Thanks both. I have had former colleagues not recognise me.

The only downside is feeling the cold a hell of a lot more. I thought that was purely physical, due to insulation. I just read Layne Norton's book, which proposes a biochemical reason. Being overweight increases uncoupling proteins, which makes the ATP cycle in mitochondria less efficient. (There is hydrogen ion leakage.) This lower efficiency manifests itself as heat.

Tldr: fat makes heat.

Thursday
I got an hour's climb in.

Friday
.
I went diving in a puddle to test my kit after lockdown.

It was muddy, and cold. It was expensive - I flooded my torch battery. But it was still bloody brilliant to get back in the water.


I then went for a walk, getting just under 30,000 steps in.

Saturday

Leg day!
I did 5 sets of 10 pull-ups and 3 sets of 30 push-ups as warm up.

I worked up to 3 sets of 5, 80 kgs, for squat; and 3 sets of 5, 100 kgs, deadlift.
I was shattered - this felt hard. (There was a power cut last night. I forgot to turn off notifications bedroom light, which came back on at 4 a.m., and I struggled to get back to sleep.)

A replacement battery pack is really expensive, do I treated myself to a new torch.

Great work on the weight loss!

LOL

Thanks Rich.

Sunday
I went round my little brother's for a climb on his garden wall.

It was good - I was in reasonable form. I felt terrible right up to when I started. (I was tired; my fingers hurt; I felt sluggish etc.)

Then I started, and I felt good. It all fell into place.

We did a short (maybe 5 mile?) walk afterwards.

Monday
It was a Bank Holiday in England, so I had the chance to get another cheeky dive in.

It was cold. Visibility varied from 20 cm to 5 metres. The water temperature was around 8 Centrigrade, the air temperature was lower. It started to snow as we went in. By buoyancy was good; my air consumption was low (12.8 litres per minute Surface Air Consumption.)

I went for a walk afterwards, getting around 30,000 steps in. (I am on the left.)

Thursday
Upper body lifting day. I was massively out of form, everything felt heavy. I did:

• 2 sets of 5 and 1 set of 4, bodyweight dips
• 2 sets of 5, 30 kgs OHP and 2 sets of 3, 35 kgs
• 3 sets of 5, 50 kgs, bench
• Some L-sits, but I didn't hold them very long.
• Some pull-ups off the hangboard 20 mm ledge.

I don't know why it was so hard - my sleep was pretty good. Oh well, today is a new day, and I've started off with a few pull-ups, L-sits, dips and a an hour of yoga. These have already gone way better than yesterday.

Sunday
I climbed on my garden wall. I was way off form - it was a bad session.

Monday
Gyms in the UK reopened. I went climbing.

It was an OK session. It was definitely not brilliant, but I got most of the mid-difficulty level climbs I tried. (These are V2 with Craggy grading, which is reasonably close to outdoors.) I didn't really try any hard ones - I will work my way back.

I had forgotten how terrifying slab can be.

It was just under two hours, which I was pleased with. (I expected my endurance to be very poor.) The booking system got me an hour's slot, but I booked the last one and the staff didn't seem to be in a hurry to shut it.

I did some stuff on Friday and Saturday as well, but exactly what is lost to posterity.

Tuesday

It's amazing just how broken I felt yesterday. It was the impact of gym climbing for the first time in 6 months, and I suspect mainly the result of a couple of falls at the end of the session. (I was at the top of a 3.5 metre wall for both falls, as I'd decided steep overhangs were the ideal way of ending a long session. I got the top the second time, but was too pumped to make it down.)

So all I managed yesterday to do was a 6 mile walk.

I feel fixed today, so I aim to lift some weights; and go climbing again tomorrow.

My logging is weak. I have done stuff every day. Here are the last few:

Friday
Upper body lifts. I sucked donkey's balls my last effort at these. So I stayed light, and they felt easy.
OHP, 3 sets of 7, 30 kgs.
Bench, 3 sets of 8, 50 kgs.
Some l- sits, pull ups and dips, bodyweight.)

Saturday
Lower body lifts.
Squat, 80 kgs, 3 sets of 5.
Deadlift, 3 sets of 7, 110 kgs.
Max rep pull-ups, 19 reps.

