Pro-Sports

If you want to get good at anything, you’ve got to put in the hours.  Well, the same goes with climbing.  It’s also a good idea to set up a training schedule that you can stick to.  If you’re anything like me, you’ll discover that even a missed week of climbing can do some serious damage to your climbing ability, so it pays to hit the rock s as often as you possibly can.

At the peak of my climbing, I was climbing four days a week - two evenings indoor at the gym and two full days outdoors (Saturday and Sunday).  Here’s an example of one of my climbing schedules:

Tuesday evening - traversing warm-up, climb twenty routes in blocks of five (i.e. climb none-stop five routes in one go), boulder if time permits.

Thursday evening - traversing warm-up, climb a few routes, work on project route, boulder if time permits.

Saturday - climb whatever I wanted as long as I completed 8 long routes (at least 20-30m long) before leaving the crag.  This included working on my project route and climbing regular routes for the fun of it.

Sunday - work on leading and project route.

Follow your training schedule and adjust it as necessary to address your weaknesses.  For instance, if you detect a weakness in your footwork, include some training time to tackle that problem.

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Although it was originally my plan to get fit and toned for 2008, I’m afraid the last two weeks have gone by with only one Yoga session completed each.  My fitness instructor seems to be more interested in playing of late and doesn’t seem to like me working out in front of the TV when I could be spending my time playing with him instead.  When we’re not playing, though, he’s still cracking the whip, making me carry him around the shopping mall and pacing up and down the room to help lull him to sleep.

Though I’m pretty used to the shopping mall walks, my feet aren’t taking too well to the pacing up and down the room.  I don’t know if it is RSI or the strain of carrying extra weight without proper supportive shoes, but my feet are really starting to ache pretty bad.  Between my achy feet and my son’s time demands, I haven’t really had the energy or motivation to persist with the DVD workouts.  Perhaps I might just wait until he’s passed this difficult phase first.

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When you climb, move like you mean it.

If you’ve been climbing for some time now, you’ll probably identify with me when I talk about the route with a crux that scares you witless every time you go near it.  You’ve gotten beta from everyone, you know exactly what you must do and how the move goes, but you’re gripped.  You’ve climbed flawlessly to the crux through a sequence of moves that you can now do with your eyes closed.  You’ve rested your arms as much as you can and feel that you should be ready to tackle the crux now but something holds you back.  You figure it’s now or never and you make the move only to fall short of what you had hoped to achieve.  Soon you’ve called for a tight rope and you’re left hanging, wondering what went wrong.

So what did go wrong?  You hesitated.  You didn’t believe.  You doubted yourself.

Could it really make that much of a difference?  Yes, it can.

I can remember one of the routes I had been projecting that had me feeling this way almost as if I had just climbed it yesterday.  The route was called “Jah Lap Climbing” and the crux was a mini roof about two thirds of the way up.  Getting to the crux was easy and there was even a nice little rest point you could relax at just before moving into the crux.  Entering the crux involved the use of two crimpers and a very polished foothold. 

Now crimpers have always been my specialty and ordinarily I loved them, but not when it involved going over a roof with only a slippery foothold for help.  The climbers below were calling up beta to me and all of them involved using that one and only foothold - no wonder it was polished! 

I remember placing my foot tentatively onto the foothold and rubbing my toe against it.  My shoe slipped off as if I had been skating on ice.  “No way!”  I thought.  “There had to be another way.”

It wasn’t until I could get my mind around the idea that if I applied enough force and conviction in my step, I could get my shoe to stick to that polished bit of rock, before I was able to red-point that route.  Because I doubted, my foot did exactly as I expected it to - it slipped off.  Once I had that route nailed, everything just fell into place and I can’t for the life of me understand why I had trouble with that foothold.  Every time I climbed that route after my red-point, I could move through the crux without a second thought to that foothold.  My foot would stick just because I know it will.

When you hesitate, when you doubt, you’ll get exactly what you expect - a failure.  If you can hold back your thoughts for a moment and just go with the flow, you’ll climb a lot better.

Popularity: 26% [?]

It was a bad week.  I only managed one yoga session.  Unfortunately, my plans to do more were thwarted by a combination of a busy schedule and a demanding son.  On the up side, my little personal instructor has been whipping my behind into action by forcing me to carry him as I pace up and down the room to help him fall asleep.  The single yoga session I managed to get in was also a pretty good one - it left me sweating and aching by the time I was done (even though I didn’t complete the full workout available on the DVD).  I was also aching for the next couple of days after that.

The DVD in question is one from the series of the 10 Minute Solution on Yoga.  Although it only runs for 55 minutes - a tad on the short side for my liking - I was keen to get it because I’d been looking for a Yoga version of Denise Austin’s Hit the Spot Pilates ever since I tried it.  I like the convenient 10 minute slots because the bite size portions ensures I’ll be able to find some time in my day to do some exercise, even if I can’t get through the whole DVD in one sitting.

