Some new beta on the 7:

starting sequence: cut right heel hook on crimp and right foot to volume, then left foot to far left chip while left hand is still on sloper, then left hand to crimp and traverse to the side pulls.

Crux: lean body weight to the right going straighter armed on the left hand side pull, then left foot to chip over the volume, then stand on left foot and static left hand to the top crimp on the left. Not sure if this will work but basically I have to change my foot beta if I ever want to send this. Even if I have to make the left hand move dynamic its pretty clear I need to get a foot on the chip above the volume to make the move and set myself up for the next move.

1/12/19

climbing 2 hours

left shoulder not feeling great. Warmed up thoroughly and climbed through it. Sent a new 5 that starts with no foot and a swing. I skip a hold so the route is only 4 hand moves and 3 foot moves for me. Was really happy with this

Struggled on a couple V4 after this that both have a fat pinch element. One of them is in mini cave too and I'm struggling getting weight on my feet. Tried the sloper problem in the mini cave and struggled with the first move. I want to put this one together before they reset it. The new 7 takes priority though

No tears today which was a mini victory

Beta I am gonna try on the 7:

https://imgur.com/a/xptLqJU

left foot on chip besides the yellow volume, left hand far left side pull, right hand side pull, shift weight right and right foot to chip above the volume, stand on right and big left hand move to crimp, then foot swap and explode to top crimp (no idea if I can do this 2nd move)

Tried one burn on the 7 from the start at the end of the last session but was too inefficient on the traverse and ran out of power right before crux

Another idea: right foot to chip besides volume, left to left of volume, stand on toes and left hand reaches top left crimp, then horrible left foot move to chip on top of volume and then right foot goes way up

11/15

Climbing 2:15

Warmed up thoroughly and shoulder wasn't too bad. Struggled on an overhanging V4.

Started working on the 7 again and sent it in about an hour! Three other climbers were working on it and the girl who sent it confirmed the grade. In the end I used different beta from the other climbers: basically the first beta I came up with was correct. It turned out I needed to let the left foot cut for the main crux move (lockoff left hand with a high right foot, stand on right foot and right hand to top crimp) and just be super strong full crimping with my left hand.

This route taught me something else too. The beta I used for the crux was beta I didn't think I was strong enough for. If I'd thought beforehand I would have to do those moves I may have stopped working on the problem. Gotta stop underestimating myself and just commit



New goal will be to send the V6 sloper/mini-cave project but more so start working hard on V3-4 in the cave and overhanging areas and send the leftover V4 in the rest of the gym as well as 2 V5 I've been working on. Volume and variety is the focus

Nice job. You floated up that thing!

Thanks man! I struggled with most of the moves when I started this project a couple weeks ago and had no idea what I was doing with some of my beta. But by the time I was ready send everything felt easy and relaxed up to the crux.

Can't imagine how much harder V8 is right now.

1/17

PT 45 mins

not happy right now with this but we'll see

1/19

climbing 2:30

Not very strong today. Did a lot of cave work at V2-3 plus 45 degree high wall. This stuff is hard enough for me that I think I should mostly climb these grades for several sessions. Tried overhanging V4 and V5 and was totally hopeless even with a relatively small overhang

Re climbed the last sloper 6. Worked on the last hard slab problem in the set, a crimp 6 with a mantle move and then a hard finishing sequence. Sent the hardest part of the problem but simply could not do the "easy" mantle move. I think a big part was my shoulder but also feeling like my right hand would slip. Tried alternate tall beta which is super hard but might be possible with some more experimenting. Finished by slipping a bunch on V4. Not my best session

Thinking of how much to prioritize the overhanging/cave climbing. On one hand its such a massive weakness it has to start to take priority. However the bulk of the volume must be V2-3 and I don't want to stop repeating my hard boulders or doing a little projecting on 2-3 V5-6 routes in the gym.

Might need to really hash out exactly what to do each day to train more efficiently.

Maybe as much cave/overhang as I can handle the first half of the session and then project one day, and same thing the next session except repeats instead of projects.

Probably better idea: finish off the sloper V6 that starts in the mini cave and otherwise focus almost entirely on the V2-3 cave and overhanging stuff, which I can't do a ton of in a single session anyway due to pump and recovery between climbs. 3 of the last 4 V2's I've done on the cave/heavy overhang have been life or death battles by the finish lol

Then I should still have enough in the tank to switch to working the crimp V6 slab problem and trying to break the one move I'm having trouble with

Ideally would like to push the climbing to every 3 days right now, and eventually 3x every 7-8/days

What’s the end goal with climbing? Mainly enjoyment + ???

If it’s enjoyment and staying active do whatever makes you want to keep combing back. You’ll just have to put up with me saying your V7 slab climbs look like V2 problems.

