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.

Link to last week’s thread:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_814-7532...

Derek Furze: Nice day out clipping bolts. Climbed there once before a couple years ago and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of rock. I distinctly remember one route with a hand jam against a wobbly block, and then manteling said block. Very unusual!

AlanLittle: Very solid week in terms of MTB and training, love to see it. Wings for Life looks like a mega day out!

Somerset swede basher: Good dangling. Agree with the monsoon notion, I'm fully ready for some decent conditions to roll around.

Steve Claw: A couple of sport routes is low volume but should be enough to keep you ticking over. Hope this week has given you better luck!

SteveJC94: Good work on Asylum Sika. Had a look earlier this year and the start does look snatchy! Glad you're being smart with the elbows.

AJM: Busy busy! Good to see some rehab coming in despite this. Hope you managed to get out somewhere.

Tom Green: Excellent start to the STGs, strong dry tooling scenes!

Randy: Relieved to hear it's not been too bad. Do be careful not to rush back to things too hard!

Ally Smith: Ah, narrow compression. Absolute achilles! Fab week in terms of board climbing and flashing my problems. I think Clock N Load is the only one to have spat you off, isn't it?

Tyler: All aboard the Bullworker train! Board and log shed look tidy. Glad to see you're back, and hope you shake the illness off and can get moving again soon.

biscuit: Tis the season for everyone to be getting ill. Good training week despite this. I may not be as disciplined as you, but a Costa Blanca trip does sound nice!

Liam P: Nice low volume week. Enjoy El Chorro!

Thanks Ross for the Sunday duties!

Delighted to report that my October plan to get a routine going and managed to get a day out as well, so pleased with things feeling fairly solid despite work.  Two more relatively relaxed weeks before it steps up again, but I think my training will be in the groove by then.

Mon - fifty pull ups.

Tues - out to Stoney West.  Eight routes on sight to 6c.

Wednesday to Thursday - work

Friday - weighted pull ups.  Six sets on tips up to 10.1 kg.  Four sets of weighted pull ups at 9 kg. 120 push ups and ten sets of hip stretches.

Saturday - pull ups.  Three sets of 2,4,6,8 at two minutes to give 60.  Then tried si's pattern of 3,6,9 hangs and did six sets.  Dancing as usual.

Sun - a bit sore so rest.  Climbing tomorrow.

Didn't find a wobbly block route, but the place did have that character in places!  

Hope you have worked out your training/life balances - always a challenge!

Thanks Ross, great job on the stats again.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a lower body stretching routine for flexibility? Particularly to help with heel hooking near your head when hanging off slopers. I do the usual ham strings, calves, quads and butterfly stretches after running but that's it.

Lots of wet weather around this week.

Mon. rest

Tues. Took a drive up to Kilnsey to meet Tom for some silliness in the wet. We did Kilnsey Main Overhang (A2) which was great fun. Crossing the stream after all that rain was the main crux of the day. Thanks to Ally for digital support when neither of us remember a topo for the roof. 5.5hrs ground to ground. Much swinging about on ancient rotting assorted iron work and some of our own kit too. Waterfall like first pitch was interesting.

Wed. Rest - aiding was physical! 18km super steady cycle with the kids.

Thurs. Not much dry rock about. Had a play on Verbal Abuse at the Tor. Couldn't do one of the moves and neither could my partner, 7c+ my arse!

Fri. Rest.

Sat. Foundry onsight lead session. About 8 routes including a couple of 7as and a 7a+. Worked on our head game and didn't clip any lower off all session always taking the lob at the top.

Sun. 7km run.

Good morning everyone. Very busy week from me. Work has been exhausting, yet somehow managed to fit three and a half board sessions in, plus good stretching! No dice going outdoors though unfortunately.

Last Week:

M - Rest.

T - Moonboard. Managed one quite morpho project - "Purebred Lanker". I also had a couple of close goes on "Shrine 4", but not quite able to successfully hold the crux. Feels close. Finished off with a several sets of push-ups and lower body stretches.

W - Rest.

T - Weigh-in at 78.0kg. Short MB session, just reeling off a few 6B+/C benchmarks. Didn't want to push too hard given I was still a little tired from Tuesday. Finished off with lower body stretches.

F - Rest.

S - Halloween party, including about 20-30 minutes on a friend's 40⁰ board in full costume.

