UKC

Placeholder, stats will be up shortly. It's absolutely not late because I completely forgot until now, that's definitely not what happened. 

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fitclub 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.

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

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...

Last week’s thread can be found here: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fitclub_week_610-69637...

You can look back at your previous posts here (to some extent… it’s still a work in progress, this now goes back to FC500): http://ukc-fitclub-user-posts.s3-website.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/users.html

Posters:

AJM - You, social chatter? I don’t believe it! I guess the weather didn’t permit the Cheddar trip?

Somerset swede basher - I’ve heard someone say campussing is for power so use the biggest rungs you can, save the small rungs for fingerboarding. I can see their logic from an injury avoidance point of view.

Biscuit - Well done on the V6!

Powderpuff - Good work on the front 3 pull ups, I always find pull ups on a fingerboard so much harder than on a bar.

AlanLittle - You must be excited about the coaching week, that will push your grade a huge amount!

Ally Smith - Of course it’s a climbing stag, I should have known! Did you make it out the other side?

The sheep - I take it you are swimming inside? I guess outdoor swimming practice will wait until more clement weather?

Tom Green - Unless you have a specific project route or a trip to aim for, I find motivation comes from switching things up, different sessions, different climbing types, even maybe other activities (briefly!)

Alexm198 - Not afraid of a long day!

Ianstevens - Your core session looks great, what is a kayaker?

Lornajkelly - Best of luck with the shoulder. Patience is key!

Dandan - I think i’m just going to have a swollen knuckle forever…

Mattrm - How’s the diet been this week?

Tyler - ‘Nice sharp holds’ not a sentence i’ve heard often!

Fit Club 666 goals:

AJM - Mark of the Beast (or Blue Planet/Privateer); E5 (or equivalent); sport onsight/“quick tick” & some from Colors/Tennessee/Paradise Lost/Bird of Paradise/Return of the Gunfighter

Ally Smith - Devils Gorge newbies; Rock Atrocity; press a sport climber; 8c+

Tom Green - Satanic Verses

Dandan82 - Horny Lil' Devil/Mark of the Beast/Camino a la Perdicion; +66kg weighted pullup - +60kg; 666 one-arm pullups - 44/666; 666 ‘good’ handstands 25/666 ; 66 routes at 7a and above including 6 routes at 7c+ and above - 4/66 0/6.

alexm198 - Versant Sataniques, 1938 route

Tom Green - 666m of arete on lancashire grit

Tyler - 66 yoga sessions; 66 routes at 7a and above, 6 routes at 7c and above

Bones - A front lever

Rebecca Ting - Fiesta de los Biceps (7a); Riding to Babylon (7a+); Stanage VS challenge

Mattrm - Lead 6a, Lead 6b, Lead 6c

Biscuit - 6xV6 slabs, 6xV6 vert 6xV6 slopers at BUK

Lornajkelly - Comes the Dervish onsight

Ardo - Satanismo En El Alpinismo & Invocando de Onan

Cheers Dan.

Monday - centre Parcs day 3. Some cycling and walking.

Then a quiet week, a bit headachey at times, like I’d caught the edge of a bug but never fully succumbed, but between that and a hectic work week I didn’t have a whole lot of energy in the evenings. Decent weekend though.

Fingerboard yesterday, was messing round with some offset hand combos, trying “AA front 3 drag + little rail 2-finger drag” and “AA back 3 half crimp” (because it’s not a very deep hold I need my middle quite bent at the knuckle to get the little finger purchase, plus what feels like quite a wide elbow position to get the wrist in the right place) at body weight which felt tough. Also some of the deeper two finger pocket hangs, which weren’t too bad. 

Wall today, tried hard, mostly “couple of attempts” stuff, faded a bit quick but might get onto a board WhatsApp group which will be good for me, plus did a bit of aerocap mild pumping at the end like I said I’d need to, so some positives.....

Hopefully wall and something at home midweek. Then up to the grim north for a wedding this weekend without child, so whilst there’s bouldering nearby I’m expecting an alcoholic writeoff is more likely

Yeah, no Cheddar. Another time, fingers crossed.....