Sunday.
I went for a walk. I couldn't decide if to do a 9 mile one, or a 12 mile. So I did both. Fitbit reckons it was 22 miles and 400 "floors" altitude gain - I don't know the translation of that into sane units.

Tuesday
I visited my parents. It's the first time I've seen them since my Dad's cancer diagnosis (and subsequent chemo and remission.) It was good - they seemed well.

It was 8 hours' driving, so I didn't get much exercise in, just 16,000 steps.

Wednesday
I went to the climbing gym. I was terrible - worse than my first session since lock-down ended. It was 90 minutes, and I was still doing harder stuff at the end, so my endurance was at least OK.

I tried to avoid gyms before seeing my folks, due to risks from new Rona variants. Now I'm unlikely to see them for at least another month, I may start to go a bit more frequently again.

Friday
I went climbing for 90 minutes. I was not bad - definitely better than the previous session. I was still not good, but given the amount of lockdown time off, it was OK.

My heart rate is higher for gym sessions than on my home wall, for some reason. Fitbit reckons it averaged 110 over the session.

Saturday
I went climbing, on my home woody. It was fun. I was OK, but not outstanding.

It was my third climbing out of 4 days, so I am getting back towards my old amount of sessions for it.

I did a 10 mile walk afterwards.

Sunday
I was too tired to climb, so I decided to do one of my my rare jogs. I think it is the third one in the last 3 years or so

I did 5k in almost exactly 30 minutes. So I am dead slow, but given I've never really ran before, I was happy with that as a starting pace. My average heart rate was 150, so I'm clearly not yet well adapted to running.

I'm pretty certain it's my furthest run ever.

On my climb and walk yesterday, my little brother came round. On the walk, we overtook 3 youngsters. One of them was a big unit. As we went past him, his friends shouted:
"Look at the old people overtaking you! You are too big - have a doughnut. Fat lives matter!"

I am unconvinced that this is the optimal strategy from them to persuade him to lse weight.

Always jealous of the amount of walking you do, makes me want to move somewhere more scenic.

I did the exact thing with gyms. It was more about seeing my family than protecting myself. Now with everyone vaxxed I feel better about doing both.

It is very nice to get back to climbing. I am worse than before, but not much - the home wall has helped a bit.

Wednesday
I drove 7 hours in total to get to the coast, and got a long, shallow shore dive in. My drysuit leaked, so it was on the nippy side. Water temperature was 10C; Vis was over 5 metres. It was an hour dive at around 5 metres deep. My Surface Air Consumption Rate was 11.7, which is good given how cold I was. Entry and exit required a walk up a hill, and with kit on was definitely good cardio.

The photo is me.

Friday
I got a climb in at a gym. It was good, I was in reasonable form - about the same as pre-lockdown. I was maybe a bit worse, but I got a few v4s, which was pretty much my max grade before.

I also managed a few walks over the day, so I got over 25,000 steps. Not bad for a workday.

Sunday
I did an hour of yoga.

I then went climbing. I was terrible for the first 45 minutes. I was falling off v2s.

Then I accidentally sent a v4, which had been a minor project. I got a few more v4s, and it turned into a not bad session. I lasted 2 hours, and then needed to leave as Sunday train service is terrible.

Monday
I felt terrible - I think I ate something that disagreed with me. I still managed a reasonable length walk - I've got over 10,000 steps every day since 3 days after my heart surgery.

Tuesday
I worked bonkers hours, which was a bit annoying. So I did some slow sprints in the evening.

Wednesday
Climbing! This followed the same pattern as Sunday. I was terrible for a while, then eventually I started to send stuff. I got a balance-y V3 on slab I'd failed on the previous day, for example. It took me 8 goes this time - the trick was to move very slowly to the final hold. It was a terrifying move, so I tried doing it too quickly on the fails.

I've lost some weight. I peaked at 146 pounds in January, I'm now back down to 141. I may increase my daily calories if the fall persists (I'm on 2,400, I would go up to 2,600.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/COifsZDD...d=xfowexua0hf4

Very relevant post based on your question in my log. Thought provoking ideas like this show just how much room there is for smarter training as it relates specifically to climbing.

