UKC

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fit club is a rich community with posters sharing their goals, noting successes and failures and offering support to those struggling to maintain motivation. Anyone interested in starting is very welcome to join, but to get the most of UKC fit club you should aim to post each week, every week, however little or much you have done. By making such a regular public record of your activities and by restating your goals every week this new habit will hopefully improve your training habits and drive you towards achieving your goals whatever the level of your chosen activity.

The following training article by Alex Barrows gives an excellent breakdown on training the four main "energy systems" specific to climbing:- http://alexbarrowsclimbing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/training-for-sport-climbi...     also this - https://www.instagram.com/p/CEGfCg7DbkK/?igshid=4a1o55jwpus2

For those wanting to find out more about training for climbing a number of physical training articles are linked here:- http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=274502

Psyche vid - this week comes to us from that well known climbing mecca, Sweet Home Leicestershire. youtube.com/watch?v=obZUZUF8c5E& And now I've discovered Orrin Coley's youtube channel, you'll all be watching plenty more of these unless somebody suggests something (even) better!

Last weeks post - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_714-7280...

The Fit Club Grit Season seems to be off to a flying start.

AJM - lower rung pockets BM 1k or 2k? Either impressed or *very* impressed. Clearly a lot of motivation to squeeze something worthwhile into limited available time.

Ally Smith - solid board sessions, solid grit session

biscuit - good effort/improvisation managing to stay on the plan in challenging circumstances

Liam P -  "(123%) on the 27mm edge. Not sure if this is good or bad?" - hard to say in a comparing-to-others sense, benchmarks & studies are mostly done on 18-20mm edges. What matters is whether it's an improvement for you. Solid commitment doing so much endurance work without a wall.

planetmarshall - seeking out non-crowded crags seems to have been last week's theme. Keep on seeking.

Ross Barker - at least you tried to get out. South facing dry crags have been absolutely rammed over here too.

Si dH - so last season's project goes down first day this season? Sounds promising.

Somerset swede basher - and another grit season off the a solid start! The back's been behaving then?

the sheep - standing up to your shins in freezing cold water until it hurts is a big thing in German hippy culture, supposed to be very healthy.

Tom Green - you can go uphill in Zone 1? Something must be working.

Tyler - hi

AlanLittle - you need to get (more than just) your finger out on the general strength & conditioning!

Absent: Steve Jones, mattrm

Thanks Alan. I’ve got a 2k, is that better or worse in this case?

2 of my sources of work stress receded this week, although the third looks to be expanding to fill the gap! Weekend weather was frustrating, I probably could have got out today but the forecast changed around so much I made, with glorious hindsight, the wrong decisions and missed out!

Goals for the week - some of:

- pockets focused fingerboard or ancap on the 10mm crimps [tick]

- 1-on-1-off trying out some of my new rubbish feet [tick]

- go outside?

- some sort of weighted pull-ups or other shoulder exercise

- make some progress on the remaining “making” tasks.

Monday/Tuesday - busy/distracted. I drilled and mounted two of the hemispheres on the foc board, that was it

Wednesday - tried 1-on-1-off. Generally felt hard and slippy, got pretty pumped, but I guess that’s what you expect first time on it in a while. I tried the poor feet, they certainly make it harder. Probably stick with the bigger feet for all out efforts like decay curves (risk of slipping off the poorer ones without exhausting the forearms) but these poorer ones feel like a great way of upping the intensity and spreading the load (feels like my shoulders and mid back got some of the good news too) on stuff like the 1-on-1-off.

Thursday - busy

Friday - my bicep has been feeling a bit sore - I’m not really sure whether this is due to climbing related things or generic child lugging - so I decided the least stressful thing to do was a mono pickup session. I didn’t try to do all the fingers because that gets rather time consuming, mainly focused on the index and middle, although I did do some pinkie hangs at 10kg. This was a really good session. My right middle finger, which was basically out of the game a few months ago, seemed to be fairly ok up to 20kg, and left middle and both index fingers seemed fairly solid at 25kg. Margin to push on a little further next time on the latter ones. 

