8/27

Climb 1:15

Had subpar sleep two nights in a row and felt sick today. Decided to climb anyway and go super easy. Sent a few new V2-3, maybe one 4, and made some moves on a few harder routes

Tried to do some easy hang boarding at the start of the session and felt some old and new finger pain. Going back to backing off crimps and no hangboarding until I am much lighter and my fingers are 100%

Next climb is in 5 days. Hoping I’m in top condition for it but no way fingers will fully heal by then. As long as I don’t feel sick i’ll Be happy

Will probably do PT Weds and avoid pressing so my shoulders aren’t torched Saturday like they were today from PT 3 days ago. Both rotators are still a little sore too. This back off period may need to be extended

Osteo now says I don't have a rotator strain. Just a minor overuse strain in my right rear delt area. Seems more manageable, should definitely be able to get in a sick climb this weekend, will just avoid any crazy gaston moves. Left shoulder feels near 100%

Looking into some finger rehab stuff, everything says I should be avoiding any heinous crimping and doing active recovery beyond that. Hanging from 2-3 finger pockets is somehow ok

What did you do prior to the hangboarding today as a warm up?

If you haven't stumbled across this yet here is a good resource on finger injuries and rehab protocols.

http://stevenlow.org/treatment-of-cl...nger-injuries/

I climbed 4-5 boulders and did the 20mm hang with my feet on the ground for 10 seconds, then went for 20mm full body weight and worked down from there. Probably not enough now that I think about it

Yea I’m typically super warmed up having done a lot of bouldering beforehand, well over an hours worth.

tyty

I just listened to the Esther Smith finger injury podcast on Training Beta. Her prescription for much more serious finger woes than mine is time off climbing and a hanging protocol, starting with pockets, adding weight and then working to half crimps. Supposedly the pockets usually don't cause anymore than "familiar discomfort" and as long as the minor pain goes away quickly they're productive.

I basically have one finger that is 1/10 sore when massaged and sometimes causes minor pain on hard crimps, and another finger that got sore 2+ weeks ago projecting a V5 crimp climb that is more 2/10 sore when squeezed. Neither of them hurts at all except when crimping. Perhaps I should just be climbing on these and mostly avoiding crimps + doing the pockets protocol until they are totally healed. My last minor finger strain is 100% healed now but it took 2+ months, and I pretty much just climbed through the injury until it healed. For some reason the older one on left hand just hasn't totally gone away, even though I thought it was less serious.

edit- looks like I need a rice bucket

I'd say both of my tendon strains qualify as moderate, one has recovered 90%+ and is OK to climb on but doesn't like hard crimps, the other more recent one I would have qualified as minor but since it's been a couple weeks and is still a bit sore I'm not sure anymore.

Well it seems that gym last Friday/push-ups plus climbing Monday was a big mistake. My right shoulder is sorer than ever today. At this point it’s a 4.5 week injury. My options seem to be to switch up the gym program starting next week or just get a script for physical therapy at this point. This has turned chronic and isn’t getting better despite taking 5-6 days between climbs for a month now. Every time I climb or do PT it seems to set me back. I’m hoping I can still do my big climb this weekend, after that I will have to re-evaluate and seriously consider an extended break from climbing. I guess I could just do the hangboard protocol for my fingers and do physical therapy for 2-4 weeks and see if I heal. ****, this is what happens when you try to Boulder hard 3x/week being 30 and weighing 200lbs I guess...maybe this will miraculously heal the next 3 days

Are you able to do light to moderate climbing without your shoulders or fingers bothering you? How often are you full crimping on harder climbs?

On a hard boulder that takes more than 5-6 tries how often would you say you are latching holds with your COG still moving around? Do you often lunge at holds but still snag them violently?

The struggle of being on meds and having a bad metabolism, detailed below:

8/22 2200 kcal
8/23 1800
8/24 1500
8/25 3300
8/26 1450
8/27 2050
8/28 2050

avg: 2050

total change in bodyweight: +.5 lb

I went too high on calories on a few days and paid the price. Was aiming for 1800 average.