S - Another Moonboard session. Made a steady dyno problem, "Large and In Charge", and managed reel off one of the easier 7A benchmarks. Wasn't feeling strong on small holds, so didn't work at maximum intensity.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Something light, don't want to dig into a recovery hole after an intense week.

W - Rest.

T - Rigpa if weather and partners line up.

F - Rest.

S, S - Bouldering.

Goals:

Antagonists.

Bulletproof fingers.

Rigpa.

Thanks Ross. Pretty motivated at the moment by the feeling that I might have some confidence  & form on rock returning. Will need to a careful balancing act in the next few months though between winter skiing STG and training for spring climbing MTG.

STG: Winter 22/23 - do an actual off piste ski tour
MTG: April Kalymnos trip with my son: tick at least two things from my wishlist
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M:    
T:    Would have liked to go to the wall at Thalkirchen for my (formerly!) regular DAV group evening, but I had my flu jab in the morning, and I learned from experience last year to listen to the nurse when she says no strenuous exercise for 24 hours. My buddies will have to wait another week for the pleasure of my company.
    Decided instead that some fingerboard hangs & stretching don't constitute "strenuous exercise"
    
W: Wall, Thalkirchen. Bouldering. Getting acquainted with the new spray walls, so all a bit tentative but nevertheless fun. Spent half an hour afterwards getting back into some ring basics in the interest of longer term shoulder health & strength: supports, face pulls, false grip hangs

T:    MTB 1½ hours in the woods.

F:    Wall, Thalkirchen. Bouldering. Warmed up on easy stuff at 20-30° on the kilterboard before getting my ass comprehensively kicked on my first moonboard attempts since February. Trying to concentrate during warm ups on actively pulling with all four fingers instead of dropping into a passive three finger drag on the steep stuff: I've been listening to podcasts with Aidan, Ned Feehally and Dan Varian. Went rather late, which meant I had the boards to myself but didn't have time for rings afterwards.

S: MTB 2 hours in the woods. Achieved an STG from earlier in the year today: rode one of my longest singletrack sections with no dabs or tree collisions.

S: Season of mists and mellow sport multipitch Week Two, on the Martinswand near Innsbruck with my son. 1x7 pitches today versus last week's 2x3, still fully bolted. Nearly got caught out by the clocks going back though - the last two abseils were getting pretty twilight at five o'clock, then headtorches out for the walk back down to the car.

Cheers stats-meister :-D

Week 43

M – Lazy after work and DOMS-tastic in the shoulders form Sunday weights, so just some no-effort COMPEX core.

T – 6B+ to 7A warm-ups. Quickly gave up on a 7C I was trying as it used one of the minging crimps (C14 – Ross will know what I’m on about!) but made some super progress on 2x 7C+ BM; "Action Directe" (yes, it has a mono) and the shouldery "Nectar of the Todds". Played on a couple of 7B BM too, but didn’t get far when tired.  Longer duration hangs on rough edges; @BW+20kg. 3x 30s on; 4min off. Too heavy, 2nd and 3rd were only 20s, so not really hitting the spot for “tendon density”

W – Bench 5x5 @62.5kg; tidy COMPEX core.

T – Short board session before dinner. 6B+ to 7A+ warm-ups inc some of Ross’ problems. Then turned to NOTTs 7C+. Started getting consistent on the gaston crux, and after half a dozen goes got through that, only to ping off the last move when my foot popped. After dinner, Crimpd max-hangs. @BW+50kg on Lattice edge.

F – Not a lot. Read through Lattice assessment protocol and tried the flexibility measurements.

S – I had a day pass as my wife was taking Squigg clothes shopping with the g’parents. However, horrible damp post monsoon conditions meant equipping as the only sensible option. Productive day scoping, cleaning and bolting 2x new lines.  Nothing outrageous in difficulty (7b+ and 7c/+?) but looking forward to completing them next time the crag is dry. 

S – After a morning of Squiggle wrangling and house cleaning, the ladies snoozed and I raged in the garage. Normal warm-ups, then sought out newbies from Ravioli and Ross. Came away with a bunch of high quality 6C+/7A flashes (including getting well spanned out on "Purebred Lanker"). Felt pretty strong, so tried hard on NOTTs.  1st go was rubbish, but 2nd try I caught the pre-crux knob really well and was straight into the crux at speed. The foot popped again on the finish but I held it this time. Ooooush! 

