In my last post I was making a list of what progress I hoped to make this year. It mostly involved going up in grade difficulty in climbing. But for the past few weeks, I haven't been making much progress in climbing harder routes. In fact, I find 6s (5c's) more strenuous now than before. How is that possible?!?!
Come to think of it, my strength in my arms and fingers have definitely improved compared to, say, 6 months ago. I notice my style of climbing has changed because of this. I would do moves that I couldn't do, back when I had less strength. These moves are more powerful and playful/fun. Also, I am now strong enough to have my arm in a bent position and/or grip a handhold quite strongly/securely when I clip the rope into quick draws. This makes me feel more secure about the climb overall, but it also uses up more energy. There was a period when every time I needed to clip in the rope, my heart rate would accelerate, because I didn't feel secure. Who knew that style of climbing uses up less energy than the secure way that I climb now? I would also try to clip the rope as soon as the quick draw was within the reach of one hand (ie. above my head), instead of the ideal clipping zone, where the quickdraw lies between the chest and waist area of the climber. Now, because of how secure I feel on the wall, I dare to climb to a comfortable position, sometimes until the quickdraw is at waist level, before I clip in. I would definitely call this progress. However, it is not reflected in the grades. I am currently climbing mostly 6s and 6+s, with the occasional 6+/7-.
I finally understand why my boyfriend, who can boulder way harder than I can, was getting more tired/pumped climbing the same routes as me. He definitely also uses more strength than necessary to do the easy routes.
I recently met a new friend, who is very lean, and is super enthusiastic about climbing. Her problem is that she lacks strength. She also had a minor surgery not long ago and could not climb for weeks while in the process of recovery. When I started climbing myself, I also had no strength to hang at all, which means I couldn't boulder very much. I was lucky that I have a boyfriend as a pretty reliable belay partner, who could go sport climbing with me at least twice a week. So I focused mainly on route climbing, which helped me slowly but reliably build arm and back strength, as well as endurance. She doesn't have a regular belay partner, so she has to do more bouldering. Since harder boulders are quite tricky to do, whereas rope climbing routes are less tricky, so one can perform climbing moves for longer, I personally believe that rope climbing is a better way to get used to climbing movements and to build strength for people who have trouble with strength building. But I recently realized not everybody thinks about climbing the same way I do, so I can't force people to do things my way. I have another friend who was also frustrated about her strength. She would go to the gym, not warm up, climb the hardest boulders/routes she could do, get tired in about 30 minutes, get frustrated, then try a bit more, and then be done (physically tired out) in under 1 hour. She had been climbing for longer than I had at the time, and she was really frustrated that she got stuck at a certain level. I tried to suggest some things, but I quickly learned that I shouldn't offer suggestions unless people ask for it, if I want to be able to keep the friendship.
Going forward, I guess I need to focus on relaxing more when doing easy routes. It is not necessary to use the death grips on routes where I could pretty much balance on my two feet. I also need to force myself to try harder routes, and do fall training. I really hope to increase my endurance, and also, I hope to have some spare time to boulder, so I could work on building power as well.
Come to think of it, my strength in my arms and fingers have definitely improved compared to, say, 6 months ago. I notice my style of climbing has changed because of this. I would do moves that I couldn't do, back when I had less strength. These moves are more powerful and playful/fun. Also, I am now strong enough to have my arm in a bent position and/or grip a handhold quite strongly/securely when I clip the rope into quick draws. This makes me feel more secure about the climb overall, but it also uses up more energy. There was a period when every time I needed to clip in the rope, my heart rate would accelerate, because I didn't feel secure. Who knew that style of climbing uses up less energy than the secure way that I climb now? I would also try to clip the rope as soon as the quick draw was within the reach of one hand (ie. above my head), instead of the ideal clipping zone, where the quickdraw lies between the chest and waist area of the climber. Now, because of how secure I feel on the wall, I dare to climb to a comfortable position, sometimes until the quickdraw is at waist level, before I clip in. I would definitely call this progress. However, it is not reflected in the grades. I am currently climbing mostly 6s and 6+s, with the occasional 6+/7-.
I finally understand why my boyfriend, who can boulder way harder than I can, was getting more tired/pumped climbing the same routes as me. He definitely also uses more strength than necessary to do the easy routes.
I recently met a new friend, who is very lean, and is super enthusiastic about climbing. Her problem is that she lacks strength. She also had a minor surgery not long ago and could not climb for weeks while in the process of recovery. When I started climbing myself, I also had no strength to hang at all, which means I couldn't boulder very much. I was lucky that I have a boyfriend as a pretty reliable belay partner, who could go sport climbing with me at least twice a week. So I focused mainly on route climbing, which helped me slowly but reliably build arm and back strength, as well as endurance. She doesn't have a regular belay partner, so she has to do more bouldering. Since harder boulders are quite tricky to do, whereas rope climbing routes are less tricky, so one can perform climbing moves for longer, I personally believe that rope climbing is a better way to get used to climbing movements and to build strength for people who have trouble with strength building. But I recently realized not everybody thinks about climbing the same way I do, so I can't force people to do things my way. I have another friend who was also frustrated about her strength. She would go to the gym, not warm up, climb the hardest boulders/routes she could do, get tired in about 30 minutes, get frustrated, then try a bit more, and then be done (physically tired out) in under 1 hour. She had been climbing for longer than I had at the time, and she was really frustrated that she got stuck at a certain level. I tried to suggest some things, but I quickly learned that I shouldn't offer suggestions unless people ask for it, if I want to be able to keep the friendship.
Going forward, I guess I need to focus on relaxing more when doing easy routes. It is not necessary to use the death grips on routes where I could pretty much balance on my two feet. I also need to force myself to try harder routes, and do fall training. I really hope to increase my endurance, and also, I hope to have some spare time to boulder, so I could work on building power as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment