It happens to us all at some stage. We find a new sport, we're passionate about it for years but then something happens and we miss a few days. Then its a few weeks and before you know it months have gone by. The frustration happens when you try and go back and suddenly realise that you've become weak. You know "how to climb", how to move your body and you have all the rope techniques you could shake a stick at, but your body still says "no!".
This was the stage I was at when I decided that along with a new year I would start climbing again. These are the thoughts I have put to digital paper as I continue along my journey from climbing washout to "Epic Climber of the Year 2013 Award", (I don't think such an award exists, but it should!)
There are a number of factors which come into play when it comes to climbing training. As I said before, when I started I was very weak (I’m not much stronger, yet...), but when we’re talking about climbing this can mean a whole lot of things. First there’s actual strength: can you do a pull up? Well I could, but we’re not talking world record levels here, four or five at a push. That’s all very well and good if you want to look half decent at the gym but its not terribly useful by itself for climbing. That’s where factor number two comes in: grip strength. Without the ability to hold on, being able to pull up is useless. Training for grip strength is one area that can lead to injuries if not done properly, so I’ll need to take it easy here over the next couple of weeks.
Within the general term “grip strength” there exists a term unique to climbing: Contact strength. This is the ability to apply maximum strength to a hold upon contact. Its not something I’m going to worry too much about at this early stage in the game but there’s a great article about it here:http://climbstrong.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/training-contact-strength/ if you’d like more info.
That will do for the time being but I’m going to be back soon with a few more updates, so stay tuned.
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