They also break up the full workout into sessions targetting specific parts of the body so you can choose to workout first on your problem areas and skip the parts you’re not interested in.  The sessions on the DVD are:

1. Yoga Basics
2. Yoga for Thighs and Buns
3. Yoga for Abs
4. Yoga Burn
5. Yoga for Flexibility and Relaxation

The only criticism I have about it is that you can’t program a workout the way you can with Denise Austin’s Hit the Spot Pilates - or rather you can, but you have to include all the components of the workout.  For instance, you can’t just program to run through Yoga Abs and Yoga Burn only.

Since my experience with Yoga is quite limited, I am probably not the best person to judge whether the standard of Yoga on this DVD was expert, intermediate or beginner. But if you have to ask for my opinion, I think it tends towards intermediate, because I’m sure there was nothing beginner about this workout!  Even the intermediate Total Flow Yoga workout didn’t feel as tough as this.  Either that or I am seriously unfit.

I tried to run through the whole DVD, but by the time I started Yoga for Abs, my arms were trembling so much, it was all I could do to manage a simple plank position and not allow my arms to collapse under me as I moved into a low plank.  I ended up skipping Yoga Burn and going straight to the Flexibility and Relaxation component which was very restorative.

10 Minute Solution Yoga may only run for 55 minutes, but it is a pretty intense 55 minutes which I think is completely worth it for RM19.90.

Another new week begins and let’s hope I can complete more planned workouts this week.

Popularity: 32% [?]

There are several ways to go about this but I’ll share with you the two methods I used to get stronger.  I’ve heard of people talking about campus boards, hanging on their fingers for as long as they can and whatnot, but puh-lease!  If you can’t even do a chin-up, you can forget about these methods.  So I say, forget about these methods (at least until you can at least campus - where you can climb using your hands only, no feet - with jugs) and try something that really works. 

What can you do for strength training to improve your climbing if you aren’t that strong to begin with?

1. Climb overhangs (you don’t have to go for anything extreme, even a mildly overhanging incline will do)

2. Boulder

If you do any amount of climbing on a regular basis, you are bound to get stronger whether you want to or not.  However, if you specifically want to get stronger, you should consider tackling an overhanging route as a project on a regular basis.  My most notable strength increases came about after the Rockrats started climbing at a place called “Comic Wall“.  We spent a good few months climbing there every weekend and by the time I walked out of that place, I could climb everything 6B and below (except for one 6B which I seriously think is sandbagged).

Anyway, this shot gives you a good impression of the overhang. 

When I first started climbing, I hated bouldering.  I avoided it like the plague because I was extremely weak at it.  That and the fact that I couldn’t climb without a rope because I was afraid of falling.  Even when I got better, I could never tackle bouldering routes that went up too high on the wall because I didn’t trust myself to fall onto the mats below. 

I also found bouldering rather tedious because I wasn’t strong enough to complete the problems given to me.  At least when I climbed, I had the benefit of feeling some sort of success from reaching the anchor.  I wasn’t quite sure what mental benefit was derived from bouldering.  And since I wasn’t all that strong, most of my boulder problems involved large holds, like jugs.  If you climb a lot, you’ll realise that using juggy holds too often is a great way to develop callouses, but in the interim, you’ll have to endure the pain that comes with it.

Anyway, there was an additional benefit from working the overhanging routes first.  By the time we were done climbing at Comic Wall, I could finally boulder with some degree of success.  Being able to boulder was encouraging and it made me feel more inclined to boulder again and that helped me to further develop my upper body strength.

Next Tip - the importance of a training regimen

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Okay, so I seemed to have gone on a rampage buying workout DVDs of late…  Seeing as I don’t get a chance to go to the gym and my attendance to Fitfor2 has been nonexistant, despite my commitment to purchasing a 12 pass visit, I figure this has to be the next best thing I can do for myself.  Since buying this DVD for RM19.90, I’ve used it a total of three times, which makes it better value than my classes at Fitfor2 already.

Although I was originally looking for Denise Austin’s Yoga DVD, I couldn’t resist getting Kathy Smith’s Yoga Sculpt because it contained 160minutes of workout time - that’s like getting two DVDs for the price of one!  The only bit I felt a little cheated by was the “sculpt” part.  The title made it sound like I was getting a yoga sculpt DVD.  In reality it contained two yoga sessions and one lower body sculpt session which I couldn’t do anyway because my problematic right knee has gotten worse.  I can’t do repetitive squats, let alone bounce from side to side without feeling pain.  Looks like this DVD is only good for 130minutes of workout after all.

