Warm Up You Wolly!

Going to cover a few things in the post, firstly what I did and then some interesting observations about training.

Bouldering session today. I arrived late, rushed my warm up to catch up with the rest of the guys and start cranking the problems they were making up.  Result: elbows screaming with pain with-in about 30 mins. Lesson: don't rush your warm up.  This may seem obvious but the number of people I see at the wall who turn up and jump straight on is unbelievable.

A warm up is just as essential as having strong fingers.  Other sports do it so why is climbing any differen? It's not; it may even be more import due to the small muscles and high levels of stress experienced on the joints and ligaments. I think there is a certain dogma associated with warming up - it seems to serious or focused for many but see how serious a torn pulley is - you'll wished you warmed up properly!

A General Warm-up: Firstly raise the heart rate; skipping, running, star jumps, etc. 5 mins is sufficient to raise the core body temperature and increase blood flow; 15 mins will do this and aid in your performance. To warm up the fingers I use finger curls - with arms relaxed by your sides, open and close the fingers going from a closed fist to fully stretched out fingers (get the rate right by imaging your are trying to flick water from your finger tips). 40-50 reps is enough.  Next  I use a thera-band and perform various exercises. These are great to give you a little resistance (they come in 8 levels of resistance) and isolate the larger muscles you use for climbing (trapezius, deltoids, triceps, biceps, etc.). Finally I perform some light stretching, both upper and lower body.

Next is the climbing specific part of the warm up. Again I see a number of people get on a route or problem and pull there way up not giving much consideration to the way they move.  "Who cares", I here you cry, "I just want to climb!".

There are some distinct advantages to a climbing specific warm up. It not only continues to get the muscles ready (increased blood flow) but allows you to practice moving with good technique. Many climbers realise the importance of having good technique, but there is no point practising it while your at your limit. During the warm up you can really focus on certain aspects of your climbing technique, allowing your full mental capacity to be used.  This builds up climbing specific schema's about the way your body moves and reacts. These are then embedded in to your sub-concious (similar to the programs that run in the back-ground on your PC).

For example, if your foot work is poor, then get on a problem with large foot and hand holds. Ensure you place your foot carefully on each foot hold, this can be done by hovering your foot over the hold for a few seconds before placing it. You'll know that your foot work is improving once you stop banging your feet.  You can make this more difficult by placing a specific part of your climbing shoe onto the hold.  All this should be done on problems or routes which are well with-in your grade. Your brain will then have a schema in place for accurate foot work. This allows you to focus on climbing hard as opposed to actively thinking about technique.

Side note. These types of drills can form the basis of an entire session and would recommend that are if your a beginner or know you have poor technique. It's all very well being strong but if your technique is poor you'll be wasting that strength!

Once I've increased my heart rate (5-15 mins), stretched, warmed up fingers, larger muscles groups and performed some climbing specific drills, I'm ready to start increasing the intensity.

Here endth the lesson.

With my elbows screaming I decided to stop bouldering and perform a finger board session instead.  I find it less stressful on my elbows and shoulders.  I've been using the beastmaker boys training plan (aimed at climbers around font 6c) along with a beastmaker 2000.  I've been doing this for about 2-3 weeks now ( I have a training diary which I jot down all my sessions in). The outcome of today is that over-all I can hold the smaller (not smallest) pockets and edges.

So what were there interesting points to note about this evening. Firstly the warm up - you get such peculiar looks. People are there to 'climb', what this warming up malarkey - leave that for the main stream sports. I'm not sure if that is the thought process but typically during a session I probably see about 10 people (around 60 or 70 there this evening) that do any kind of targeted warm up.

Next is, if your in pain stop what your doing, I'm all for the no pain, no gain adage but I think you need to listen to your body. The caveat to this is, don't use it as an excuse, there is a difference between being in serious physical pain and just stopping because something is hard, or your not great at it right now! Your subconcious will tend to find the easiest way out of a situation, one which is more likely to produce a positive outcome. Failure can be difficult to stomach, but continued failure is the road to success.

The final point of interest relates back to the first.  When I do my finger board sessions, I have a little table and each exercise written down and during the rest periods (I time everything on a stop watch) I put down what I could do and anything which I found hard, easy, couldn't even touch etc. A number of opinions were overheard the general 3 being: (1) what's the point, that's not climbing; (2) I'm not really in to all that training; (3)  He's a little serious isn't he?

(1) I agree that a fingerboard session isn't climbing, the best way to train for climbing is to climb. But it is a good way of increasing the training load and should be done in addition to climbing. It benefits people who are time constrained and those who have been climbing for a sufficient amount of time. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for a beginner as it's very intensive on your finger tendons and joints, which are not well developed in beginners.

(2) Fair enough if it's not your bag, but training can be great fun!  You can see yourself improve and start climbing some of those routes you never thought possible. If it's because your worried about failing then don't be, failure is your friend when it comes to training. Once your integrate failure into your routine you can systematically eradicate the errors you make - the outcome is improvement and success.

(3) Yes I am. I used to be embarrassed about training (and climbing in general), worried that people may think that I wasn't a good enough climber to be training; I wasn't onsighting 8a so why do I need to train? If you allow another persons limiting beliefs (beliefs they have about their ability to succeed) then you too will be doomed to long term failure. How to overcome it though? As with any fear you have to face it. Go and climb and get used to people making comments or trying to discourage you from climbing, either head-on or gradually.

If all that still sound's too serious then I think that's cool as well. Some people are genuinely happy just being comfortable where they are.  If any of the above strikes a cord in you then get out there! It certainly did with me, I've just tried to to tell myself that I'm happy being where I am - I'm not so it's time to start failing!

Climbing again tomorrow, will post outcomes (should be shorter!)

P.S. I'm not a coach and I'm not trained or qualified in climbing coaching. All the above information is what I've gleaned from reading over the years (books, DVDs, online articles) and my personal experience. I hope it's helpful, one way or another.