Sat - nothing, had planned to go out Sunday but by the time the Sunday forecast worsened it was too late to change course.

Sunday - weather turned out a lot better than promised but too late for me to take advantage. Most frustrating!!! Mono pickups again. Managed to squeak 15kg on the pinkies, up to 20kg on right middle again and up to a monster 30kg on each of the 2 index and left middle fingers, just.

A somewhat more consistent week

Monday

Strength and Conditioning. Core, Pullups on the Beastmaker jugs and ring dips. Assembled my plyometric box and managed a few box jumps which is something I hadn't been able to do after breaking my leg.

Tuesday

Trail Run. Burbage Loop, 6k or thereabouts

Wednesday

Rest

Thursday

Bouldering at  Robin Hood's Stride and  Cratcliffe Tor. Several attempts at the rounded joy that is Egg Arête (f6B), will have to go back for another go. Pulled onto a few of the holds on Jerry's Traverse (f7B) - I'm nowhere near this, but it seems like the kind of route that would be amenable to a lot of training. Maybe after a few weeks on the Beastmaker and some core exercises I'll have another attempt.

Friday

Strength and Conditioning

Saturday/Sunday 

Rest

----------------------

Next week.

Purchased a 'Lattice Lite' plan, to see if some structure might help the motivation, although at only one 6b climbed this year it puts me right on the bottom rung. Do the required testing session

Try and get out bouldering.

Two trail runs, one at at least 7km.

Thanks Alan. I wouldn't have called it last year's project as I was going to lots of different places but, yes, I did try it three times over the course of a few months so doing it quickly this year was nice.

M: rest

T: planned a board session but could feel my left ring finger DIP starting to hurt again when warming up Did some two finger pocket hangs and one-arm controlled lowers instead. (I decided to do these to change up my pullup training a bit, they were surprisingly hard). 

W: rest

T: as per Tuesday 

F: rest 

S: rest

S: got up early and optimistically drove to Crookrise. Mizzle everywhere. Optimistically drove to Farleton. In fog, sort of dry but poor conditions. Warmed up then tried New Rose (7B) but couldn't even pull on (too weak, not a pain thing). The only other people at the crag were on the problem next to The Coil (7A+) and it would have been impossible to social distance. No psyche to look at anything else. Drove home, shit day, used a lot of diesel. 

I've had better weeks. I have obviously unknowingly done my finger relatively badly again: despite not feeling any particular moment of pain when I did it and then having an easy week after feeling the niggle, it has got no better. Need to plan a way of rehabbing it properly but I also struggle with how best to do that for pulley injuries.  After the first few weeks it always just seems to be a case of climbing on it but stopping if I feel any pain...problem is, sometimes I still push it too hard and injure it without feeling anything at the time. Can hopefully use the opportunity of crimping less to get stronger on pockets. If the weather is better next weekend and I do something good on grit I'll be a lot happier.

Si

Hi All. Thanks for statting Alan.

Yeah... quite nice when I think about it. I still walk steeper gradients, but when I first started TFNTA-style stuff (2017ish) I couldn't stay in Z1 in anything other than a fast walk on flat ground, so it is quite gratifying to see the progress. Next step will be to do more fasted Z1 work, but I hate it so I've never really persevered long enough to get past the initial rough patch!

Week 48:

Went a bit adrift by prioritising climbing sessions (no apology for that!) but then went further adrift when I twisted my ankle...

M: Prehab.

T: Max hangs. Board sesh: AnCap boulder triples then AeroCap drop intervals.

W: Rest.

T: Bouldering. Curbar (originally headed to Wimberry but it was sodden). Fun problems up to 6A, then tried Strawberries until I fell on to the little ankle busting rock and, you guessed it, bust my ankle. Limped back to the car and drove home thankful for having an automatic!

