Awesome climb! One of those heel hooks looks precarious. Very nice, looks like a tough 4

Great stuff, thanks. I'd love to get in 4 climbing sessions a week but I seriously doubt if I'll ever go beyond 3 at this point in my life

What level of boulders are you doing when you do triples or linked?

I'm trying to incorporate easy days now, seems important for sure

The PCC podcast is great. I highly recommend it. The board meeting episodes are A+.

HP 40 is notorious for being sandbagged. I also made that climb harder than it should have been. I have heard HP 40 was graded based on optimal conditions and perfect knowledge of the beta, whatever that means.

I love the place though. I think it is the best boulder field in the Southeast. It is a bit small, but it seems like everything in there is just an amazing line.

I've listened to about half the PCC episodes, good stuff. I've also listened to the Ledge which seems to no longer be on iTunes, and every episode of Horst's podcast and Training Beta. Training Beta is great because they have interviews with a large number of the best climbers ever, but there are also a lot of less informative episodes. I would say I've learned the most from Horst's but gotten the most enjoyment out of Training Beta and the Ledge for interviews with Puccio, Ondra 3x, Nalle and Daniel Woods, so many amazing female climbers too. I enjoy the interviews with the women the most- maybe that's because there are so many amazingly cool girls in competitive climbing. The PCC world cup roundups are always a lot of fun too, wish they didn't stop doing them.

My fourth day has to be REALLY easy or I just get worked. I'll typically do a couple 15 min blocks of very easy on the minute boulders or 3-4 sets of 10 minutes of continuous climbing. Intensity level is like a 3-4 out of 10. I am hoping that as I build up my aerobic system I can eventually increase the intensity or volume of this session.

On the linked boulders and triples I try to fail on the last rep of each set. It doesn't always work out that way though. It can be hard to find problems that hit the sweet spot. I usually have to sub holds in or out to try and get the number of moves or intensity right. If I compete all the sets and reps w/o falling then it was too easy. If I can't make it through half of the workout then it is too hard.

I have no clue what it works out to in V grades. My gym uses a system that has 4 different colors of climbs that are graded beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert. I usually end up doing these on some variation of a beginner climb.

10/11 - 157p/303c/70f = 2,382 calories

Woke up at 148.6 today lol, probably due to all the volume and the fact that I’ve been eating like 1500 calories after 8pm each night. I’ll tale it, it’s bound to drop a good amount with travel coming up.

Climbing gym - 3 hours - “limit” bouldering

Climbed above limit today, but I did send one V5 (maybe V5+) project first go. Had failed the last move a handful of times before.

The I worked a climb in the V6-V8 range that’s soft but couldn’t match this one crimp, should go eventually though.

From there worked on a rock solid V6 full of crimps. I can do the first 7 moves but then the crux hits. I’ve dialed the first moves so I have tons of energy left when I get there but no matter the foot position I try I cannot figure it out. I will only get one more shot at it before I leave and it’s taken down. So it’s Saturday or bust.

Overall good session. Didn’t hangboard just gonna pick that back up post trip and with my fingers and skin in a little better shape.

Health update. Went to gastro today for first time in ~18 months for a general check up on the colitis. I don’t like going to her because she always wants to do a colonoscopy on me no matter what. Today was no different. She said my labs from my rheumatologist showed I was anemic and had elevated sed rates. She noted it could just be malabsorption and weight loss on the anemia but couldn’t explain the elevated inflammation while I’m not showing any symptoms.

I don’t want to do the procedure, seems grossly unnecessary as I haven’t had any gut issues in 4+ years and will cost me $2k out of pocket. She ran a bunch of bloodwork so I’ll know more next week.

10/12 - 184p/341c/68f = 2,716 calories

Upper Day C

Bench 5x8x140
Lat Pulldowns 3x9
Bench 9,9,9,8,7x125
TBar rows 3x9x85
Seated DB Press 8,6,5x45s
Rear delt cable flys 5x16
Upright rows 5x10

End of mesocycle work outness is real, completely wiped out from last nights limit session but happy to get mainly through this one. One more day left!

Costs less if you do it without anesthesia.

This is probably a silly question...How much of a factor do you think this has been in your struggle to put on lbs?

Having a friend use a go pro makes it practically free!