By this point I felt nicely warmed up (!!??!!) so completed the Lattice finger-strength test. BW+40, +50, +60, +65, +70 fail, +67.5, +68.75kg (plus ~1kg for slings, biners + dipping belt).  Finished off with a max press-up test, which was brutal! 36 reps in 60s.  Interesting to see where the lowest hanging fruit is and where to focus my attention for maximum gains this winter.

Thanks Ross. Yes there does seem to be a lot of people getting poorly. I think I’m over it now though. This last week was a (well timed) deload week and I’m feeling good to get back to it this week.

M - Fingerboard density work - back 3 1/2 crimp and front 3 drag

3 x 10 min on/10 min off on 6b circuit

T - Went to try the headpoint project Blow Out (E6 6a). It was wet so went for a play on Exequy (E6 6b). That’s on the list now!

Had a lucky escape as I thought it had dried enough and decided to go for it. My partner nipped up on TR to pre sling a peg for me as it can’t be clipped and was V awkward to sling on the lead. As he was doing so the massive foothold/best handhold on the route he was stood on blew. That could have been me at the end of the 5m run out. We both decide to save it for next Summer when the holds will be dry behind, not just to look at, as that seems to make a big difference to their breakability.

W - Busy, tired, bit coldy.

T - Gym - unstructured 

3 x10 deadlift @ 100kgs

3x10 squats @ 70kgs

3 x 8 Bench press @ 60kgs

3 x 15 can raise @ 25kgs 

F - Walked up Pen-Y-Ghent 

S - rest

S - Kendal wall

6 routes up to 7a (all done before) and a 7a+ onsight, which was a surprise, so i have instantly downgraded it as soft.

Back to regular training this week to get some consistency in.

Oops. Disposable holds do seem to be a bit of a recurring theme in the logbook comments on those routes

Yes that is deffo in its nature and so I feel the need to stack the odds in my favour and the wet does not do that. On the plus side I've picked up a Winter project. It's a really cruxy route so I need to get strong.

I will be intrigued to see what you target.  Those max hang numbers are seriously strong!  I suspect if you picked low hanging fruit, you might uproot the tree...

Mon-Tues: Rest

Wed: Easy Fingerboard Session. 3 Repeater Sets (6x7,3) Halfcrimp on 20mm Edge at 85% of bodyweight. 2x10 Pullups

Thurs: L-Sit 2x10s and Handstands against the wall. Felt alright considering that i have done these exercises for a couple of months

Fri. Fingerboard Session, 4 Repeater Sets (6x7,3) Halfcrimp on 20mm Edge at 85% of bodyweight. 3x12 Pullups

Sat: Volume Session at  Weissenstein. Did about 10 routes from 5a up to 6b. Except one 6b and one 6a+ all onsight, and most of the time with a very short rest between the routes. 

Sun: L Sit 2x 20s, Handstand against the wall, 2x8 Pike-Pushups, 6 Fingertips Pushups, 30 Pushups, 45s V-Sit-Ups

Felt good to be able to train again and also do a lot of easy mileage at the crag, which is something, that i have not done for ages. In hindsight the volume was probably a little bit too high. My legs felt absolutely trashed on the next day and somehow my left anke is a little bit aggravated. At least i felt good in general and don't seem to have any issue with my Covid infection anymore, just a classic case of my body is not used to exercise anymore.

Great effort on the stats again Ross. Some good volume for you on the MoonBoard - I find a lot of them sandbags!

M - Rest

T - HB Max @ 90% (6 x 10s hangs; half crimp; BW + 18.5kg). Strength & conditioning: Bench press 5x5; Military press 5 x 5; Dips 8 x 3; Bar toe touches 5 x 3; Press ups; Seated shoulder press 8 x 3)

W - 4 x 4s

T/F/S - rest

S - My birthday present to myself this year is a 12 week lattice bouldering plan, which starts on 21st November. On Sunday I did the pre-plan testing, with the key stats being: 

• Height - 174cm
• Ape Index - 177cm
• Weigh - 64kg
• Box splits - 143cm (81% of height - really poor!)
• Pull ups 2 rep max - BW + 28kg (92kg/144% BW)
• Max Hangs (7s hang; half crimp; 20mm edge) - BW + 29kg (93kg/145% BW)
• Strength endurance - continuous 7:3 repeaters at 60% of max (55.5Kg = BW-8.5kg). Managed just over 21 back-to-back repeaters. Total time = 214 seconds/3mins 34 seconds. 

