UKC

So I have been out of the game for the last few years due to work and life commitments and have put a few pounds on since being at my ideal climbing weight (about 12 stone) I now have a bit more time and motivation to train again and am keen to get back to the level I was climbing at

My question is , as I lose the weight, should I add it back on via a weight belt/vest when I train or just enjoy feeling lighter and the benefits that that brings with regard to grade and performance improvements.

I have lost about 6 pounds in the last month and it has shown in the boulder grades and finger board performances I have been putting in which is nice for my ego however if I put on the weight belt with 6lb my performance is remarkably similar.

I have noticed more improvement in fitness than strength over the last month so maybe the weight loss helps with the longer boulder problems more than all out power

To get back to target weight I have another 44lbs to lose which might or might not be possible as I am a few years older than I was when I was at my peak.

I thought that if I restrict myself to the weight I am now (212 lbs) while training on the finger board and bouldering indoors and then when I get back out climbing outdoors just enjoy being lighter that might be a good syste

Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome and a happy new year to everyone on UKC

In reply to thedevonshirepiemuncher:

For your body to get stronger, it needs extra resources to build up your muscles and tendons. If you are losing weight, you are essentially operating on a deficit of resources because you are burning up your reserves. This makes it quite hard to both get lighter and get stronger at the same time. There is a lot of information out on t'internet about training and getting strong while a little heavier, then losing a bit of weight, then doing your long term project.

If I were in your position (and I am!), I'd lose the weight while sticking with a medium intensity workout _then_ work on getting strong after that.
I've never used a weight belt/vest and it's very rarely that I see others using one, even the guys climbing font 8s mostly don't use them so I would skip that.

Also, putting something into Google like "climbing weight loss getting stronger" will give you a huge number of articles, written by people who actually did their research, that are more comprehensive and more authoritative than the random opinions of punters on UKC

In reply to thedevonshirepiemuncher: If you haven't trained for a while, but are now training again you will be getting stronger, no matter it it's not at maximum efficiency/intensity.

I would avoid really hard training at this point you can argue you're carrying around 20%+ of your bodyweight in excess, and that increases your risk of injury. I would also for this reason avoid artificially adding weight belts and stuff.

I would stick to a managable plan of weight loss and regular training, and avoiding getting injured.

In reply to henwardian:

I quite like the random opinions of punters , sometimes you get good and inspiring advice / success stories from real people not the mumbo jumbo theoretical stuff from the climbing wads

It is hard work training on a calorie restricted diet but seeing what a 30lb pulley assist does for my ability on the finger board is good motivation

In reply to wbo:

I will definitely try and avoid injury and so far its going ok
Giving the weight belt a miss might be the right way forward

In reply to thedevonshirepiemuncher:

I'd say the fingerboard and bouldering are two very different things. For the fingerboard add weight to get the desired intensity and duration levels required to make gains.

For bouldering you want to be keeping the difficulty up by doing progressively harder problems. As you can lock off further and generally do moves you couldn't do before you mind needs to learn these moves too. You are adding new engrams to your repertoire and that is an important mental process. Using a weight belt will mess this process up.

Adam Ondra apparently uses a weight vest occasionally when climbing for short spells. But I'm guessing you're not quite at his level yet :^)

In reply to thedevonshirepiemuncher:

I was in a similar position a year ago.
I would recommend focusing on injury prevention!
Your brain will remember how to do the moves but your body might not always be up to it. For me this resulted in ripping my shoulders apart and needing surgery.
Do lots of work on the shoulder prevention exercises detailed elsewhere on here.
I get the logic of using a weight belt, but I would suggest staying injury free will be more beneficial.
Hope it goes well.

In reply to thedevonshirepiemuncher:

"I quite like the random opinions of punters , sometimes you get good and inspiring advice / success stories from real people not the mumbo jumbo theoretical stuff from the climbing wads"

Can't let that pass... punter advice may well be inspiring but if its not good advice injury is more likely. On the wad point: wads are high performers for reasons and their communication is in my view typically way better than most climbers (sometimes complexity is real so simple messages are not possible).