It's weird, since I started doing 2 days on the past 7-10 days or so, my skin has gotten harder and more resistant to long sessions. At the same time its very dry and when I get a bad tear its quite bad and bleeds a lot. I think I'll order the rhino skin right now.

I just watched an Ondra video where he was moisturizing before a climb and talking about the importance of skin having some moisture so it isn't too hard, which apparently disables him from pulling hard on sloper holds (his words). At the same time he chalks up as much as possible constantly while climbing routes, so I don't think he's saying he wants moisture on his hands while he climbs, I think he's just saying he doesn't want his skin to be too hard/dry. In a world cup I watched some of the climbers were actually soaking their hands in water while waiting to climb. Pretty different from what I was originally told when I started, that you want your hands dry/hard as possible

7/24

A little disillusioned with my weight. Was 197 a few days ago, had 2 days of 2000 calories or less + hours of training or walking each day, and was back to 200 today. I guess I'm not smoking now and 2000 is gonna be my max 6/7 days a week, I'll just write this off as a fluke and continue to expect positive progress. It's a little unnerving though, a few years ago in FL i was eating 2k-2500 with minimal exercise and was losing weight so quickly I ended up getting too light and having health problems. Not sure what's going on now.

Climbing 2 hours

Fell on final move of a hard new cave climb. Fell on final move of another easier but lengthy cave climb (V2 or soft V3). Saw my Green project was graded V4 and felt utter disgust, I was sure it was gonna be a hard 5 or a standard 6. Maybe the crimps up top are better and its just one hold that got in my head.

Session improved much after this initial period. Skipped the 1st move I couldn't get on a new 4 which appears to be a dyno but sent it from that point on. This was not an easy 4 for me. Video below

Made it to the top of my yellow V5 crimp problem and fell on the sloper again. Did a few moves on a crimpy V7. Fell on the single big lockoff move on a hard 4 with a kneebar finish I can do every other move on, within an inch of getting my fingers on the jug but it hasn't happened over 15-20 attempts at this point, just not enough power/deep one arm lockoff strength. Fell on the crux move (matching a crimp) of a long pink V5 with an overhanging section that looks like I will send it soon. Fell on another crimp match several times on a new cool green crimp problem that seems V4-5. Flashed a new white crimp climb that seemed like a standard V3. Made several moves on a V6 that uses the arete which looks totally doable for me, might make this a primary project. Broke the beta on a weird comp style V4 problem that's stumped me since I first came to the gym, but still couldn't send it today. Was happy to see a cave climb I struggled on but was making progress with was graded V5, I think I can do this one. Fell on a new yellow sloper problem that seems to be V5-6 but my beta was bad. Finally there is one V3 dyno route in the gym I can't do even if I climb jugs to the slopers and try to finish from there, not sure what's going on with this route but it seems ridiculously hard for a 3.

Made it back to the matching crimps on my V6 sloper problem and managed to get a high foot before my grip broke.

Everything new is ungraded right now, not sure what to expect at this point

This was a low wear and tear session. Left with a small tear and a lot left in the tank. Should be able to train again tomorrow or Thurs, then go hard Sat

my ex climbing partner is vehemently against me climbing 2 days on ever, but I'm pretty sure my fingers can take it and every high level climber in the entire world seems to disagree with him, so I'm gonna keep pushing it...3x/week isn't enough.

Here is how I currently think about multiple days on. I generally never do two days on of hard limit bouldering. Any sort of power training I think you need to limit fatigue going into the workout to get the desired training effect. I guess if both days were really low volume you could do back to back power workouts.

Exceptions to this are when I am trying to send something outside and am constrained by weather or travel. In my experience, the second day on I don't have as much power but maybe conditions are better, beta is better etc and I get a send. Ideally, on back to back outdoor days I'd try something at project level day 1. Day 2 I'd look to do more mileage or something I think I could complete reasonably quickly.

