UKC

Does anyone do this? If not why not (apart from fear of looking like a numpty)? Surely if you aim to climb harder trad you should simulate the burden of carrying a rack indoors.

Of course you could just climb harder indoor routes without weights to increase the intensity, but then that's not so 'realistic' in terms of what you're aiming for outdoors, right?

In reply to Stone Muppet:

People do that regularly over here (Saxony), probably just to show everyone that they are hard outdoor climbing types. Tossers.


CB

In reply to Stone Muppet:
If you want 'realistic' & not to look like a cock, go climb trad. outdoors & forget the wall

In reply to Stone Muppet:
I remember seeing a middle aged male wearing a belt containing two 1 litre water bottles on his belt. I did wonder if he would need it at the top of a 15 meter climb.
He was also wearing a green florescent headband and bright multi patterned ron hill type tights.
it was at the West Way, come on you know who you are.!

In reply to Stone Muppet: I've seen people bouldering and training with weight belts on before. I use some added weight (up to about 12kg's when I'm strong) when I'm doing dead hangs etc. I don't think I've seen it so much on lead walls though. Maybe its the risk of dropping it or something I don't know. Mainly used for pure power training though.

In reply to woodsy:

Unfortunately I think I'd look like a numpty climbing trad in the dark and the rain also.

how much does your trad rack weigh! for me the weight dosent make a difrence, jist how it can swing about?

Haven't got around to weighing it yet, and fwiw I'm planning to get some lighter gear, most of my krabs are old solid gate things.

Last summer I succeeded on remergence the boulder problem, then thought I'd have a go at remergence the route. Somehow it was a lot harder doing the same moves with gear on. So much so that I fell off, ripping a flap of skin in the process! Still awaiting a rematch...

And that, of course, was with a small gritstone rack, never mind a sea cliff monster.

In reply to Stone Muppet: why dont u climb indoors with a trad rack

In reply to kyebrooks: See parenthetical comment in original post

In reply to Stone Muppet: I generally train with a weight belt when in my strength and power cycle. The added weight makes you stronger and when you revert to your normal climbing weight you should find it easier, ie strength/power/weight ratio has increased! Nobody at the wall has ever commented other than to ask advice! Go for it carefully and you will certainly improve,

In reply to pauljackson: Yeah I've seen a few people use weights doing strength and power stuff. But not really on routes. Still like you say, might as well give it a go!

Well after a couple of sessions I thought I'd post up my experiences.

I weighed my trad rack, reckon it can be around 6kg for a full rack, though obviously can ditch a lot of this depending on the route.

I attached 6kg to my harness (from a tesco vinyl weight set I was using to combat elbow injury). 2.5kg each side and 1kg on the back, hanging on slings from the gear loops. (Load spread between two gear loops and because I'm paranoid about dropping them on someone I might add a backup bit of tat around the waist belt in future as well).

Everything certainly feels harder (duh!), I was getting searing forearm pump on vertical walls never mind overhangs. Being aware of the extra weight really forced me to concentrate on good footwork rather than just yarding up on things. I didn't really want to fall though as three weights in big lumps are somehow more scary than a trad rack that comes in lots of little lumps. I can't claim it's made me stronger yet but overall it did feel a lot more like trad climbing, so I'll be keeping on with weights as part of my indoor diet!

In reply to Stone Muppet:

Hi

No, I've never seen anyone climb at leading walls with weigh belts - probably is dangerous.

But people boulder and campus with added weight (hypergravity strength training).
Something I have only done at home.

My new lightweight rack weighs 3-4kg. My old one weighed about 5-6kg. I reckon even 4kg definitely makes a difference on hard moves and steep routes particularly if you are light (and weak!) ... and/or pumped. Choosing routes with cruxes at the top might help?!

The dangers I can think of are

1. smacking someone on the head with a weight if you fall on them - so make sure the belayer and everyone else is out of the way, or don't do stuff you're going to fall on the first two bolts of

2. dropping a weight - hence my double (and planned triple) attachment

I'm also in the process of lightening my rack

This all goes to show what a difference it would make to lost a couple of kilos of fat though!

In reply to Jon Didymus:

Resurrection here we come..!

In reply to Stone Muppet: From personal experience (going back to my twenty's now) indoor climbing with weights is an excellent way to train for trad climbing. A few good points have been made, I used to use a weights vest, where the weights were sand bags so not quiet so dangerous is they hit people, although in several years of using them I never caused any injuries or sustained any as a result. My advice would be, rather than leading, just aim to stay on the wall as long as is physically possible, either by doing laps or by climbing up and climbing back down on a loose toprope for safety. Yes you do look like a pillock, and yes you get funny looks and comments, but makes you stronger. enjoy

In reply to Stone Muppet:

I too have a 10kg weight vest with small sand bags in it (single to double fist sized). You can throw a fleece over it and it's not noticeable.