Idk as soon as I got my daily calories averaging over 3,000 the weight went up. But it’s potentially why I’ve felt run down, although that’s likely due to lifting 5x and climbing 3-4x a week as an OLD.

Figure out the calories later, hopefully getting to fly out tonight across the pond for a 5 day work trip but weather sucks.

Climbing gym - 2.5 hours

Had four problems in mind entering the gym and sent 2/4. One in the V6-V8 grade although it’s absolutely on the softer side but I’ll call it V6-. Other was a rock solid V5 maybe V5+.

Good day in the gym, made progress on my V7 project but it’ll likely be gone by the time I get back.

Leg Day A

HBBS 4x9x165
Smith Machine Calf raises 5x15
Kneeling cable crunch 5x12
Cable rope pull through 5x12
BB lunges 6x18x50

That does it for volume mesocycle #2. Had one more workout scheduled for tomorrow but work trip won’t allow it. Since this was supposed to be deload week I’ll see if I can’t get a couple light lifts in before I return.

One more mesocycle hopefully get the weight to 150 and then slight mini cut between holidays before running 2-3 more cycles early in 2019. Weight should be in the mid 150’s at that point.

10/13 - 3,182 calories

10/14 - 2,184 calories

Made it to London! Managed to squeeze in a hotel gym upper workout too.

Cable row 4x10
Incline DB bench 3x10x20 weird Euro units
Last pulldowns 4x10
Seated DB press 3x10x16 weird Euro units
Scare crows 4 sets
Face pulls 4 sets
Rope pulldowns 4 sets

They had a universal gym with pull ups but I literally put my head through the ceiling tile on my first rep and said **** it. Lol hotel gyms. Didn’t sleep on my flight so just stayed up as late as I could and got 11 hours last night and woke up at 7am today. Hopefully that’s that for the time change jet lag stuff.

Back from 5+ days in London and slightly recovered. Did a good job of getting in some hotel gym workouts and not getting drunk or excessive with food while still having a good time.

This was a deload week anyways so my new mesocycle should start this upcoming week but I have more work obligations and a comp Friday night. I'll have to play things by ear.

Climbed yesterday and mainly just did a lot of middle grade boulders and tried to project two different V6 problems. Came really close on one, went for the finish and nearly hit two dumbasses who walked right under me. They kept asking if I was ok while I tried to explain to them they would have been the ones that had been hurt lol.

Did legs deload yesterday and upper today. Upped intensity today to starting point for next cycle.

Underhand chins 2x6xBW+35
Bench 2x6x145
T-Bar Rows 2x7x95
Seated DB Press 2x6x50s
Lat Pulldowns 2x8
Rear delt cable flys 2x15
Face pulls 2x12
Seated bent over side raises 2x12

Plan for this cycle is to reduce the # of reps on the main lifts while upping the intensity, falling more towards to bottom end of the hypertrophy range there.

For lower body I'm going to swap my accessory work with unilateral stuff including pistols, split squats and 1-leg DB RDLs.

Weight was 145.5 this morning so basically no change from before I left for my trip.

10/22 - 2,635 calories

Lower Day A
HBBS 2x8x175
Hack squat machine 2x8x90
Cable crunch 2x12
Hanging knee raises 2x12

Messed around with one leg RDLs, split squats and assisted pistols. Learned my balance sucks.

Another deload type workout. I’ll be happy to get in one climb and one more gym session before Friday nights competition. I’ve felt quite run down despite really good sleep, as if I’m on the brink of getting sick. Always very aware of this as my treatment has my WBC quite low at times. Also had to shoot up Humira tonight which could exacerbate it.

Climbing Comp Trip Report

Arrived early in hope of actually getting a real warm up prior to the start of the 3hr climbing window. Unfortunately they had everything but the gym closed off so that sucked.

Plan was for the first 30min to climb a bunch of easy stuff, break a sweat and get the fingers recruited. Managed to do all that and not fall on anything until I got to the advanced level problems.

This comp went much better than the last. Flashed the 5 problems in the V3-V4 set then sent 3 of the 4 V4-V6 set and the 4th would have gone had I not forgotten about it until the last 10min of the comp.

Sent 1 of the 6 V5-V7 grades but 2 others would definitely go fresh. I was just a bit wiped out and couldn’t quite finish off those. Didn’t try the 2 hardest they seemed very technical on small holds.

