Pro-Sports

Another good training tip is to practice traversing.  If you’re new to climbing, you’re probably wondering what the heck is traversing?  It is basically a horizontal movement across the wall as opposed to a vertical climb up the wall.  It is normally done as a climbing warm up before you start climbing in earnest at the gym.  Just start at one corner of the gym and keep traversing horizontally until you drop off.

When you first begin traversing, you may find yourself unable to stay on for very long.  Keep practicing until you can make your way around the gym easily or do laps across a short section.  Try traversing with different holds and finding different rest positions instead of coming down when you need to take a break.

If you are traversing as a “warm up”, then do so only until you feel your muscles warming up and stop well before the lactic acid builds up in your forearms (often called a “pump”).  If you traverse until your arms are pumped, you won’t be able to do much climbing, especially if you’re new to the climbing scene. 

What does traversing do for you?

It teaches you to use your feet and it helps you think of different ways to move on the wall.  You can learn which moves are easier for you and you can work through a problem close to the ground which allows you to tackle the problem without wasting energy on the parts you can do easily.  If you find it too easy and you want something harder, try skipping holds or use fingertips only - vary the exercise.  As you get better at traversing, you can graduate to “bouldering” which I will talk more about in a later post.  In the interim, if you’re new to climbing, master the art of traversing first.

Below: traversing at the boulder wall in Safra Yishun, Singapore.

Popularity: 20% [?]

My SIL arrived last week and Gavin’s birthday party was on Sunday so I only managed to get in two sessions of exercise.  I had to skip Pilates on Friday to help my SIL shop for recipe ingredients for Gavin’s birthday cake. 

Yeah, yeah, excuses, I know.  Well, I did managed to get in two sessions of Yoga.  Here’s what I managed to get through in Week 2:

Tuesday - Yoga Water VCD
Thursday - Yoga Water VCD

The Yoga Flow series comes in three levels:

Earth - Beginner
Water - Intermediate
Fire - Advance

In Week 1, I did the Earth VCD just for warm up.  I found it a little easy even if I wasn’t really that flexible so I decided to move up a notch to the Water VCD for something a little tougher.  I still think the Water session was rather easy because I didn’t feel at all strained although some of the poses were a little more challenging than the Water session.  I remember distinctly that the Yoga sessions I took at Fitfor2 were much harder.  Perhaps I flatter myself, but maybe it is time to promote myself to the Fire VCD?  And to think I was initially thinking of staying on the Earth VCD for a month before trying Water…

Well, this week has been rather unproductive in terms of exercise.  I have been going out most days and using my SIL as an excuse to skip exercise.

Monday - went shopping at The Pavillion.  I carried Gavin in the carrier until I was about to drop dead so I figured that was my exercise for the day - weight training with the baby.

Tuesday - went shopping at The Gardens.  I carried Gavin again, although Gavin consented to my SIL carrying him for part of the time so I got a bit of a break.  It was still a bit of a weight workout, but I confess I was rather lazy to put on the Yoga VCD when we got home.

Wednesday - picked up boxes from the old house to pack Gavin’s toys and did a spot of shopping in the evening with the hubby.  I really had no excuse not to do a session of Yoga but…

Thursday - took Gavin to the doctor’s for his vaccination.  Packed up his toys while the technician serviced our air conditioner.  Honestly, I should have done a session when Gav was down for his afternoon nap but…

Friday - I have lunch plans with the Mums.  Fitfor2 is shut for festive reasons so there goes my Pilates class…  Well, there’s still hope to make my three exercise sessions for this week.  Since next week is Chinese New Year, chances are that I won’t be getting any exercise done so I had better get a move on over the next three days.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Since the friendly chidding I received at Fitfor2 that Gavin and I really ought to be at the Fitball for crawling babies class, I decided to replace my Tuesday fitball class with a session of Yoga at home.  Thanks to the good graces of my son who willingly entertained himself in his cot for the duration of half an hour, I managed to complete most of my Yoga session following a VCD I bought from a few years back. 

At times like these, I’m glad I bought the Total Yoga Flow Series.  It allows me to workout at home at a time convenient to both Gavin and me.  I can exercise where we can see each other - he can see where I am and I can make sure he doesn’t do anything that might hurt himself.  He is at home where he can make as big a mess as he wants with all his toys and books.  I can pause the exercise at any time, in case he needs me.  If I can keep up these sessions, I might start looking around for some other workout DVDs to add to my collection.

Just a quick update on week 1 - I did eventually manage to get in three exercise sessions as scheduled:

Tuesday - fitball
Friday - pilates
Saturday - yoga

This week, I’m planning to attend pilates again on Friday and probably do another VCD yoga session sometime during the week.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Simian Boy once gave his thoughts on The Virtues of Down Climbing and now I’m going to add mine…

If you want to get better at climbing, then you have to practice down climbing.  Why?  Down climbing helps you focus on the one thing most climbers, especially newbie climbers, often forget - your feet.  When you down climb, the first thing you think about is: “Where am I going to put my foot?” 

Many new climbers often underestimate just how much their legs can do for them when they climb.  It has been said that you can tell the difference between a beginner skier and an experienced skier by listening to them complain about the parts of their bodies that ache after a day’s worth of skiing.  A beginner skier will complain that their arms ache the most, while an experienced skier will complain that their legs ache the most.  Similarly, the first part of a newbie climber’s body to give way in climbing is the arms and that is because they often forget about their legs.  To reiterate the fact that many newbie climbers give little value to the power of their legs, you’ll hear many of them offer this statement when citing how they plan to get better at climbing: “Let me build more strength in my arms first.” 

Why are your legs so important in climbing?