TR would be fine, dunno about lead falls though. I imagine it would hold but stitching may start to pop.

Tbh I don't see why my existing setup should fail on a lead falls - it's the same weight as a rack after all which is what gear loops are designed to carry (lead falls notwithstanding). It's more the weights banging on things during the process.

In reply to Stone Muppet: why don't you just climb with your usual rack - there shouldn't be anything to fall off, even if you do - it's only a few years since we had to carry all necessary q/ds on a lead climb at the wall anyway

In reply to HB1: You must have a superhuman lack of self-consciousness!

In reply to Stone Muppet: I agree with you, it must take a lack of self conciousness, or maybe alot of confidence? But then, why should he care what people think? He's getting stronger, improving technique and will be able to smirk back when he gets up his dream route! HB1 I salute you.

In reply to Stone Muppet:

I've got a weight vest that you can add up to 30kg and is made of extremely strong stuff. Proper heavy duty. It isn't sand bags like other peoples but of individual weights... Not sure what they're made of, each weighs just under 1kg.

The only downside to this is it scratches the Hell out of my arms!

5kg can make quite a bit of difference. I'm one of those tall skinny climbers and normally climb 7b/v7 (indoor grading) and obviously depending on each centre's grading but at my local wall I do seem to drop about 3 grades roughly when bouldering. Which is demoralising but psyches me up to try harder.

I've done endurance top roping and could still manage a 6b+ after 14 consecutive routes. Truth be told I haven't actually tried doing more than 6c/v5 with the vest on... Would fail I think.

However in the short term I've used it I've seen a huge improvement, to the point I can now lock off campus for 10-15 secs on medium crimps with one arm, when I would struggle to even lock off a couple of weeks before!

Haven't had any comments or anything, other than being told I'm nuts/should be Russian and if they can try it out.

I like my vest, good investment!

In reply to HenryJM:
HB1 I salute you. . .

. . . hold on - I'm not suggesting that I personally do this, rather I'm suggesting that the OP might consider the option! I'm not such a tw*t as to do it myself. Sorry to disappoint

A little report for week two.

My mates seem to think I'm something of a beast for doing 4x1s on routes with weights on, but to be honest maintaining motivation is hard when I know I could be doing harder things without the extra burden. This is a classic problem of training versus performance I guess, so I need to keep in mind my longer term aim which is to climb harder trad this summer.

That said I've been in a stamina training period (5ish sessions per week for the last 3 weeks) which I decided to end last Friday after when I just felt too tired to do much. But that's fine, this was only going to be a phase anyway.

So I'm going back to doing some indoor redpoints without the weights, to keep the motivation up, though will mix it up and climb with them sometimes as well. At the end of the day I've got to enjoy what I do!

Can anyone recommend the best weight-belt to buy online? i.e. the one that won't fall off or drop something and distributes the weight like a rack?

I'd like to just click and buy one now ... that is cheap.

In reply to ERU: One with the "bean bag" weights is best, they are more comfortable but more expensive...

In reply to dan:

Your right they are a bit pricey!
fleebay item #380247893568 !!!!!!

In reply to Stone Muppet:

I used to use 7-8 x 1.5L bottles of water in my backpack on fingerboard and system board, but I haven't climbed indoor ropes with it.


IMHO, if you start leading with backpack or any weights, staff of your climbing wall may not like it, especially if crowded.


Sure, just go outdoors.

Check a couple of photos here for inspiration

http://www.climb.pl/2010/gadzic-wychodzi-z-cienia-hulk-8c/

One of solid Polish climbers training before sending Hulk 8c in Rodellar

In reply to Stone Muppet: i use a 20k weight belt for training, i only use it for top roping and fingerboards, everything else appears too dangerous in case of falls. Having a beastmaker workout with the weight belt then taking it off gives you a new lease of life, pretty sure it helps at some level.

In reply to 05bwardl:

Any trad rack makes a big difference on hard pumpy route, even a lightweight one.

I'm contemplating a few wall sessions doing steep, juggy easier routes with a rucksack on before I go to the Dolomites in the summer. Good idea? Not good idea?

(Yeah I know: if I really want realism I should only clip every fifth bolt, and arrange for somebody to spray me with a hose, electrocute me and throw rocks at me if I'm still on the wall after 2pm etc etc etc)

http://www.marvinclimbing.com/english/articles.php?id=22&page=2

In reply to Stone Muppet: ware a weight belt or vest then you look hard as nails instead of a numpty