I think stacking endurance work or a strength/power work followed by endurance work is fine. Pre-existing fatigue doesn't seem to detract from endurance work as much as strength or power.

Also, nice hip mobilty in the video. I'm jealous! Have you always had good mobilty or did you work towards it? If so, what was your stretching or mobility routine? I'm trying to improve mine ATM.

Thanks. I would say my hips are my strength. I’ve never done static stretching, but I’ve been doing hip mobility since I started squatting 11 years ago. Most of my stretches have been rocking stretches, primarily abductor rocks. It took me over 2 years to build a deep BW squat and it’s pretty much stuck with me since then. My hips started getting more flexible again shortly after I started climbing last year, especially in the straddle position. I do abductor rocks most days now, and before every climb.

I agree with you WRT power going down after a day, but I don’t seem to be having that issue with crimps. Basically my hard pulling is quite fatiguing and I can’t do it more than 2-3 times a week, but it seems I can do relatively static crimp climbs 4x+ even if my forearms are tight and quickly get pumped

7/26

Climbed 2 hours

Very light easy session. Helped my friend with all the 2’s in the gym and resent a bunch of old 3’s and a couple 4’s. Flashed a new pinch route of unknown grade (guessing V4) and a very weird cave route that felt hard. There are still a few resistant routes in the gym below V5 but I think they will go soon.

Part of the wall was getting reset today. Gonna head in either tomorrow or Sat and check out the new problems. Perhaps tomorrow on, rest Sat, climb again Sunday when I have nothing else to do.

Came very close to hitting my head on a dangerously set route today, in fact my head actually made contact with a hold on another route climbing straight armed, gonna talk to the setters about it tomorrow because I saw someone else right after me have the same problem, really bad mistake for the setters to make

7/27

Climb 30 mins

Thought my skin was ok but I warmed up and my tips were not having it. One of my favorite walls got reset but unfortunately its mostly beginner climbs and V6-9 problems. There's one V5 looking route with beta i cant figure out yet that seems accessible. Flashed a 3 and that was pretty much it for me today, was pretty dissatisfied with losing 2 of my best projects for a bunch of climbs I can't do a single move on. Right shoulder didn't feel great after a couple moves and I called it a day.

Made the push to fully quit marijuana vs. just having some at bed time. Woke up at 3am yesterday but managed to get back to sleep. Apart from that seems to be going well, not really experiencing any cravings at all. Maybe this is the thing that will allow me to become light again. I don't know why I need so much fewer calories than I did 4 years ago (when I was mostly sedentary too), but I guess if I want to meet my goals I'm going to need to accept that and reduce to the 1500-1800 range most days. It's not like I'm even getting hungry eating that amount. Can't help but worry at this point that the medication I'm on is ****ing my metabolism. I'm 6'1 and weigh 200 pounds, you'd think 2k-2500 plus around 8 hours of climbing a week wouldn't have me stalling but I guess that's just the way it goes. After struggling this entire year I have to admit that I just need to try harder. If I'm doomed to maintain this weight I would eventually quit climbing because there's no way I'll ever reach my goals at this BW and the frustration and failure would eventually make me unhappy (like today). I'm not gonna let that happen though. Even if it means eating <2000 on average for the rest of my life I'm willing to do that if thats what it takes to get my body fat under control.

7/29

Climbing 1:15

old coach at Momentum is gone, will try the new one next month. Happy tbh

This session was short lived as some finger pain and shoulder discomfort + pump and grip fading made me cut it short. It was a really good one though

For one, the pink cave pinch/crimp traverse I flashed was graded V5. I remembered this route feeling pretty max effort but was still surprised. I climbed it again and was reminded that the whole route was bad feet and matching on terrible crimps and pinches at awkward angles with a ridiculously hard finish. I was in some weird zone when I climbed this in an "easy" session with my friend watching and no grades listed.. hmm. Regardless I flashed it again, prompting some 40 something year old jackass to immediately come over and announce it looks like a V4, climb it to the final move while losing sequencing twice and then fall without coming slightly close to finishing, then again repeat that it was V4. Was pretty close to trolling the **** out of this guy for saying that after falling/not appearing to even be capable of attempting the last move, but restrained myself and thought happy thoughts..