The first yoga workout, last 55minutes, is for beginners and the second, lasting 60minutes, is for intermediate to advanced.  Naturally, I started with the beginner’s session which I felt was already rather challenging.  If I thought it was tough working on it in two parts, it was all I could managed to finish the whole workout in one go.  If judging by how I felt after the workout is anything to go by then this DVD was definitely worth every bit of the RM20 I paid for it.

After completing the workout, I felt sufficiently revitalised to tackle my overactive son again.  I also derived another benefit from the workout - my tennis elbow was gone after one session of this workout!

They say that home workout DVDs are a waste of money because you never stick to the routine.  Well, this is only my first month into it so it is still early days yet, but I think the real key to keeping it up is variety.  If you want to stay interested to work out at home, you need to have a collection of workout DVDs that you can choose from.  If we all had to do the same workout over and over again, who wouldn’t be bored and unmotivated?

I now have a collection of:

• 2 Pilates DVDs
• 3 Yoga VCDs
• 2 Yoga DVDs
• 1 Workout and Relaxation DVD
• 1 Body Toner VCD

Which is plenty to keep me going for a while.  After all, if you think about, isn’t that what attending classes at a gym is like?  If you’ve been attending for long enough, you’ll find that the classes are pretty much repeated variations of a theme - not really so unlike changing the routines from a selection of these recorded workouts.

This is the first of Kathy Smith’s workouts I’ve tried, and while I like the yoga part, I’m not too sure about the sculpt.  If you want something challenging, I recommend it, but if you’re injury prone, then I’d just stick to the yoga.  Although I had never heard of Kathy Smith until I saw her DVDs in Speedy, if her other DVDs are anything like this one, then I reckon she’s a pretty good instructor to follow as well.

Popularity: 32% [?]

My son is demanding to be carried more and more these days by me and only me.  Not only that, but he also insists on being rocked to sleep while I’m on my feet, pacing up and down the room.  Sometimes it can take me anywhere between half an hour to an hour just to get him to knock off.  Now if that isn’t a workout in itself, I really don’t know what is!

As a result, I now not only have a tennis elbow, but I have an ache in left foot that doesn’t seem to go away.  I suspect the footache has to do with carrying 11kgs and walking around in circles in a confined space.  I’ve been contemplating getting a pair of shoes just for my “indoor” walks.  I’m also beginning to understand why the hubby used to complain of pains in his foot whenever we overdid the shopping.  Carrying Gavin around, is like adding an extra 11kgs to my current weight, which would push my BMI into the overweight range.

I bought a new Yoga DVD called “Yoga Sculpt” by Kathy Smith - yes, yes, I know I shouldn’t have, but it was such a bargain!  I was actually looking for Denise Austin’s Yoga series but since my faithful ol’ Speedy didn’t have it (though I was pretty sure I saw it at the 1Utama branch), I was going to leave the shop without buying anything until I saw Kathy Smith’s DVD claiming “Three complete workouts on one DVD”.  Flipping the cover over to the back, I noted that the run time was 160minutes!  That’s like buying two and a half workout DVDs for the price of one since most workout DVDs are only an hour long.  And I thought I was getting a good deal when I bought Yoga Zone’s Yogalates with 80 minutes running time!

They say you become more like your parents as you advance in age.  Indeed that whole paragraph above sounded like it would have come out nicely from my mother’s mouth.  Always good for a bargain, she could never resist buying something for less even if she didn’t really need that something.  I would like to think myself as an improved version since I do use these DVDs.

Anyway, I tried out the beginner’s Yoga session and found that it really helped my back, which has been aching over the last few days after carrying my son a little awkwardly.  Looks like the Yoga is good for more than just fitness and weightloss after all.  It’s also great having a selection of workout DVDs and VCDs to choose from because it can get a tad boring doing the same workout over and over again.  And if I think about it, going to classes at a gym is sort of like repeating a series of workouts over and over again.  I mean, if you’ve attended enough body pump classes, after a while, they all start to feel like you’re repeating the same classes, don’t they?

My current collection consists of:

• 3 Yoga VCDs
• 1 Yoga DVD (plus a lower body sculpt session)
• 1 Yogalates DVD
• 1 Pilates DVD
• 1 Training VCD (which is actually my SIL’s which I’m borrowing in the interim)

I’m quite tempted to get a Pilates DVD that uses the ball and stretchbands, but so far, I haven’t seen one yet.

This week isn’t over yet, but here’s what I managed to get through so far:

Tuesday - Beginner Yoga by Kathy Smith (28minutes)
Wednesday - Beginner Yoga by Kathy Smith (26minutes), Lower body sculpt (10minutes)
Friday - Pilates Challenge, Abs & Waist, Buns (32minutes)

Well, I would have done a longer session but I got interrupted by Gavin.  Then again, if you count my sessions carrying Gavin around the malls and rocking him back and forth, I would say that I’ve done more than my minimum of 30minutes three times a week…

Popularity: 30% [?]

