As I climb up a tall wall, I get scared by the heights. Being strong muscularly and positioning my body and limbs in steady positions help alleviate the feeling of anxiety. However, I get tired after so many moves. For climbing, often a "pump" is experienced in the forearms. A pump, or a feeling of tightness and burn in the forearm, is caused by gripping a handhold strongly for too long, where the long static contraction of the forearm finger flexor muscles results in restricted blood vessels, limiting blood flow (and thus oxygen + other chemical exchange) to where it's needed the most.
So at this stage of my climbing career it's mostly caused by bad techniques. I'm gripping handholds for way longer than necessary because my rope clipping technique is atrocious, and I grip harder than needed because I am scared of heights. Nevertheless, when feeling pumped, my instinct is to just take a break (ask my belay partner to tighten the rope and I just hang out for awhile, shaking out both my arms and my calves, before moving on. However, when I climb a relatively easy overhangy route, even though I experience a pump and tiredness in my fingers, I find myself ignoring the pain, pushing through, and continuing to climb until the wall is straight again, because I have this big fear for hanging too far away from the wall (happens when you release your arms, you are hanging perpendicular to the ground, and the wall is tilted away from you).
So, it seems like my fear for hanging in midair combined with my fear of falling can overcome my feeling of tiredness, and my hands work fine. I can keep climbing with pumped arms and cramped fingers for several more moves than where I think my physical limits are. Given this is the case, should I push harder when I climb straight walls too? It's hard to say. There are several conflicting goals. I want to improve my endurance, but I don't want to overdo it and injure my body. I want to push myself hard, but I also don't want to promote bad habits (again, there are better ways of improving my techniques, such as positioning my feet and my body better). But climbing through the pump does help improve endurance.
I guess for people who injure themselves easily while doing sports, they should definitely take it easy. I am probably overly cautious and not pushing my body to its real limits. On the other hand, I am always totally sore the day after a climbing session, so I am not too easy on myself either. Being injury-free probably is a good thing, allowing me to climb more often. I do bang my knees and scrape my skin against holds on the wall too often though, due to carelessness. I hope I can get better at preventing such injuries.
I really enjoy how climbing challenges the nonthinking part of my brain. I feel pain in the head (probably imaginary, but it's the result of pushing it to its limits, given that it controls my body movement and seems to care about safety a whole lot) when I am struggling on the wall. I am unable to think about other things like what worries me in life. Climbing headspace can feel very peculiar. Rationally, I know I am "safe" because I am attached to a rope with a belayer holding on to me. But my perception is that I am in danger, because I haven't mastered stability, especially on walls with some cracks, some protrusions, or some corners.
Many people try climbing once and don't want to do it again. They believe they are just not strong enough to do this sport. But actually most of the fear comes from the brain not being used to operating in this funny vertical 3D space. Once the brain (the limbic system? Hippocampus?) forms a mental map (that the cognitive brain doesn't really understand at all) of vertical space, the inner car alarm will tone down. Then it's time to work on stronger fingers and techniques etc. to climb better.
So at this stage of my climbing career it's mostly caused by bad techniques. I'm gripping handholds for way longer than necessary because my rope clipping technique is atrocious, and I grip harder than needed because I am scared of heights. Nevertheless, when feeling pumped, my instinct is to just take a break (ask my belay partner to tighten the rope and I just hang out for awhile, shaking out both my arms and my calves, before moving on. However, when I climb a relatively easy overhangy route, even though I experience a pump and tiredness in my fingers, I find myself ignoring the pain, pushing through, and continuing to climb until the wall is straight again, because I have this big fear for hanging too far away from the wall (happens when you release your arms, you are hanging perpendicular to the ground, and the wall is tilted away from you).
So, it seems like my fear for hanging in midair combined with my fear of falling can overcome my feeling of tiredness, and my hands work fine. I can keep climbing with pumped arms and cramped fingers for several more moves than where I think my physical limits are. Given this is the case, should I push harder when I climb straight walls too? It's hard to say. There are several conflicting goals. I want to improve my endurance, but I don't want to overdo it and injure my body. I want to push myself hard, but I also don't want to promote bad habits (again, there are better ways of improving my techniques, such as positioning my feet and my body better). But climbing through the pump does help improve endurance.
I guess for people who injure themselves easily while doing sports, they should definitely take it easy. I am probably overly cautious and not pushing my body to its real limits. On the other hand, I am always totally sore the day after a climbing session, so I am not too easy on myself either. Being injury-free probably is a good thing, allowing me to climb more often. I do bang my knees and scrape my skin against holds on the wall too often though, due to carelessness. I hope I can get better at preventing such injuries.
I really enjoy how climbing challenges the nonthinking part of my brain. I feel pain in the head (probably imaginary, but it's the result of pushing it to its limits, given that it controls my body movement and seems to care about safety a whole lot) when I am struggling on the wall. I am unable to think about other things like what worries me in life. Climbing headspace can feel very peculiar. Rationally, I know I am "safe" because I am attached to a rope with a belayer holding on to me. But my perception is that I am in danger, because I haven't mastered stability, especially on walls with some cracks, some protrusions, or some corners.
Many people try climbing once and don't want to do it again. They believe they are just not strong enough to do this sport. But actually most of the fear comes from the brain not being used to operating in this funny vertical 3D space. Once the brain (the limbic system? Hippocampus?) forms a mental map (that the cognitive brain doesn't really understand at all) of vertical space, the inner car alarm will tone down. Then it's time to work on stronger fingers and techniques etc. to climb better.
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