Flashed a new V4 crimp climb after this that felt like the hardest 4 in the gym and also the hardest all crimp climb I've done at this point, to finish up a pretty sweet session. Made it to the 2nd heel hook in the V6 purple cave climb I've been trying and fell on some other hard stuff

I don't want to start projecting but there are a ton of routes at this gym in the V3-6 range I can work on, will probably do some repeats next time and put in a bunch of quick attempts on several harder boulders. Would like to make it back to warwick or south boston soon so I can try for flashes on new 3's and 4's. 2's seem pretty automatic at this point but can still be challenging if in the cave + fatigued, I'd say they continue to be worth the mileage. It's not like I don't routinely run into 3's that give me trouble

New purple climb I'm gonna put a few attempts in (well hopefully just 1) next session

The working beta seems to be press out on both hands, high right foot match right hand, then right hand up to decent crimp and the rest is pretty easy... guessing this will be a V3 or maybe V4 at the hardest and doesn't seem too strength intensive but who knows

https://imgur.com/a/yhJH0W5

All I know is I need to climb more V4, and way, way more V3

Green on right is sort of cool, saw a super strong dude climb it statically, starts as a double undercling to a traverse then a big pull where you get a very high right foot and rotate on top of it, transition to the big crimps and finish... looks like a 6 or a hard 5 based upon the beta

Heading back to Momentum this week.Think I'll start today, shoulder is a little tweaked from a dumb move I should have avoided yesterday

New climbing gym has 2 different weight training areas, pretty cool. Looks like I can start doing some TRX and injury prevention work there

A little unhappy my current CRG doesn't have more straight forward V3 and 4 to work on. Just lots of routes at my level with hard holds and bad positions. If only any of the gyms I've been to had a Moon board

I think I need to hit up watertown and warwick more often, or start paying for some day trips to rock spot south boston and volume bouldering. My strength is up but conditioning is not good

You can turn V2's into V4's by skipping holds, eliminating feet, not matching, etc...

Moonboard V4's are TOUGH, at least that was my experience a few weeks ago.

Do any of your gyms have system walls/boards, you can set your own problems on them. I've been doing that a lot lately. It's interesting and can help you dial in moves you struggle with.

Yeah one of them does but I only go there a 2-3 times a month unfortunately. The dedham gym has a wall of holds with holes for pegs for people do lockoff work on

7/31

climbing 1.5 hours Rock Spot Dedham

I ran into the problem of the framingham gym not having enough good strength/technique building climbs in the V2-4 range. Some of the 4's would require I project them, half of the 3's are dynos or really weird novel climbs, and there aren't many 2's and most of them are super soft. I think this is a sweet gym for learning and projecting but not as good for climbers in the V2-4 range. Framingham also lacks overhanging walls, apart from two cave areas with a limited selection of boulders in my range

So I went back to Dedham planning on working my crimps at V1-4. This was not a good session for me in terms of sending, probably my worst the entire year. My grip felt weak and holds were slippery. I fell on the first 3 V2 I tried, went back and sent 1 of them and actually gave up on the others since they seemed to be V3 and require some projecting. I found a few more 2's I could climb after this and then fell on almost every single V3 in the gym, some of them due to grip strength but mostly moves being hard and beta tricky or hard to see. I didn't send one route graded above V2 this session. After this I found a V4 with a horrible first 2 moves that I was able to do after several attempts, eventually falling on an easier part of the climb due to a beta mistake. Reviewed the video later and realized I just needed to make a change in foot work and I'd be able to send. I found another V4 crimp climb but fell on a huge crux move to a jug due to feet cutting and not wanting to risk the 1 arm dead hang. Now that I think about it it might be best to just dyno this move