Got a project route?  If not, go look for one now.  What’s a project route?  It is basically a route you are trying to red-point.  It is usually a grade or two above the grade you are comfortably climbing.  For instance, if you are comfortably climbing grade 6A, you should work on a challenging 6B or 6C route.  The route should be sufficiently challenging but not physically out of your reach.  That is, you want something with a crux that you can’t complete, although you know that with a bit of work you could eventually nail it.  A route that you can get to the anchor, albeit you have to hangdog, is not a suitable project route - it is too easy.

What does a project route do for you?  It helps you to refine your climbing skills and work on an area that you are weak at.  In a weightloss program, it would be like focussing on a particular area of your body, like your abs, or your thighs.  With your project route, it may be a particular crimp, or sloper, or pinch that you just can’t hold, or it could be a short series of moves that is beyond your current physical ability.  Given enough time, you should be able to work through it and red-point the route. 

If you have been working on it solidly for a couple of weeks and you clearly aren’t making any progress, drop the project and look for another.  It may be that the route you have chosen is way too difficult for your current climbing abilities.  You can always return to this project again at a later date after you have clocked up more climbing hours. 

The great thing about a project route like this is that it helps you “see” your improvements.  When you are climbing every week, sometimes it can feel as if you aren’t making any progress at all.  It may feel that your climbing has hit status quo and you don’t seem to be able to improve no matter what you do.  Fear not, it is just temporary.  Many climbers I have spoken to have experienced this at some point where they have been training but nothing they do seems to make them climb any better.  They hit a plateau phase that seems to last forever until one day, they suddenly make a leap and start climbing beyond their perceived abilities. 

When you feel that this has happened to you, go back to that project route you had to put on the shelf and try it again.  You will be surprised how much easier it suddenly seems.  It was quite similar for me when I first attempted two 7A routes - “Pear” and “Stupid With Manners”.  When I went back after several months of additional climbing under my belt, it was suddenly possible for me to work both cruxes.  Likewise, with “Chess”, the first time I ever climbed it was on top-rope.  I remember thinking how impossible the route was and I honestly never thought I would ever be able to complete the crux, but I eventually red-pointed it, too.

Project routes like these can bring an enormous satisfaction when you are finally able to climb them.  Never rule out anything as impossible.  Just give it a go and see how you go, but know when to quit and call it a day.

Below: The only picture I have of me on Stupid with Manners and it had to be on top-rope…

Popularity: 27% [?]

I did better this week.  I managed to try the new Denise Austin DVD I bought - “Hit the Spot Pilates“.  Given Gavin’s short attention span these days, I suppose it was quite a feat that I managed to try out all the modules, except for the total body workout. 

Monday - core, abs and waist (15minutes)
Tuesday - Abs and waist, hips, thighs (25 minutes)
Friday - Power abs, and buns (20 minutes), plus Yogalates workout 3 (15 minutes)

Denise Austin’s idea of Pilates is a lot tougher than any Pilates exercise session I have ever endured.  It was also a lot tougher than the Yogalates DVD.  Let’s just say that compared to the Yogalates DVD, Pilates with Denise Austin is like sprinting a hundred meters, and Yogalates was like a leisurely stroll in a park.  I reckon 10 minutes of Pilates with Denise Austin was probably equivalent to the entire Yogalates workout.

I’ve always had this idea that Pilates was supposed to be calm and relaxed form of exercise - or perhaps I thought wrong?  Maybe I’ve just been doing beginner Pilates for so long, I haven’t had a taste for the advanced stuff?  If Yogalates can get you leaner in three months, then I reckon Pilates with Denise Austin will get you there in a month.

What I like about this DVD is that the workouts are customisable.  You can either choose to do each module on its own, or you can customise your workout by selecting a few modules to do based on which parts of the body you want to target.  The DVD is divided into seven exercise modules:

1. Core
2. Abs and Waist
3. Power Abs
4. Hips
5. Thighs
6. Buns
7. Pilates Challenge

For instance, if I were only interested to shape my abs and buns, I could select workout 2, 3, and 6 and the DVD would then play those three modules for me in sequence.  Each module lasts for about 10 minutes (although I haven’t tried the Pilates Challenge yet, so I don’t know how long it lasts for).  If 10 minutes seems a bit short, well, believe me, once you get started, you’ll think it’s plenty long enough.

Costing only RM19.95, this DVD’s pretty worth it.  For that price, I’d only be able to attend two classes at Fitfor2.  I’m pretty tempted to go back to Speedy and look for more titles under Denise Austin.

Popularity: 29% [?]