Walls are mainly about training the ability to resist heckling, right?

As long as you aren’t using walls to train *your* ability to heckle... 

If you don't train antagonists too you end up unbalanced.....

Another fairly light week. Last year I planned to take a month off after Kalymnos but then didn't. This year I didn't plan to but pretty much did, de facto. This is ok.

STG (2018): Boulderwelt project(s) 
MTG (2019): Double digit 7's including Frankenjura 7b+ project 
LTG (2021): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60 

M: 
T: Office Christmas party. I don't hold with acknowledging Christmas before about the middle of December, but it was ok. At least it was snowing.
W: Beastmaker max hangs
T: 
F: Beastmaker max hangs
S: 
S: The advantage of having weekend family commitments with an adolescent in the house is that you can get up early, get a quick training session in and, if you time it right, be home again just as the beast is stirring. So off to Weyarn, the only wall for miles around with autobelays, for some aerobic mileage. Finished off with a lattice style 20 minutes of one minute on, one off, but doing the minutes off resting on jugs rather than standing on the floor. Feels like a good idea: I need to build both the belief, and the reality, that I can get some useful recovery without being on a complete no-hands rest.

Hope so, and having something concrete to aim at should help with winter training motivation. Was considering learning to ski this winter, with a view to touring in future, but I think I'll save my money & focus purely on the climbing for now. Hope I don't get too stir crazy just going to walls the whole time though - I have a few south facing projects in mind for any sunny weekends that might occur.

That was actually pretty good. Clearly wall work pays off ;p

Good work as ever Dan, thanks.

 Glad to see you definitely didn’t forget.....

A salvaged week I think describes it best for me. Had a very stressy family thing, on top of stressy placement and I started to get ill, but again it didn’t fully materialise. Just a bit headachy and tired. 

I still had a try hard boulder sesh and  got two more v6’s. One was slopey as well, my nemesis. The other more vert. 

Got a training session in too. Hangs on the 10mm edges at body weight feel ok now. Need to change holds/add weight. 

Max bouldering after that on vertical problems was very hard. Need to either do slopey/juggy or some too end PE followed by arcing. 

Aero this time was on the new circuits. Flashed the 7a+ and then attempted it when I could (it was busy) 3 more times and fell off the last move each time. Perfect! 

Managed to fit a last minute ski in and I think I’m improving still so all good. Come on snow! I want to get up to Scotland. 

Leg physio has been dropped like a stone. Core was none existent and even back physio was ignored. Something had to give and that was it. Diet was good though. 

This week: 

hard boulders - get the fingery yellow and a vert V6. 

Trainig session.

back physio x5

leg physio x5

DQS 20+ each day

Cheers for the preamble Dan, enjoy the break from it!

This week I went to BUK on Mon and Wed and exclusively played on the new wood circuit which I never actually managed. Both short sessions due to work pressure so an unintentional taper.

Sat: Up at 4am and managed a short session at Margalef. Got one 7a second go and then fell off another above the last bolt, bit gutted as I'd battled well to there.

Sun: Warmed up bolt to bolting then doing 7a from yesterday and then on sighted another. 

Resting tomorrow, no WiFi in the village and 3G is awful so may have to go old school and read a book!

666 goals - 7/66 7a or above

Thanks for the stats Dan. Bored of eternal darkness and dank weather and keen to get outside again.. .is it nearly spring yet!?

Mon. Finger board session 

Tues. Campus and general boulder 

Wed. 17km trail run  

Thurs, Fri, sat. Mega work days and family stuff.

Sun. 1km swim squeezed in round kiddy splash time then 10km run in the evening 

STG - 14st

MTG - Goblin Girl (6b) 6c at Navigation, then WFD

LTG - Definitely bouldering, bearing in mind Trad will be hard for the next few years...

Weight - 14st 5lbs (1 lb down from last weighin)

M - Rest

T - 15 routes at wall

W - S - Rest

Oddly when I did weigh myself, I'd lost an pound.  I'd really assumed that I had to have put on weight.  I was sure I was a lot heavier.  I managed to get down the wall this week which was nice.  Possibly the last time I'll go there if we move now, as it's been the only wall that I've been to over the last 5 years odd, it'll be weird not to climb there any more.  I did try to get some HiiT done, but was either tired or busy with moving carp.  So that was that.  Still I'm largely managing to stop the slide, so that's good.