I want to be a good well rounded climber. I'd enjoy much more being good at all forms of bouldering then just specializing on stuff I'm good at, so its not really a compromise between enjoyment and trying hard. The climbs I enjoy the most working on are the ones that are the hardest for me (but possible at the same time)

I think if you felt the holds on my 7 and tried the crux move you'd probably agree it has to be at least a 6. It's not like the climbing team or employees were downgrading the problem, and unlike me they're also climbing the overhanging/cave problems of the same grade. Several climbers way better than me fell on the problem.

I'd say your recent problems on that board look V1.. then I remember the overhang, lol

My point being I have to keep in mind how big a difference the overhang makes, but I think you’re seriously underestimating how much worse the holds have to be on a flat or slabby climb compared to an overhanging climb of the same grade. Literally every slab climb in my gym V5 and up has at least one 10MM crimp of some form in it, and in my 7 the majority of the holds are like that

I think it is is generally good advice to prioritize weaknesses and do them first thing. If I put it off for the end of the session it never gets done.

A simple way to go about it is just climb 2-3 boulders you suck at for every one you enjoy. This can be spread over sessions or in the same session.

RE: grades. Gym grades in general are pretty lol. The best thing to do if you want to get feel for grades is go to some well established areas outside and try and climb the classic lines. The consensus around these climbs will generally be solid. Even then there is still quite a bit of variance, especially with bouldering.

Good advice, thanks. Everyone including you guys seems to think I should focus mostly on the weaknesses now

I get what you're saying about grades. To me though the gym grades can have some relevance. The head setter at our gym is climbing double digits regularly and there are a lot of people in the gym climbing in the V5-6 range, often flashing. So when most of those people are struggling on a problem you know it's one of the harder ones in the set, regardless of the number you'd put on it.

Part of the reason I trust myself to a degree here is the gym I climbed in my first year or so. The grading was so nightmarish (there were bad crimps on V1 lol), that it set a standard of the hardest climb each level could represent. So if I do a climb and am like "This would be a 6 in dedham" I sure as hell know it would be a 6 anywhere. That being said of my 3 V6 I would say only one of them would be graded as such there, and the 7 I did isn't a climb they could even set, although if they did a couple of the feet would be worse (not that it would have made a difference)

The most important aspect of this is that it's a way to gauge my progress. The crimp and pulling strength it took to do the crux move on my 7 is not something I was close to over a year ago when I first climbed a 5. To me it was equivalent to full crimping a very small hold and pulling with 60% of my bodyweight or more on that hand: a super high intensity move, especially when all my right hand is doing is keeping me close to the wall.

Sure, it sucks though that the same people at my level on my best wall in the gym (which by the way is not the slab wall but the wall to the right of it) are crushing boulders I can't send on the overhang

I'm not totally sure if the issue is deficient grip strength or endurance or just technique at this point. I was sure TXClimber's grip was way stronger than mine the way he powers through climbs in the video he sent (plus he can campus), but then I think I read he had difficulty hanging from a bar one handed and I have no idea what to think. I also struggle epically with fat pinches which makes me think my thumbs are an issue

1/24

BW: 181.5

Went to osteopath doctor. He said that my left shoulder is fine and its actually my left bicep tendon (tendonitis) and my lat. He suggested 10-14 days off total to heal. Which means 6-10 more days of no pull-ups or climbing.

16.5 pounds to go (then we'll see where my BF % is at)

Had some minor difficulties with diet this month but am back on track.

Will go to momentum 2-3x more while healing

When I get back there's gonna be a lot more volume of V2-3 climbing with shorter rests. Especially V2 cave climbs. I'm going to look to cut session length to see if that allows me to up frequency to 3x in the near future

Mainly I’m just ****ing with you regarding the grades because it’s the interwebs and I’m an idiot.

The two board climbs I posted are considered like V1’s by the sandbaggers that use that area. Those guys climb V6-V8 outside regularly. I downgrade just about every climb I send in the gym right now because those guys tend to assess them as soft. For instance there is this crimp problem on the 35 degree overhang wall that one guy said is a solid V4, the gym has it in the V6-V8 range and I cannot link 3 moves together lol.

In the end you’re right, grades are more of a measuring stick for personal progress. That’s why I like the tension board, I can see if problems that are impossible today might be warm up boulders in a couple months.

Haha I figured you were e-dicking around bro

No way those board climbs are V1 with a 20 degree overhang. I don’t exactly trust V8 outdoor guys to know what a 3-5 move V1 looks like anyway. If those were flat wall climbs I could see them being like 1+\2- and V2 respectively

Maybe I’ll look back on that 7 one day and think it was a 5 or 6. Doesn’t really matter. As long as I’m moving forward I’m happy. Sending something in a few sessions when every move is hard at first is very meaningful no matter what.