Now I will say if your primary reasons for doing pull ups are back size and musculature then his thoughts are not applicable as you’re missing out on a large component of the overall range of motion for the lats. But if you struggle with elbow issues or are looking to improve your pulling strength specifically for bouldering then it’s something to chew on for sure.

Either way my biggest advice for pull ups is to find a variation that does not hurt your joints/elbows/etc.. and progressively overload the movement either via intensity (added weight) or volume (number of sets/reducing reps to failure) based on if your goal is primary strength or hypertrophy.

As a climber with some tennis elbow issue I can say for sure pullups can irritate my elbows. But with 3 days per week of climbing, I haven't lost any pull-up strength in spite of doing zero upper body pulling strength work. I also agree that pull-ups strength isn't likely to be a limiting factor in climbing performance for most people.

I am just starting a strength training plan that adds in some 120 and 90 pull-up position isometric holds. I have never done these before so it will be an interesting experiment.

Thanks both - interesting stuff. My reason for doing pull-ups is rather prosaic - I like to try to move at least once an hour, to minimise the damage of a sedentary job. Now I work from home, I have a pull-up bar outside my study, so I do some (typically 1 set of 10, unweighted) as part of my moving around.

Unweighted pull-ups don't aggravate my elbows, but chin-ups can, so those are what I tend to use.

Pull-up strength is definitely not a limiting factor in my climbing, so they may well be a bit duff from a risk/reward perspective.

Friday
I got 23,000 steps in, which is not bad for a word day. I also played with kettlebells, doing:

• 3 sets of 5, goblet squat, 32 kgs
• 1 set of 5 (both left and right), Turkish get-up, 16 kgs.
• 10 sets of 10 swings, 24 kgs.

I am off for a climb later today.

Saturday
A 90 minute climb. I was unexpectedly on very good form, and I sent stacks of long term projects I had struggled with before.

Monday
Just under 1 hour of yoga (I faffed about making coffee in the preliminary bit), followed by a 2k run. I was on a walk, but I got bored and sped up. I was slow - 12 minutes for 2.17 km, according to Fitbit, which is line with my 5k pace.

Tuesday
2 hours bouldering. This was pretty good - I got one harder project, and got really close on another. I fall on the final move, where with my beta you have poor feet, and are in a Gaston with a long way to go to the final hold. It's entirely possible my beta is duff, but I'm on what look like the only holds remotely near the finish at that point.

Nice Job!

Thanks!

Wednesday
5k run in just under 30 minutes. I am clearly slow, but I quite enjoy running.

Thursday
An hour of yoga, followed by a rest day. (I managed 15,000 steps so wasn't completely sedentary.)

Friday
90 minutes bouldering in an average session. I got one new route graded v4, although I suspect it's actually v2-ish. It is very long, out of a cave, with a deadpoint for the crux. But it is jugs the whole way.

Saturday
Hangboarding. My first session in a while, I was weak.

Sunday
Squats, 3 sets of 5, 80kgs
Deadlift, 3 sets if 5, 100kgs.
12 mile walk in pouring rain.

Weight: 142 pounds.

Monday

Climbing!

It was possibly my best ever session - I went on a sending spree. I normally do slab for bits of the session to lower the pump; I did way more caves and overhangs than usual. (I prefer overhangs.)

The downside was that I did get pumped more quickly than the usual, so only lasted 75 minutes.

I got 3 Craggy v3s - my previous best was 2. It has significantly tougher grading than the other London gyms. I am close on a few projects as well.

Tuesday
I had a hospital appointment, and I don't like the Tube, so I did a lot walking to get back from it. (I also needed to do some running to get my train on the way there.)

The good news is that flesh has grown over the device covering the hole in my heart, so I now have full scuba sign off! My bend was in 2017, do it's taken me a while to sort out.

I hangboarded when I got home, and then did a quick bench session. I was reasonably strong at the hangboarding, getting over 10 seconds on the 15 mm.For bench I got 3 sets of 8, 50 kgs.

I ended the day on over 20,000 steps.

Congrats on being able to dive again! Do you live in London?