F: Moped around watching the swelling reduce and the bruising increase.

S: Drytooling. Gambled on a handful of painkillers, a short walk in and a tight boot. The ankle was actually ok, but the arms let the side down... soooo weak. Fell off the last move (literally) to the chains on Heavens Above. Again. Not sure if it's an endurance thing (I'm arriving at that point pretty pumped) or a strength thing (it's a big long move). I suspect working on strength will give the biggest/quickest pay-off. 

S: Max Hangs. Strength sesh. Feeling yesterday's effort, but surprisingly hit a pull-up 2RM PB. Played around with some different lock-off exercises.  

Week 49:

Might have to skip the running. 2 Core sessions, 2 Climbing sessions, 2 Prehab sessions, 2 Strength sessions.

STGs (End Dec):

BW <72kg (Currently 74kg)

Max Hangs +5kg (Currently 2.5kg)

Pull-up 2RM 90kg total (TICK)

Curfew (6b+) The Day of the Triffids (6b)

Black Wall (E1 5b)

Run Edale Skyline

MTGs (End Feb):

Max Hangs +8kg

Pull-up 2RM 100kg total

Grid Iron (6c) The Deep (6c+)

Black Wall Direct (E2 5c)

Run Cheshire Gritstone Trail

LTGs:

7a, 6C.

33 E-points in 2021 (to beat current best year).

Run Welsh 3000s

Revisit Cairngorm Classic Rock in a day

Long alpine rock routes off my to-do-list?

Following on from my post about Saturday's tooling...

What do people do to work on lock-off strength? Specific lock off movements, progressing to increasing resistance? Pull-ups with increased weight? Something else?

Thanks team

There a variety of exercises for pull strength; weighted pull-ups, one arm lock offs, one arm lowers, offset pull-ups, etc. I don't know which is best. Two pieces of advice would be (1) don't try to max out pull ups at high reps and (2) don't hold full lock (ie holding at <90 degrees) for more than a small number of seconds, both tend to damage elbow tendons.

Thanks Si. Good advice.
 

Your first point ties in with thoughts I’ve had to drop the reps and increase the weight of my pull ups (previously been doing 85% BW x5 x6). 
 

Your second point is useful as a plan I’d stolen from previously advised lock off work as tight as you can hold for 30s and I definitely felt that in my elbows. I’ll stick to 90 and 125. 

Cheers Alan.

I’ve got the Crusher Board so it’s 27mm or 18mm. Will have to do my next test on the 18mm and be humbled!

This was the last week of my endurance phase.

STG: Eric Hörst T4C Programme.

MTG: 10x VS Leads in this training phase. 3/10 completed.

LTG: Solid on HVS/E1. DoWH is a goal route for next spring.

M: Hangboard moving hangs. 5-3-5-3-5. Feet still on the floor but a further 1ft away. Felt pumpy.

T: Hangboard moving hangs. Same as Monday.

W: Rest Day

T: Hangboard Repeaters. 4x 7(7/3). 40mm. 4mins rest. An increase in reps & sets from last week. Felt good.

F: Rest Day

S: Planned a weighted hike but tweaked my back loading the van! Did 90mins unweighted. 

S: Cracking weather at Swanage. Climbed Airy Legs VS 4c at the Ruckle, then Mellow Yellow VS 4c at Lighthouse Cliff, Subluminal. I’m now on 3/10 VS Routes as part of my MTG and still hope to complete this year. Felt a small increase in power endurance (I think). My main issue remains getting scared, then placing gear in ridiculously strenuous positions. Mellow Yellow was a slight improvement; got some bomber gear in, then ran out 5-6m of steep climbing to the next good rest. The Rock Warriors Way was a good read but I often find it hard to put it into practice.

Christmas Pudding had her third feed which saw off the last of the Port. Really happy with her progress. Feeling dense and smelling fruity. Picked her up another bottle of Brandy but she may have to share as I’ll be on a rest week!