• The more weight you transfer to your feet, the less mass you have to haul up with your arms - this is great especially if your upper body strength is poor.
• The most common reason why a newbie fails to make it to the next hold is because they can’t reach it or they are unable to get a good purchase on the hold because their too low.  Just moving your feet up a few centimeters can be the difference between making it to the next hold and falling off.  The most common mistake a newbie makes is that they forget to move their feet up.

Personally, I believe that the greatest virtue of down climbing lies in the fact that it makes you think about your feet and it teaches you to focus on your footwork.  So the next time you’re climbing at the gym, try down-climbing a couple of routes.  Ideally, you should start with the routes climb as a warm-up. 

Happy Climbing!

Popularity: 20% [?]

Okay, so the week hasn’t quite ended yet and all I’ve managed to complete this week was the fitball and pilates class.  I was planning to do the Yoga VCD at home on Monday but was interrupted by Gavin.  I still have today and tomorrow to get it done, though.  I did take Gavin out for a few shopping expeditions - does that count?  It was a little bit like walking with a 10-11kg weight since I carried Gavin in the wrap and I’m sure we did more than half an hour of walking.

I also did a bit of wardrobe clearing and disposed of all the clothing items I doubt I’ll ever likely be able to wear again.  I’ve also dusted off all my old gym and climbing clothes and started wearing them again.  I had been keeping them for the time when I was planning to start hitting the gym again but I figure since that isn’t likely to be for a while, I might as well put them to use now.  Besides, wearing sporty clothes should help me get into the right frame of mind for getting fit.

Popularity: 17% [?]

I realise that I don’t climb any more but I did - once.  Perhaps I flatter myself, but I have fond memories that I was actually quite good at it, too.  For someone with almost zero sports talent, I’m going to start a series of tips on what I did to improve my climbing.  If you have zero talent as well, stick with me and try these exercises out.  With a lot of blood, sweat and tears, I’m pretty sure you’ll be climbing pretty decently, too.

Training Tip 1

The best thing you can do to get better at rock climbing is to rock climb.  In my rock climbing hey day, I often heard a lot of people tell me that they would start rock climbing after they build up some strength.  Now I don’t know if that was just an excuse to say, “Look, I don’t want to offend you but rock climbing’s not my sport and I’m never coming back,” or if they really thought that they should get stronger before they tried rock climbing. 

If you’re really serious about giving rock climbing a go, then don’t waste your time pumping iron at a regular gym to “build up your strength” before you hit the rocks.  The best way to get better at rock climbing is to climb.  It is really as simple as that.  Pumping iron might be useful at a later stage but it won’t do you much good at the start.  I’ve seen plenty of buff guys coming into the rock climbing gym who can’t climb to save their lives. 

Personally, even if I wanted to get stronger, I would do it by climbing more, not swapping out my climbing sessions with regular weight training sessions.  Why?  Because weight training is symmetrical.  When you do a lat pull down, you pull equally with both arms.  You don’t use your legs to help you and you certainly don’t have to balance on tiny footholds while you’re at it.  Additionally, time spent at the regular gym is time you aren’t spending climbing.  Since you can only do so much weight training (your rock climbing sessions included) a week before you start to overstrain your muscles, you lose out on the opportunity to hone your other climbing skills - such as balance, finger strength, footwork, etc.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Okay, so I didn’t quite get off to the start I was planning today but I did try!  I dusted off my old Yoga VCDs, brought out the mat and even played the VCD.  I decided we should go easy and start with the first disk.  Unfortunately, I was barely into the breathing segment when Gavin decided he had had enough of being in his cot and that was the end of my Yoga session.

Don’t worry, I plan to make up for it.  I’ll try the Yoga VCD again on Wednesday or Thursday.

In the mean time, let’s see how we go at tomorrow’s fitball class. 

Popularity: 17% [?]

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2008 is to get fit again.  Now that Gavin is nearly one year old, I figured that I ought to have lost about about as much of my pregnancy weight as I’m ever going to lose without doing anything active.  Though I look as though I am back to my pre-pregnancy size (despite the additional three kilo bulk), I have since discovered that I still can’t fit into all my favourite old clothes.  It’s somewhat amusing to discover that for the first time in my life I can’t fit into a top because my breasts are too big.  Unfortunately, that’s where the amusement ends because the thought of disposing my old clothes is almost as bad as pulling out my fingernails. 

I have read that once you stop breastfeeding, your breasts will shrink back to their original pre-pregnancy size so there is still a glimmer of hope that I could still fit into my old clothes.  Combined with my resolution to get fit this year, perhaps it will be more than a glimmer.

After my first Pilates class for the year, I was having lunch with my instructor, J.  She mentioned that she trimmed the excess bulk from her arms by doing Yoga - “must have been all those Sun Salutations”.  Well, there isn’t any Mummy and baby Yoga classes at Fitfor2 but I still have my old Yoga VCDs that I bought when I was in Singapore for a business trip some four years ago.  Back then I didn’t know the first thing about Yoga but now that I’ve been to several pregnancy Yoga classes, perhaps I’ll know enough to follow the VCDs at home.

To get fit, the general recommendations are to exercise for half an hour at least three times a week.  I figure that’s a pretty good goal to target.  I can work my way up from that once we’re into a routine.  It is advisable not to go overboard to start with because the likelihood of dropping out is too high.  So here’s the plan for 2008 starting Monday next week:

Monday - Yoga VCD
Tuesday - Fitball at Fitfor2
Wednesday - rest day
Thursday - rest day
Friday - Pilates at Fitfor2
Saturday - rest day
Sunday - rest day

We’ll try this for a month and if all goes well, then I’ll add in another Yoga session on Thursday.  All this includes my shopping excursions with Gavin, which I’m sure is a workout on its own.  You just try carting an 11kg baby around a shopping mall for a couple of hours and tell me if you don’t think that’s exercise…

Popularity: 32% [?]