Christmas day session

I had a core session this morning, as follows:

40 x press ups
40 x sit ups
Physio exercises
(40 x Core twists/turn things) and (4 minutes hold of lying on back with shoulders and lower back on floor and holding legs straight up vertically)
5 x 15 second floor based leg raises
5 x 15 second lying on stomach leg raises

Time to eat food, and lose weight at Christmas as I always do. Maybe it's my metabolism going into over drive from all the food.

24/12/11 Session

I had a quick physio session today, which basically comprises of the exercises the physio gave me to stabilise my spinal column and improve the muscle imbalance. They take about 10-20mins to perform and my back feels better afterwards, I'm hoping to get a session in tomorrow or Tuesday. But it's raining a lot and Christmas has shut down all the local walls! Oh well.

Back in the North, and 21/12/11 Session.

So I've had a few days off climbing due to packing/work and driving back home for Christmas, but I managed to get a session in yesterday which consisted of the following:

40 Sit ups
40 Press ups
Physio exercises
5 x leg raises - 15 second hold while on floor
5 x reverse leg raises - 15 second hold while laying on stomach.

I then went to the local wall and managed to do 2 v8+'s second go, and many other problems. I also had a quick campus and managed a set of:

1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse on all 3 sets of rungs (The rungs at this wall are spaced far wider than I'm used to, so this proved to be bigger moves but I found it fine.)

I stopped before my nail bed started to cause me trouble so that's good, and I had no back pain during the session or after even though I was climbing on steep boulder problems.

17/12/11 Session

I had a proper bouldering session for the first time in a while on Saturday, and it seems all the Campus boarding is paying off. I managed to on-sight a font7b (Indoor) and almost a font7c+ (Indoor), which considering the back pain I've had recently I think is rather good. I can definitely see the advantages of having the campus boarding strength now, since certain moves on the problems felt very easy. I best keep training then!

15/12/11 - Physio

So I had physio appointment last night, and discovered I have slight scoliosis to the right side. Also my Facet joint on the L4/L5 vertebrae is slightly skewed I think, so I've been given a few exercises to do to strengthen it up, and hopefully counteract the scoliosis. But apparently I'm allowed to carry on climbing and training as much as I want, so that's the plan.

I've got a weight vest arriving for Christmas, and a whole load of campus boarding and training to do. So psyche is high!

13/12/11 Session

Well I had a few days off due to work commitments, but I came back today and had a good session. I did the following at the climbing wall:

60 minute bouldering session climbing grades ranging from v0 - v6

Campus - 1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse on all 3 sets of rungs. (This is surprisingly easy now, and I barely get pumped).

1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-8-7-8 on the largest rungs, and medium rungs (I managed to bang my knee if I attempted to go higher)

Campus - 1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse on all 3 sets of rungs.

I've also got a physio booked for Thursday for my back so hopefully I should see if there is damage, and if so work out how to fix it.

07/12/11 Session

I had a short core session today consisting of:

40 sit ups

40 press ups

5 x 60 second planks

5 x 60 second leg raises from lying flat on stomach (Superman position I think it's called)

5 x leg raises held for 15 seconds

10 floor based leg raises held for 15 seconds.

Finger tips are almost healed, so back to campus boarding on Friday.

06/12/11 Session

I had another quick session after work today, it consisted of lots of bouldering in my trainers (I forgot my shoes...Fail...) and lots of boulder problems up to v6

Although I did manage a v6 in my trainers, which was funny because the overall purchase of a skate shoe on a micro foot hold isn't great, so the route became a campus all the way. It seems this campus malarkey does help! Although I was using my back 3 fingers on every hold I grabbed due to the index finger nail problem. Oh well I guess it's training!

04/12/11 Session

I had a quick 40 minute session after work today on the campus board, it went as follows:

Warm up:

f5+ and f6a circuits

Boulder problems from V0-V5.

Campus Board:

1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse, on all 3 sets of rungs again

1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7-6-8-7-9-8-10-9-11-10-11 on the larger set of rungs (This proves to be tiring since you're doing around 20 moves to reach the top)

Wide arm doubles 1-8 ( Left hand on furthest part of large rung, right hand on opposite furthest part of medium rung)

Beastmaker hangs on Beastmaker 2000, consisting of 7 second hang, then 3 second rest on the following:

Big sloper

Medium sloper

4 finger pocket

3 finger pocket

2 finger pocket

Mono pockets (Very hard)
Small crimps

5 pull ups on medium sloper

I then had to leave, not a bad short session.