I’m hoping to go back today to take some videos but they took down some problems for finals and they have a junior comp there this morning so I hope some are still up. The setting at this one was much more my style vs the technical set at the first comp.

Nice work! Would like to see those videos, especially the V5-7 send

Gonna try hope most are still up. Saw a pic from the comp this morning and it looks like most are although they sometimes alter them slightly for the youth teams.

Lower Day A (First workout of new mesocycle ending 11/30)

HBBS
8x165
8x175
8x185

Felt really awkward today, hopefully a blip.

Smith machine calf raises 3x10
Kneeling cable crunch 3x12
Assisted pistol practice 3x3
Cable rope pull throughs 3x12
One leg RDL practice 3x3
BB lunges 3x16x60
TRX knee raises 3x10

Went to the gym but was kinda wiped. Here are a couple videos.

Took a big fall today flat on my back from 15 or so feet up onto a firmer part of the mats. Don’t feel too worse for the wear but definitely the worst fall I’ve taken so far.

Couple fails from tonight, not sure why I can’t match and pull on this sloper but it’s driving me nuts.

Second one was altered today a bit from yesterday. Tough to understand the angle on this wall but the cave is like 55deg and main wall Id call 35-40.

Id call them both V5+/V6-

Turns out if you climb 6 hours at your limit over a 20 hour period your elbows ****ing hate you.

Still, needed to lift today. Actually a nice day, started walking around the neighborhood listing to the Revive Stronger podcast, 90min and 5 miles later I decided that was enough lol.

Upper Day A

Weighted chins
6xBw
6xBW+8kg
6xBW+16kg
6xBW+8kg
6xBW

Tried using kettlebells, seemed a little less awkward than big plates.

Bench
6x125
6x140
6x150

Cut it there should have worked back down though.

TBar Row up to 7x105
Seated DB Press up to 6x50s
Lat Pulldowns 4 sets
Side raises 4 sets
EZ bar curls up to 6x55
Bent over side raises 3 sets

About 9 weeks left in the year so might as well finally create a more specific training program for climbing.

If I had to rank/identify 3 areas that could take me from V5 to V7 in a matter of ~2 months its the following.

1. Half crimp strength
—Last week I was in the training area talking to someone about my inability to half crimp and one of the youth team coaches overheard me and offered some help. He had me hang from the 15mm edge and basically laughed at me, said I was essentially open handed. We had a good conversation about learning the half crimp position and now I feel primed to start a beginner hangboard progression. I’ll be doing 12s on 2min off x3 un-weighted and 7s on 53s off weighted x3 for 2 sets each twice a week. Right now I want to put them on Monday and Thursday.

2. Body position
—I feel like I have good flow and I’ve done a good job implementing back flags into my bag of tricks, but too often I’m making difficult moves even harder by not being able to do them in a static fashion. To work on this I’ll be using the hover drills by Louis Parkinson to force myself into a holdable position before grabbing the next hold.

3. Core strength
—Could go hand in hand with #2. I want to lump shoulder stability in here as well. I need to get better at staying tight on tougher moves and not sagging off the wall as much on overhanging routes. I will incorporate more hanging core training and also more cave climbing.

Any input is appreciated but mainly wanted to jot that down. Also need to video my climbs more as I can pick up on bad habits doing so.

Have you tried doing your pullups with more challenging grip implements like fat grips, fat bar, or grenade pullups? That might have more transference to climbing.

Actually the opposite. My forearms are typically pretty worked as I climb the day before every upper day so I’m constantly trying to find ways to take my grip/elbows out of the movement and focus on contracting my lats. I’ll even admit I’ve tried straps on wide grip chins to see if it helps.

For climbing I’ve reached a standard point where doing tons of volume has nearly maxed me out grip wise. Now I need to hangboard and do specific max limit moves on the circuit wall to get to the next level. Mainly I just need to learn how to half crimp and I think I’ll fly up the grade ladder. Conversation I had last week was eye opening and encouraging. I’m handcuffing myself by not being able to half crimp. Once I do I’ll be able to pull on my smaller edges.

One last random note: morning scale weight has stabilized beteeen 145-146 over last week. Goal for this 5-week mesocycle is to end at 149-150.

Do you have any video examples where you have struggled doing a move statically or your hips are sagging on steeper terrain?