Had my first session at the Outhouse since 18th Oct on Monday. Managed to do Orange, Yellow and Red a couple of times each.

Did some shoulder presses with my kettlebell on and then the week fizzled out into more DIY

There are very few upsides to DIY but today I bought an impact driver which is very satisfying to use and I also sharpened a pencil with a Stanley knife and that makes me feel like a proper artisan!

Thanks Alan. Was struggling to decide between training and getting out this week and in the end sort of did both but had to drop the max hang session in order to go outside, but I pulled really hard so I figured it's OK! 

Mon. 6 sets of repeaters (kept the same for this week but will make harder next), didn't do the pull ups as my left lat feeling dodgy so did bicep curls instead. Press ups. 

Tues. Lamp session at burbage west. Spent most of it on Famous Grouse 7B+ and was making progress but no tick. Consultation prize of Jason's Mono Problem (f7A) done quickly on the way back to the car. An hr of 10mins on 10mins off in the attic back home. 

Wed. Rest

Thurs. Massive 3hr boulder session back at burbage west where I did... almost nothing at all! Conditions weren't great so I sacked off Famous Grouse after a couple of goes, worked out the elimate start on Breakfast but need to take thick socks to protect the ankles (left bleeding) and never manage the top. Did Brian (f6C+) which was cool but couldn't pull onto the low traverse further right at all.

Fri. Rest 

Sat. Went sport climbing and redpointed Tree Surgeon (7b+) which I think is now 7b+. Tried the 7b+ next to it too but I think we were trying to traverse left too early and there was a little section I never managed.

Sun. 12km run. 

Thanks again for another week, really getting psyched on crispy grit now!

Had a decent week, didn't top anything new but opened another exciting project that feels very possible (and very much suits me!)

Last Week:

M - Rest

T - Rest

W - Rest

T - Session 1 on Brass Monkeys (f7C). Spent about two hours on it and surprisingly managed every single move, though from the ground the big cut loose is the crux. Saw loads of wads out today, including the Power Club's very own Ally Smith! Aiming to get some specific compression and core training in over the next 1-2 months and try it again early next year. Also need to suss leg warmups for those intense heel hooks.

F - Box split stretches. Having not done these for a little while they felt surprisingly good!

S - Rest

S - Board session. Tried a handful of problems between 6C-7B, aimed to do most in 1-3 goes but some of the harder ones were just a bit too hard. Did some hard pulling though, fingers definitely got a workout! Finished off with core (levers with leg tuck) and wide isometric holds so I can get massive pecs. Good load of pushups and box split stretches too.

Next Week:

M - Rest

T - Max hangs, core, compression and stretches 

W - Rest

T - Core, compression and stretches

F - Rest

S, S - Grit looks possible!

Goals:

Brass Monkeys

Tierdrop

Suavito

Old King Cascade

Unnamed Local Project

STG: Get through Lockdown 2.0 with sanity intact. Ideally also with some fingerboard gainz. Zellerwand 7a project, weather permitting
MTG: Do a beginner ski tour in spring 2021
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber by 2021. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: Rest day. Half an hour mobility, stretching, foam rolling
T: Beastmaker max hangs
W: 
T: Max hangs
F: Forty minutes stretching

S: Zellerwand. Freezing fog that was forecast to lift but didn't, although for an hour or so it looked like it might. I got in a couple of warmup laps on a very nice 6a and linked through the crux of a proj (not The Proj) but then had to bail due to numb fingers. Gave up and went home after lunch. Glad we tried.

S: Bike one hour
   Max hangs. Assisted one-handers; noticed quite a large discrepancy between left and right: Not sure how to address this. How to work left a bit harder without sacrificing possible gains by not working right hard enough?

Another fail on the weekday strength & conditioning. Really need to get my routine sorted for this, the sunny & unexpectedly mild weekends look like they're over.