Cheers Dan - Thanks once again for the stats. This week has been dominated by back-f*ckage; something that has randomly hit me a few times in the past. Annoyingly i'm uncertain which activity was the root cause...

Week 47

M – Rings. Similar intensity to last week, slightly more volume. Deadlifts. 5x8@80kg. Fingerboard warm-up as far as some mono lean-outs. Then stopped as skin was still ragged from the rough Porth Ysgo rock.

T – Deadhang PB smash-fest! A new best on every grip type, most up 10-20% for a 10s hang. 67kg for 4-finger drag is getting a bit silly though – starting to feel like it’s cutting me in half! 

Grip                 Old PB        Session#1        Session #2       

BM2K-AA          55kg          63kg                 67kg                 

Front-3              20kg          27.5kg              33kg                 

Back-3              28.5kg        30kg                 36.25kg            

Middle-2           16.5kg       30kg                 36.25kg           

Crimp               23kg           26.35kg            33kg                 

Front-2              26.5kg       30kg                 36.25kg            

Back-2              14kg           21.25kg            25kg                 

W –Rest/core. Kneebar intervals, side plank intervals, 4x 100 crunchies. 

T –Lower back got increasingly sore throughout the day, without any obvious cause – could have been core, heavy hangs, DL or proclivities – anyway, it curtailed my planned bouldering session so I did some FB repeaters: 7/3/5/3 Front3 open-crimp @BW-6.25kg – felt like I could dig quite deep without fear of finger f*ckage. 3x front3 drag @BW+10.5kg dug deeper.

F -  Rest. Back still sore.

S -  still tight back – did some 1-arm max-hangs as couldn’t face adding weight. 6x 10s hang @ BW-11.75kg. Completed 4 on both arms, failed at 9s on RH for last 2. Probably should be slightly more intense? I’s & reverse I’s

S –No improvement in back – civilian day of wedmin & domesticity. First time no pec DOMS from I’s – so something positive from mediocre session yesterday.

Cheers Dan, yes the swimming is pool based for the mo. Need to get myself a swimming wetsuit before moving into open water. Will have to wait and see what Santa brings but to be honest there is no rush as im not going to start mid winter outdoor training! Had another good week volume wise training. Went as follows;

Monday, 12.5km lunchtime run

Tuesday, 2km lunchtime swim

Wednesday, 16km ride home

Thursday, 1.5km swim followed by stretch class and 5km evening run

Friday, 1.5km lunchtime swim

Saturday, 8.6 km trail run. Very muddy but good fun

Sunday, 7km hungover morning run to go collect the car after a few beers round at a mates house 

'4x 100 crunchies'... I think I might have found the source of your lower back pain!

Nah - doubt it - that's more like core aero-cap

More reps the following morning ;-o ;-0 ;-O

Thanks Dan. Yeah some massive days. The driving-to-climbing ratio leaves a bit to be desired but oh well. It's been quite interesting this week seeing how a big weekend with relatively low amounts of sleep affects strength and fatigue levels. Heading up again this weekend if the forecast stays good so will need to carefully manage training load.

Last Week (Base Week 6/30):

M: Rest.

T: Ice/mixed climbing max strength w/15min aerobic warmup and core maintenance session. 6x4 16kg pull-ups, which felt surprisingly tough. Think I was quite drained from the weekend.

W: 75min Z1 treadmill.

T: Ice/mixed climbing max strength w/15min aerobic warmup and core maintenance session. 6x4 20kg pull-ups. Again, felt quite difficult, but managed it.

F: 75min Z1 stairmaster.

S: Session at the wall. Spent a while warming up (easy bouldering, Frenchies, TGUs, dips and sit ups) then did a grip strength workout on the tools. Up to 6x10s hangs with +55kg. Finished with a couple of sets of offset pull-ups on axes. Getting really close to being able to stick a one-arm lock off now, which is cool. Treated myself to a couple of fun slab problems to finish. Was pleased to get something in the V5-V6 range after a couple of goes. 