Plan for next week is to continue building strength and conditioning to prepare for an intensive 12 week plan - bring on the gains! 

Hi FitClub -great weeks given the season! Thanks for keeping the stats rolling, Ross.

An ok week. Most planned sessions completed (dropped one FB sesh, also dropped a strength sesh, but feel like this was made up for by the style of climbing...)

Week 43:

M: Prehab.

T: Aid climbing at Kilnsey! Some excellent nonsense with SSB, mastering the dark art of daisychains and etriers whilst swinging off atrociously corroded fixed gear!

W: Nowt -long work day. 

T: Drytooling. Warmed up then had three more burns on The Velvet Pelmet -still powering out with one tool movement to go.

F: Trail run. 16.1km, 506m vert, 6:48/km. Feeling like I'm getting back into a rhythm after my few weeks of running. 

S: Rest.

S: Trail run. 11.3km, 349m vert, 6:43/km. Great battle into a strong, rainy headwind across the moors. Prehab and Fingerboarding.

Week 44:

M: Drytooling.

T: Prehab.

W: Run and Fingerboard.

T: Bouldering if weather behaves.

F: Run. Bouldering if weather behaves.

S: Fingerboard and Strength.

S: Prehab.

STG -end Dec:

Triglav N Face (TICK).

Stewker (E1 5c)

First of Many (none 5b) (TICK).

The Night Watch (VS 4b)

Gauche (VD)

Minion's Way (HVS 5c)

Roof of the World CD Problem 4 (V1)

Angel's Wall (f5)

The Cruel Crack (f5)

Overhanging Arete (f6A)

Delstree (HVS 5a)

Tufted Crack (E1 5c)

Chelly Express (D7) placing gear.

Three big mountain days >1500m vert.

Ultra-distance run.

Weighted Pull-up: 85kg. Max Hangs: 80kg. (Adjusted down to reflect recent lack of training)

Weighted hill climb: 2 laps of RT in 30 mins with 15kg.

2022 Climbing goals:

7a (Possibly one of: Arc en Ciel, The Jim Grin, Rock & Roll, Clink) -TICK!

ALL of my local must-do list: 5/15

Visit at least five of my 'why haven't I climbed here' list: 3/5

Get at least one session at each of my 'I should climb more at this crag' list: 5/8

(For lists see FitClub 772)

Start properly getting to know: Brimham 2/3, Almscliff 3/3, Caley 0/3, Slipstones 2/3.

At least two big, classic alpine goals -TICK!)

Cheers Ross. I had some decent days doing stuff but it was mostly family stuff, including some walking and a fulfilling trip to Dancing Ledge where miniAJM and one of his friends both ran up one of the Diff sort of things on the lower tier with no issues whatsoever on a top rope and had a great time.

I did go to the wall as well which was a good session until I tweaked my leg - again! Wretched thing. Have been to physio this week, am basically off indoor climbing for a while, and am trying to use this to kickstart some sort of motivation for a simple basic training plan - chins, pull-ups, pushups etc - to work on whole body strength a bit. Planning to keep going to the wall (I bought a membership, and miniAJM likes it) but probably for the campus board, the pull-up bar etc rather than anything much more.

Thank you Ross.

Sorry guys for another late post and quiet week. I'm working away a lot at the moment, which leaves little time to do anything.

Also had a strange thing happen to my elbow, where an insignificant knock, resulted in my body overreacting 2 days later, swelling and seizing up at work. Scary stuff, and put me out of action for a few days.

Just a single TR session on Eric Exsykes (E5 6c) got it fairly quickly, micro crimps on balancy slab. Good fun, but not that physically demanding. Made more interesting by having holes in my shoes, so had to change desired foot positions to one where I have a good edge on the shoe.

Thanks Ross, unfortunately I didn't shake the illness. I had a pre-arranged weekend in the Lakes so managed a top roping session in Kendal wall, the best bit of this was bumping in to Biscuit although I didn't perform as badly as expected. Screwed some holds on the wall  but still not properly pulled on.

Good to see you too. 
We’ll be down to Wales soon I’m sure.