Despite the results this was a satisfying session. I think for only $44/month I'm gonna keep going to this gym, I can usually just go to South Boston but when I can't there are a ton of good routes in the V2-4 range I can power through and make progress with my strength/fitness/technique. Ideally I'd like to wipe out all the 2's in the gym next time I go, at least half of which are actually 3's. The V4 in this gym seem about exactly equal to CRG in terms of difficulty, but way different in character

8/1

climbing 45 mins

felt good today and wanted to rampage but my skin wasn't having it, finger tips totally good but 3 tears from the last 15 mins of yesterday's climb in Dedham seemed resistant to tape sticking on them, after retaping over and over I gave up

Flashed a few 2's and fell on final move of 2 3's, almost flashed a 4 but bailed mix crux when a kid was standing directly under me and didnt respond when I asked him to move, luckily was able to traverse to a beginner route....supervise your ****ing kids jesus christ this was like a 4 year old wtf ru doing in a rock climbing gym on the bouldering floor

Found a pretty sweet 5 I made it halfway through. This one will go. Pic of the route below (blue) minus one small foot chip to the far left. It's a fun one

https://imgur.com/PE9sxlp

my super sweet beta: right foot on chip to far left, left and right hands on starting holds, big leg push and right hand to meathook the big hold, then cut feet, swing right foot to chip on right, left hand big reach to match on the big hold, unwind and right hand to crimp on side of volume, feet switch, left hand crossover again to next crimp, unwind and right hand to next crimp, then.. slip and fall, ups. Looks like the finish is tough too

Been having all sorts of issues w/ kids and new climbers doing super dumb ****. I'm more upset at the workers at my gym than the idiots who don't know any better.

Yeah I certainly don't blame the kids. I blame the parents and employees and to an extent the gym owners for not having a higher min age (unsure if they even have one). 5 year olds basically have no idea whats going on. They should never be on the bouldering floor unsupervised for a single moment

Climb 20 mins

Some work on the campus board. Was surprised I could hang from the spherical slopers (wtf are these called?) with either hand, and also that I was able to make it up and down the campus board on both the crimps and the slopers. Modest feats but I’ll take it. Will have to try bigger moves in the future. I'm a little worried about injuring my fingers since I don't really know how to do these as an open crimp, I just half crimp. I also don't have the finger strength to one arm hang from these crimps let alone pull hard through a move. Watched my friend do a 1-4-6 which seemed ridiculously hard

+1 set 8 pull-ups+30 second lockoff on campus slopers

Actual climb: tweaked my already hurt shoulder during warmup on a V2 when I decided it was in my best interests to do an iron cross move between two volumes. Spent the next 2 hours massaging my shoulder and watching my friends climb. Well played

I am only campusing on the spheres right now, doesn't seem necessary to use the ledges. I can hit the 1-4 but not 1-4-6 that's super tough.

Take it slow and build up, its much more dangerous than hangboarding.

Sucks about the shoulder but what V2 has an iron cross move...

it was ungraded, maybe it was a 3

But there was no need for the move, I was trying to make the climb harder and not taking it seriously and did something dumb essentially

hmm ok maybe I will just stick to the spheres for now too, one of my pulleys still isn't 100% anyway

One of the more seasoned guys can chime in I’ve just assumed the balls/spheres are safer than the ledges. I don’t see how not but if you’re gonna use the ledges you need to be very cautious programming wise at first.

I personally don't campus. I think I am much better off developing power via hard moves on limit boulders than on the campus board. Same general effect on the fingers plus skill development.

I've been going to my current gym for a little over two years. There are a lot of folks in there who climb V10+ and/or 5.13+ and I have never seen them use the campus board for anything other than foot on aerobic intervals when the gym is crowded. I see a lot of them working hard moves on the Moon Board or steep bouldering walls and occasionally campusing some easy (for them) problems.

