing will improve. If you lose muscle, that's not so good!

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:

Well done. GH is proper VS.

Weight loss is relative to being overweight; at some point if you were not very heavy already you may even get weaker by losing 3st! Another key benefit is reduced chance of injury and faster recovery (as its less stressful to do easier climbing movement).

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:
I pretty much did no climbing for a year, but lost a stone in weight (distracted by running/biking). End result was no change in grade which I thought pretty good - would have expected to have lost a couple of grades (french) with a year's lay off.

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:

Well done indeed. Great Harry is high end VS in my book. I have lost a lot of weight myself over the past 2.5 years, 115KG down to 80kg.

I moved up good few grades in doing so. The main difference was endurance and being able to hang on and work things out. With gravity against a heavy frame the clock is ticking all the faster irrespective of strength/power.

In reply to Offwidth:
I was 16st 8lb iam now at 13st 2lb since december last year, i need to lose the weight health wise, also it has helped me to climb harder routes as my power to weight ratio has increased.

Thanks for all the great comments, it will help keep me motivated to keep the weight off, and to climbing great routes in future, got a hit list of routes to choose from now.

Mrdigitaljedi.

In reply to 999thAndy:


Not necessarily true - imagine if you do a lot of cycling and have legs like tree trunks. You could afford to lose a bit of muscle mass on them without noticing any negative impact through weakness (ever heard anyone complain their legs are to weak?).

In reply to mrdigitaljedi:

I think I'd have to amputate a leg to lose that sort of weight, good effort. I can easily see how this weight would make a massive difference to your climbing as I notice it if I'm carrying a rack or not and that's only a few kgs.
Saying this, don't get carried away in thinking that if you lose more weight you'll climb harder, there is obvious a balance to be drawn and this is the difficult bit.

Great harry is cracking good route too.

In reply to 999thAndy:

depends where you loose the muscle, as long as your legs are strong enough to walk up stairs then you have dead weight to loose there (im not encouraging this though!) and the vast majority of male climbers could looose upper body muscle without their climbing suffering as long as they maintained their finger strength and motor skills. i recon if you lost a gram of muscle from your biceps but gained it in your forearms your climbing would vastly improve, as forearms are a much smaller muscle group so the gains in finger strength would outweigh the loss in pullup ability! and as all the beautifully technical female climbers proove frustratingly often, you dont actually need to be able to do a pullup to climb hard!

In reply to Webster and Ian :

I was just trying to point out that losing weight isn't necessarily going to help your climbing, it depends on what was lost, and where from.