Quote:
Originally Posted by Kybosh
Those are some awesome goals man! As far as lifting weights is concerned in conjunction with climbing (note, I am not an expert) the goal is a little different. With straight lifting the goal is to increase muscle mass in localized areas. Climbing is much more holistic and our muscle comes in primarily in the shoulders, back, core, forearms and legs. The way I'm treating weight training is as a means to even out the muscles that I'm not using during climbing. For example, climbers often over develop their shoulders which can actually lead to increased amounts of rotator cuff injuries. To combat this, part of my routine is to do a variety of shoulder rotation exercises.
To get to your goals I would suggest that you alter your climbing schedule a bit. I'm primarily a boulderer so I may be a bit biased  , but I would recommend increasing the amount of time you spend bouldering to 40 or 50%. You will see results, I guarantee it. You're absolutely right that the risk for injury is greater (I've blown two finger pulleys to date and messed up one shoulder once) but if you take it slow you won't have a problem. When you boulder the trick is to seperate your sessions into either an endurance/traversing session or a power session. The endurance sessions are all about only using easy holds and staying on the wall for extended periods. You won't have the rope to help you out so all the gains will be on you. For the power days, go hard on some routes that are at the edge of your ability but stop before you are too fatigued and could injure yourself.
Also, check out "How to climb 5.12" or "Training for Climbing". They have some interesting tips and such.
Edit: If you aren't doing this already, you should start down climbing as many routes as possible. Instead of being belayed down to the ground (or jumping off the wall for bouldering), climb back down for that super pumpy feeling! |
Yeah, I'm trying to get back into bouldering, but you spend so much time standing around to rest. 1 minute bouldering, 5 minute rest... when I do boulder, I tend to do more traverse type stuff then actual boulder problems because I'm so weak lol.
What do you mean by "straight lifting" when you are in the gym? For me, I'd like to build muscles in my shoulders. My core is pretty solid, I try to avoid my back since its a little messed up, my wrists could use a bit of world but for the most part I'm pretty good on slopers, and my best strength right now is fingers as I can pull up my body weight with 2 fingers or even a pinch. (though my fingers just ache after a route)
And yeah, I've been practicing downclimbing on top rope the past few months though I guess I sort of got away from it lately. Its funny that I could probably free solo something, but when I'm downclimbing, I seem to burn so much more energy; not sure if I'm just pumped out or what. I never jump off on bouldering and always downclimb because my ankles are so weak I'd really mess them up if I fell.