Will Anglin started a decent thread over at r/climbharder a while back on the subject: https://www.reddit.com/r/climbharder...pus_statement/

If you do decide to campus make sure you are using proper form and taking appropriate rest between sets and sessions. It can be really taxing on the shoulders and fingers.

ok you guys convinced me, I'm going to use the spheres next time since they felt safe and easy and avoid the ledges at all costs. It's not like I've even worked with a hang board before besides messing around

8/6

climb 2:15

I climbed a bunch of V1 and V2 with a friend including two cave climbs and didn't make it to a V3 until an hour in. Fell at the top of this weird crimp problem after maybe 2 minutes on the wall and then tried a long sloper problem. For some reason this climb was so pumpy that I had a pump that wouldn't go away for 45 minutes after. I tried to climb through it and just fell on everything including 2 V2. I think I need to take a 15-20 minute break when this happens, and pace myself better/not climb so many lower level climbs to prevent myself from even getting to that point

Regained use of my forearms almost 2 hours in and put in a few attempts on a couple V4 and called it a day. I did not send any climbs above V2 today. I think I felt heavy and was still maybe a little compromised from Sat's brief climb and campus work + pull-ups and lockoffs, as well as the shoulder not being fully healed yet

8/7

Climb 1:15 Dedham

Shoulder felt fine and skin was passable so I went for it to make up for yesterday's pumpout and shorter session.

My climbing was weak today but I enjoyed the session. I bailed on a shouldery V1 that was clearly V2 and managed to fall on another V1 that was V2 before sending it and falling on some other V2's. I pumped out again after 4-5 boulders and worked 1-2 moves at a time for 20 mins or so until the pump was gone, then went back to some 2's and 3's and managed to send a 2+/3 along with some other 2's and the rest of the 1's in the gym. Most of the 2's at this gym are basically hard 3's and one of them appears to be a 4. I was feeling satisfied at the end of the session, having gotten through the pump and sent some climbs despite falling on so many easier climbs, so went to my V4 problem and didn't have the pulling power to stick the first move but actually hit the crux, only to realize I couldn't make the final move in the position I was in: guess I'll have to switch feet before the crux next time and see if it helps. V1-4 at this gym are no ****ing joke, the 4's seem equal to most at CRG but 1-3 are ridiculously hard and usually clearly a grade higher than indicated

Diet is working, let's see if I can push to 195-96 by this weekend and have a really strong session. 190 isn't so far away. Just gonna take patience

Looks like you are continuing to make progress!

Don't sweat the grades too much. Even outside they are all over the place. Keep on doing what you are doing. Find stuff that is hard and eventually get to where you can do it is the name of the game.

8/9

climbing 2.5 hours

my best session ever.

favorite wall got reset in Framingham. I worked through all the problems flashing 3 V2 and 3 V3 and then started trying 4's.

Fell on the final move of a crazy green V4 using the arete where I didn't feel safe committing. Sent a new orange V4 a ton of people were having trouble with in 3 attempts. Made this one harder than it had to be but I like my upper body heavy beta and pulled it off so **** it. Went to work on my green V4 crimp climb with the huge sideways move and hit it on the 4th attempt and then sent the route, this felt amazing. Went to a V5 sloper climb that works up an arete that didn't seem doable in previous sessions and sent it in 3 attempts. Probably the 2nd softest 5 in the gym besides the one I flashed last week, but still a good starting place to attack some more 5's and 6's

Fell on a V4 crimp climb and V4 pinch climb I had previously sent. Ran out of gas after this and fell on a long pumpy V2 cave climb a few times before calling it a day

BW: 198 (-3lb)

Calories have been between 1600 and 2000 recently and I have continued to succeed at not smoking marijuana. Things are looking up. Shoulder felt good today too. With some rest perhaps I can put up another sick session Sat or Sun and then again in Warwick early next week. I'm now eyeing Nov 22/my birthday: I have about 14 weeks to make my weight goal, seems very doable

Boom great sesh!