Local news now reporting "lockdown light" to be extended into next year. It's been more bearable than the first lockdown so far but only because of dry sunny weekends allowing weekend cragging. Worse weather or a travel ban, and things would quickly start to look pretty bloody bleak. At least being in a higher risk age group I'll hopefully be fairly high on the vaccination priority list.

My own experience is that whenever I have tested one arm strength prior to a period of max hangs, my left has been a few kg weaker (around 5kg I think).  However by the end of a period of training (not trying to load left more than right- in fact keeping both close to max so sometimes the other way around) the gap tends to close to just a couple of kg. After a period of not training max hangs again, the gap then reverts. I don't know whether the issue is fingers, shoulders or both. Would be interested whether this is others experience too. I suspect the effect is neurological.

(Interestingly I also noticed recently on my board that my right arm was stronger on undercuts, probably a bicep thing.)

Thanks for stat'ing again Alan. Got out once this week and annihilated my skin in 2.5hrs bouldering, so glad the weather crapped out and I didn't miss out on anything at the weekend.

Week 48

M – Nowt: Feeling beat up and dehydrated from Sunday grit and a poor night sleep.

T – Lunchtime 25km flat ride. 5x5 pull-ups @BW+7kg. 1-arm max-hangs @BW-10kg (1kg improvement, but I’m a smidge lighter than last week). 35 degree sloper max-hangs @BW+32kg (PB, tried hard but slopers felt sticky as $hit). Did BW sloper pull-ups too (5reps felt fine).

W – Rest.

T – After work lantern grit. Warm-ups (5+, 6C, 7A - Green trav) then on to The Joker. Tickled the top a few times out of the 20+ goes, but barely enough to lose skin. Going backwards ☹ Went to Business boulder. Tried Rose and Self-employed Businessman. Failed dismally – bugger that’s hard for 7A+!?! Ended up with a hole in my tip on last go. Bugger.

F – 5x5 pull-ups BW+7kg to warm-up. Tendon density: F3SC (BW-10kg; hard) and f3 drag (BW+2.5kg; also hard). Bench 4x9@55kg. DL 2x10@75kg

S – Horrid weather; damp n’ mizzling. 2hours raking and bagging up leaves. Great core workout!

S – 5x5 wide-grip pull-ups @BW. 1-arm max-hangs @BW-10kg on Lattice edge. Then played on the BM2K central slot. BW-2.5 and BW-1.5kg felt fine – managed 10s hang both L&R. BW hang eluded me as I rotated out of position. Need some shoulder girdle work?  35 degree sloper max-hangs @BW+34kg (PB again – felt proper hard this time). BW sloper pull-ups too (5reps felt fine). Tea break, then 7/3/6/1 @BW-20kg x10 aero-cap. First aero-cap in months; hmmm, pumpy! 28km road ride.

You did? I didn't arrive until well after dark; there was a proper wad on Joker/Ace earlier in the day - sure you weren't mistaken? It's a great problem - for me, it was all about getting the R-heel to stick, which was best a bit up and right of the obvious pebble.

Rings for compression conditioning and compression style boulders for movement specifics would be good.

Heelhooking - Tyler Nelson has some good stuff on his IG feed about prepping hamstrings for heelhooks.

Biscuit will probably be along in a minute to link to the paper he critiqued on IG this week too? (More injury rehab than training?)

Keen for both of these

Do you think you get anything specific out of training on the 35 degree slopers? I used to use them a lot, but haven't done systematically for a few years now as they don't seem to be in fashion. Mine are much harder to hold in my garage now than they were in my old cellar...

Pretty sure it was you, it was around lunch time Matt Cousins, Jake Mason and Joe Partridge were on that, same time I moved onto Brass Monkeys. I'm pretty sure it was you trying it as I was helping a friend descend the pebble boulder, I heard a yell and asked if you were alright!

Weird, that bit didn't give me too much trouble on its own, I just slap the heel on nice and high where the surface is a bit rippled. I'm sure it would be a different story from the start though!