Any advice for dealing with tendinitis? Oof

1/24

PT 1 hour

squats 1x30

warmup

band row 3x15
kneeling ohp 5lb 3x20 PT wants to make this 3x10 and more weight
shoulder external rotation 5lb 3x10

one arm pulldown 3x10 light
supine arm raises 3x20

Side plank 3x1
med ball taps 3x30

will cable OHP next time + another new exercise

Gotta be super careful. I'm capable of causing tightness or pain on basic movements unless I do them perfectly.

If I can't do pushups in the future for some reason maybe dumbbell benching could be ok.

Wonder if stopping the squats will result in more leg muscle loss. Then again if I can't do an easy 30 squats I'm a pretty big pussy. Still, not sure. Meh not convinced I need to lose extra leg mass anyway. No reason with my current LBM I can't down to 165 or even low 160's if I pushed the BF%

My tendinitis improved as I upped the volume on easy climbs.

Think it helped me by climbing with less bent arms more often and just getting in more work. I also completely removed all direct arm work in the gym.

+1. This is definitely the way to think about it.

I have unfortunately had medial tendinitis in both elbows and both lateral+medial in my left elbow. It's a *****. I highly recommend you do not let it progress. It can stay with you a while. I have never really been able to train pull-ups or rows as a result.

My elbows haven't really bothered me in around a year now, but I have to be careful. If I hold a lock-off for too long with my left arm I can easily fire it up. Morale of the story: Stay on top of it.

This is the best thing I've read on tendinitis (This guy is also a great resource for bodyweight training):

http://stevenlow.org/overcoming-tendonitis/

Too much volume and intensity is how I developed tendinitis in the first place. If I could go back in time, I would have climbed shorter sessions and built in a few more easy days. Also, I would have started focusing on scapular strength and stability right from the onset of beginning to climb.

Subscribed.
We climb (or have climbed) in some of the same gyms.
Nice send on the V6 in CRG RI.

You visit RCF often?
I'm halfway between CRG CT and RCF, venture to Boston for work once a month.
Really hyped on your videos and log.

Really hope this works for me. If I could improve these issues with an increase in low intensity climbing volume that would be doubly good

Thanks for the link. I'm gonna avoid pull-ups for a while now, and rest however long it takes to heal this fully

How much shorter would you make your sessions?

All of my PT work right now focuses on shoulders and upper back/scapula. I'm on the fence right now about doing a very light pulldown type movement verses totally resting the left arm/back. I guess as long as its not symptomatic it should be ok

Cool! Thank you, that send meant a lot.

I usually go 1-2x/month to climb with my friend/person who taught me to climb. Right now I'm on a break for various reasons but should make it back in the next 1-2 months. It's an awesome gym, probably the best I've been in. Some of the grades are slightly softer but the quality of climbing is great .

How is CRG CT anyway?

I would have cut myself off a bit sooner on my high intensity days and been a bit more thoughtful about my overall volume. I definitely climbed more volume than I could recover from my first several years of climbing.

The downside of this is I had trouble with tendinitis for awhile which likely interfered with finger strength development due to inadequate recovery between sessions. The upside is I got in a lot of mileage/practice and probably have decent strength endurance and capacity as a result.

So who knows? Hard to say if it was a net negative or not. Had I climbed shorter sessions and focused more on finger strength I might be saying I would have been better off to just climb and practice more. My self-assessment may be off as well. After the season is over I am going to get to do the assessment with Lattice and see how I stack up vs their database.

I guess by “focusing more on finger strength” you mean hangboarding?

Also what would qualify as a shorter session? And how much volume/week do you think would have been reasonable ?

If I’m doing hard bouldering I have a lot of trouble pushing past 6 hours/week

Thanks man.

Focusing more on finger strength would generally been less volume, more intensity and less density with my hard bouldering sessions. To make strength gains you need to operate at a high % of your max which requires being fairly fresh. I've likely just shown up tired too often for optimal strength gains. At least that's my current hypothesis....(If you have mileage or lower endurance worked planned it's ok to be a little tired going into the session.)

I'd routinely climb for 3-4 hours a session until recently. My highest intensity days I've been trying to cut shorter recently. 1.5-2hrs max.

How much volume a week depends on the intensity level associated with it. If all I was doing was very hard to project bouldering 3x a week would be fine I think. Could add a 4th day if it was kept really easy, like low level aerobic mileage.

I do think that newer climbers need quite a bit of volume. Getting a ton of reps in a variety of different styles is really crucial for building good movement skills. For the first several years I'd focus on doing lots of boulders I could complete in 1-3 sessions max. You can mix up the days and have project days, pyramid days, easy mileage (routes are very good for this).

The highest intensity project days I think I'd try and leave the gym feeling pretty good. Don't get trashed. This is where I have messed up in the past I think. I'd climb for way too long on my hardest days and dig a hole. Inadequate recovery would eventually lead to the elbows flaring up, shoulder getting grumpy etc.