S: Rest

Last week's goals:

[x] 180min Z1

[x] 2 ice mixed max strength circuits w/core routine warmup

[x] 1 day climbing-specific training

Goals:

This week

• 180min Z1 (I anticipate about 60min of this being non-Scotland)
• 2 ice mixed max strength circuits w/core routine warmup
• 2-3 routes in Scotland

STG (End 2018)

• [3/10] 10x Scottish winter routes
• [1RM: 25kg] 1RM pull-up w/30kg...? 

MTG (April 2019)

• 2x Scottish VII O/S
• 3x WI6 O/S
• 1x M8 O/S

LTG (End 2019)

• New route in the Cordillera Blanca (might have to rethink this one as a significant El Nino is being predicted for 2019). 
• Bugaboos trip
• Caucasus trip

Cheers! AFAIK, it's just an alternative name for a Russian Twist - first time I saw it used was in Training for the New Alpinism, and kayaker is the name used there and hence it's the one that's stuck with me. Little to much work stuff (and associated celebration this week but managed to get in three fingerboard sessions done as intended despite the best efforts of my so-called "friends" encouraging/enabling a Geriant Thomas style celebratory binge. This was followed by some guilt-driven days of over training.

Goals:

STG (end 2018): 1) finish at least one of two long-term projects (weather depending) - Beltane (7b+) or Deliverance (f7B+); 2) complete planned strength and power sessions for the next 6 weeks (50%)*

MTG (April 2019): Climb >10 7s (sport) - off to NZ in April so ideally before then but always scope to add some there if I can find a partner (>24 in terms of equivalent grades)

LTG (end of summer 2019): Depends on winter progress - either a 7c or an 8a.

*I'm going to modify this and do 3 weeks of power stuff, and I got the numbers wrong last week - doh!

Last week:

Monday: 1) Yoga; 2) Fingerboard only, felt a bit tired so left out the strength element.

Tuesday: 1) Yoga; 2) Carry-over strength session (extended lunch break). Shoulder shrugs (< +20kg), pull ups (< +10kg), lat pull downs (< 70kg), TRX rows (double and single arm), TRX IYTs; 3) Evening Turbo Session - nominally 25.7km.

Wednesday: 1) Yoga. This is where the week went a bit off the rails - had my PhD viva (passed!) and then a few too many beers and not enough dinner. Rest day planned anyway.

Thursday: Combo of beers and no food meant I felt awful. No training.

Friday: 1) Fingerboard; 2) Bit of core: TRX Roll on/off, TRX Jacknives, TRX Rollouts from knees (tried full but can't quite do it!), weighted sit up (< +20kg), Windsheild wipers (+2kg); 3) felt guilty, so got on the turbo and decided (who knows why!) to do an FTP test - 216W. On the face of it a good training day, but followed by beers, cocktails, VKs and falling out the local club at 3:30AM and eating an entire pizza. Whoops.

Saturday: Felt shit most of the day. Easy turbo session - nominally 21.7km

Sunday: 1) Yoga; 2) FB Max Hangs in the AA slot 3) Strength: Scapular pull up (<+20kg); pull up (<+10kg); TRX Wings; lateral raise (<9kg); frontal raise (<10kg); bicep curl (<20kg); shoulder press (<14kg); wrist flexor (10kg); wrist extensor (5kg); 4) More guilt so another Zwift session - did a race (Cat C) and came 2nd - nominally 22.3km; 5) Some stretches from Crimpd.

Max hang results were quite positive. Managed me (72.9kg from terrible diet this week) + 7kg, a total of 79.9kg. Previous lattice test in the summer I managed me (69.7kg) +6kg - 75.7kg total, so an okay gain in total strength. Key will obviously be to enhance this further over winter, then drop some weight and maintain finger strength come the spring. 68.5-70kg is a normal summer weight for me so should be fine dropping down.

This week:

Looking to get in a limit boulder and a campus session, with some strength stuff attached. Old uni club has a comp at the weekend so will be competing in that. Less of the cardio planned.