Yeah I've read about that but I don't have room for rings, all my doorways are adjacent to walls

Good tip, I've saved a few posts, looks like a very good resource!

They're great fun, shall I give you a shout on IG next time I'm planning on going?

I made a conscious decision to keep working slopers over the summer; during lockdown#1 I hit BW+26kg but when it was warmer BW+20kg could be impossible.  I think I'm now reaping the benefit of those summer sessions by hitting PBs at BW+34kg.

Whether there is a crossover to rock remains to be seen? I'm hoping that Super Mario (f8A) might be a possibility if my sloper wrangling strength and skillz are up to scratch...

Frenchies would be my go-to exercise.

There are variations, I do

1 repetition is:

1. Pull up to the bar from hanging. Hold for 5 seconds
2. Lower to full hang
3. Pull up to the bar, immediately lower to 90. Hold for 5 seconds
4. Lower to full hang
5. Pull up to the bar, immediately lower to 135. Hold for 5 seconds
6. Lower to full hang.

If you can do several of those with added weight I'd say lock off strength is maybe not a limiting factor for you...

I do like the sound of the specificity element to frenchies.

Also it’ll be a good assessment of where I’m at... my guess is weaker than the average kitten, but I’ll let you know!

Yep - that was me :-D

Gresham ring-less options: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAqvaFjJD2/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CH-HTnojtAO/

Yarp :-D I last tried Tierdrop as a pre-uni teenager in 1998. That and What Crisis? (7b+) on Southern Sandstone (where I grew up) have to be my longest ever projects. It'd be nice to tidy up at least one of them!

I would also be up for Tierdrop if I can fit in with your plans! 

What's the prognosis for this, hope it heals quickly

Keep me in the loop, I'd be keen for a tierdrop session too.  Would be awesome if we could do a fitclub team send!

Thanks. It looks pretty gruesome but actually feels ok already. Don’t think I’ll be running this week (and I’m a bit nervous about falling/dropping off my board) but I think I’ve got off quite lightly. 

Cheers Alan, seems I have been channelling my inner German hippy without even knowing i had one 

Had a good week running, both distance and quality.

Tuesday, lovely 10km run with the eldest daughter. Helping her keep he fitness levels up prior to swim training starting again.

Thursday, early morning run in perfect conditions. A heavy frost on the ground, sun rising in a clear blue sky and mist hanging low over the fields. A wonderful morning for trail running, upped the distance and got 17.5km in the bag

Saturday, 10km trail run in the rain. Squeltchy muddy fun 

Sunday, 12.5km run. More mud and puddles. 

Positive for the week, our run group has been doing challenges during lockdown to keep folks interested and out and about. This weeks was taking photos of animals whilst out on your run. Happily I won the challenge and have a free sports massage as a prize. Have arranged for my eldest daughter to have this after her first week back at swim training 

Negative is that my gym at work wont be opening up again this year so no more swimming there for me. Unfortunately as there  2 sites and the other is open i will still be paying for it. Its just not practical for me to access the other site.

Thanks for statting Alan.

Thursday seems to be my regular posting day. It's quite interesting as last week was my worst yet, but by the time you're 2/3rds of the way through the next week you realise it's just a blip and all is well.

I didn't get all of my conditioning done - i missed floor core, tension, shoulder press and press ups. I also missed max hangs (varied).

But i did some 5 3 5 3 5 's a couple of times and all the rest. 

Went to Red Wall traverse, but bits were wet so i went from the start to through the crux again (7a ish) and then from the start through the crux, reverse the crux, to a rest and back through the crux. Probs 7a+/b ish. All felt fine. My recovery has increased well.

Had a visit to Humphrey Head to try The Last Wolf (V9) again. I can go from the start to the last but just couldn't get brave enough to stick one on for the top. 

So i feel like i've done what i can during lockdown, but now it's time to hit the wall and try and get fit. Two weeks until Tenerife.