Back update: Still no pain, possibly try a steep boulder problem towards the end of the week if it still feels good, and see if it's OK.

Finger update: Nails still sore, and slight bleed after nail is pulling slightly off nail bed. Perhaps 2 days of rest from campus boarding needed to heal. Interestingly the nail problem only started after the Beastmaker workouts.

Core workout:

40 sit ups

40 press ups

10 x 60 second planks

5 x leg raises held for 15 seconds

10 floor based leg raises held for 15 seconds.

03/12/11 Session

So today I decided to take a rest day due to my finger nails deciding to leave their nail beds slightly, this seems to happen when I'm climbing a lot on slopers.

Instead I did a small core workout, consisting of the following:

5 x 60 second planks

40 wide arm press ups

20 sit ups

5 x leg raises on bar, held for 15 seconds.

5 x Superman style planks held for 15 seconds

5 x leg raises while laying with back flat on the floor, held for 20 seconds each.

20 sit ups

A quick session, but worth doing since my core is so bad at the moment due to my back.

02/11/2011 Session

So I started the training today and after the usual v0-v5 warm up managed the following:

Campus board:

1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse. I did this on all 3 rung sizes.

1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7 on largest rungs.

Doubled campus 1-5 ( It's a pretty big throw!)

1-4-7 on the central medium sized rung, the intention was to then go to 10/11 but it felt massive!

Then a set of throwing laps climbing up the font6a, and down the font5 on the 35' board again. Did 3 laps, then a 3 minute rest, then a further 3 laps.

I then moved onto the beastmaker and did a 7 second hang with a 3 second rest in between on every hold on the Beastmaker 1000. Then I moved onto the Beastmaker 2000 and did the same but only on half the amount of holds. I managed to hang the Hardest slopers for about 3 seconds then body swing knocked me off.

After this I ate some Haribo and then went back to the campus board, and did another set of:

1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse. I did this on all 3 rung sizes. In between the sets I did 60 second planks for core work.

I then did doubles again on the middle rung with the following pattern:

1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7

Then I went home, in all a good session, and still no back pain :)

29/11/2012 Sesion

So I started the training with a general warm up on boulder problems from v0-v4 and managed the following:

Campus board:

1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse. I did this on all 3 rung sizes.

1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7-6-8-7 - Did this on the smallest set of rungs, only up to 7 due to the campus board at the wall not being steep enough which resulted in my legs banging against the board.

Then a set of throwing laps climbing up a font6a and climbing down a font5 on a 35' board. Managed 3 laps, then 5minute rest, then a further 3, then a 5 minute rest, then a further 3, then a 5 minute rest, then a further 2, then a 10 minute rest.

Return to overhanging campus style board ( it's like a set of upside down steps with holds on)

Managed slopers, crimps, wide arm half-jugs and reversed back down (This is about the height of a 1-11 campus board). But involves larger pulls.

Core Workout:

5 x 20 second planks

20 press ups

20 sit ups

5 x leg raises held for 15 seconds

This was then repeated 3 times.

Go for a cup of tea :)

27/11/2012 Session

A quick session after work:

Campus - 1-3-5-7-11 on all 3 sizes of rungs.

Numerous boulder problems from v0-v5

Hanging base rung on smallest set, and reaching to rung 5 then reversing (Did this with both arms until failure)

Circuit room - Did circuits graded f5/f6a/f6b/f6c

I felt very pumped afterwards, but no back pain.

New training record.

So after an undiagnosed back injury sustained from indoor bouldering, I'm now trying to get fit again while keeping my back strong and un-injured. I noticed my main back pain was resulting from climbing on problems that were more than 30' overhanging. So I decided to start training on slabs/vertical walls, doing lots of core work and doing a lot more campus boarding (it doesn't hurt my back).

This blog is basically going to be a diary of my current training regime day by day, I'm fortunate in being able to train 6 days a week and having free access to a couple of climbing centres with awesome facilities.

My background is that I'm now 21, I've been climbing since I was about 14/15 years old and have only recently in the past 2-3 years managed to start getting better, I've currently hit a plateau and I'd ideally like to be climbing font8a by next year (New years resolution...). I'm currently climbing v8+ indoors, font 7b/7c outdoors and I haven't sport climbed for a long time, so should probably get back into that!

I also have a horde of Scarpa Booster climbing shoes, because they're awesome and Scarpa stopped making them for some crazy reason.