•Mo: 6.7m General walking. Easy ARC: 3, 2, 2 Boulder circuit. 3*4s.
•Tu: 7.1m General walking. Consultant.
•We: 7.6m General walking.
•Th: 6.1m General walking. IDH,(4*4*10:5:60), 7 probs, Finger strength ass, MH, (4*12/180).
•Fr: 6.4m General walking.
•Sa: 7.1m General walking. 8 lead routes.
•Su: 6.8m General walking.
A mixed week: got to see the consultant and he doesn’t think back is anything to worry about, but since it’s insurance job put me in for an MRI. Got one of the guys from the wall to do me a finger strength assessment and result worse than anticipated, even his guesstimate before the test was about ~20/25% out. So I needed 19kg assist, against a body weight of 65kg, which ranks low. Knew it was, (one of), my weaknesses, but still a poor show, though it provides a focus for upcoming training. Max hangs and campus board here I come!

Current winter 18-19 El Niño likelihood is 80%, with 55% it will continue to the spring when I looked it up a few weeks ago (NOAA)

Hi Dandan, 

I agree, pull ups on a fingerboard = pain!

Thanks for prosiding over FC your selfless deed will come back to you in good karma I'm sure!

Tuesday: went to the wall climbed up to v5 .Shoulder exercises too.

Friday: wall again surprise surprise.....climbed v5 and what might be a soft v6.Shoulder exercises . 2 sets of 20 reps on sit ups , leg raises and eccentric wrist curls. 20 push ups.

Sunday: Dave Macleod finger board session. Open front 3, 5 max hangs.  Middle 2 open pocket, 2 max hangs. 14 pull ups on open front 3.

Im at the wall as I write this, climbing for the first time in 3 months without tape on my RH pinky....I can feel the scare tissue for sure! 

Thanks Dan! Enjoy the break!

Another poor week - nothing during the week and twice to Gloucester Warehouse at the weekend (new local?). Trying to build up lead stamina before Morocco and also did a bit of traversing their feature block thing. Their lead ladder is 4x routes placing own draws and I would guess the hardest was techy 6c/6c+? All onsight anyhoo and have identified a few projects up to 7b+ to work over the next month or so. 

Luckily it's only me to tell myself off on Sunday so hopefully nobody will notice my general rubbish training 

Balls! That seems bad. I don't know exactly how it affects conditions in the Andes but I've heard it's not good. The snow out there can be notoriously bottomless at the best of times...

https://uwaterloo.ca/applied-health-sciences/hes-got-our-backs

Only me! I forgot to do a full post this week but thought I should check in anyway. (I'm sat in the airport with nothing better to do!) 

Last week was a good final week of full training, tried hard on a few things and seemed to be climbing well. My endurance seems particularly good, power endurance is where I'd hope and my finger strength, while possibly not as high it it might have been in the past, is more than good enough for low 8's.

Injury wise I feel good too, the knuckle is still a little tender but it's very minor, everything else seems to be in good shape.

I feel pretty rock fit too, we've been getting outside regularly all year so it's not like I'll be blinking in the sun after stepping out of a grotty boulder gym for 6 months.

First climbing day in Margalef will be tomorrow so I'll let you know how I feel on rock in next week's update!

A pretty non-specific week.  Lots of decent sessions but I can't really remember what I did when.

Mon - Fri: 2x boulder sessions at some point. Did a couple of V5's and 6's.   
Sat: Yoga - brutal but an excellent start to the day.  Wall in the afternoon followed by a lot of very good wine.
Sun: Wall.  Grumpy and tired.  Short session then bailed.

Enjoy!

Last week- week of surf coaching in the Algarve. Progress negligible. 

I'm permanently back in London now and ready to get started on a new season of training.

Will be starting gently with 4 weeks of 3x basic climbing/bouldering sessions and 3x running. Also adding in a morning warmup of calisthenics, just aiming to add a little bit to the routine each day. I haven't a specific climbing/fitness goals for 2019 yet, nor any trips planned- am hoping to come by some inspiration over the next month. Given I now only have 25 days of holiday to play with, there will doubtless be less trips than in previous years.