The fact that I'm not getting hungry says a lot. I just don't need many calories right now. I'm going to push the limits of what I can do this coming week, cutting out the glass of wine and trimming calories where I can. At this point it doesn't seem possible for me to make any of my weight goals unless I can bring the average kcal well under 1800, probably around 1600-1700 long term. I'm not going to bed hungry even on the super low calorie days so whatever. I think I could run into problems if I go much lower though. I guess I just can't expect rapid results unless I PSMF, which I'm not comfortable doing/would basically ruin my life. I'm pretty happy eating around 1500 calories of quality food 5-6 days/week, hopefully its sustainable and will net me the results I want.

Can you sneak in a pair of 30min walks each day? Not sure if you’re already doing that.

Yeah, moderate climbing is fine, as long as I wait long enough for my shoulder to stop being sore from the previous session. I mostly half crimp on climbs unless there is somewhere to put my thumb (other than on top of the other fingers). I rarely ever open crimp and am not sure I even know how. Any climbs that are mostly/all crimps cause some finger pain basically every time, but it quickly dissipates. It's just two fingers right now, one an old strain that's barely still there, and the other more recent, resulting from full crimping on a V5 most likely.

The right shoulder doesn't hurt when I climb as long as I don't do any crazy shouldery moves, but gets hella sore the next 2-3 days. The left shoulder is normally OK but last Weds a big Gaston move caused some pain. I climbed for like an hour on Monday and did PT/pushups 3 days before that and it hurt to use my steering wheel today.

I haven't done a hard boulder that took more than 5-6 tries since I hurt the shoulder. Well, I think I've worked individual moves on a V5 for 8-10 attempts on one occasion the last several sessions, apart from that if I can't climb it in 4-5 attempts I just move on. I climb almost entirely statically, and very slowly, pretty much the opposite of Spenda. I only do moves dynamically when there's no other option, so I'm pretty rarely swinging around or cutting feet. I've stayed pretty much in my comfort zone this month besides occasional burns on higher level problems. I've also mostly given up lunging at holds because its too dangerous and I don't have the contact strength to stick the moves anyway, but it obviously happens sometimes. I can grab a V6 crimp statically but a dynamic move to a V4 crimp is hard as hell for me, the last time I can think of trying a move like that it took 15+ tries to stick and tore the hell out of my hands. Basically I'm climbing as conservatively as I can right now, and have done so for a while due to nagging injuries. The occasional attempts at V5-6 could be what's causing problems. Like I sent that V5 crimp climb with a closed crimp crux a couple weeks ago, but I've paid the price for it. This is often what happens when I push my limit and try 5's and 6's, it seems. Now that I think about it my first injury was a right thumb strain that happened from smashing the rail over a year ago while trying to send a 4 that I now realize was obviously a 5.

I'm thinking I just need to avoid crimp climbs and have long breaks between climbs + therapeutic exercises in the gym. Hanging from pockets as outlined by Esther Smith seems like a good strategy to rehab the 3+ month tendon strain

I spend 2-3 hours a week walking the dog. If I could get out for a hike or something that might make a more significant difference though. I'm having weird thoughts at this point, like maybe my body is just having trouble oxidizing fats and I need to specifically lower the fat content... idk

I'm sure its also relevant that my climbing volume has dropped from 3x/week to 1-2x out of necessity

I think I'll hold off on weighing myself another month and just keep counting calories. If I get the average down to <1800 there's basically nothing else I can do. It's possible this week is a fluke and somehow related to being sick, I did lose weight the previous two weeks eating a similar amount

I know it is frustrating to keep running into injuries. Nothing kills psyche like having to take a break.

If you are able to climb I'd try to stick with it instead of taking a complete break. I definitely would drop the intensity though. Just because you aren't climbing near your limit doesn't mean you aren't getting better or fitter.

A decent goal over the next 4-6 might be to focus on technique and building your sport specific aerobic base. This will allow you to help rehab the injury, make technical improvements and increase your climbing specific fitness. As the aerobic capacity of your forearm muscles improve you won't get pumped as easily, you will recover better at rests, between attempts and between sessions. This will also set you up nicely to make strength gains once you are able to climb at higher intensities, especially if you pick up a bit of hypertrophy in your forearm flexors from the added volume of moves.

Since you will only be climbing at moderate to low intensity you should hopefully be keeping yourself out of compromising positions. I would not full crimp anything. Only half crimps and open handed holds. If there is ever any doubt that a hold or move might be tweeky just don't do it.

There are a whole host of technique drills and aerobic protocols to use. Some things to work on could be body tension, switching feet, initiating movement from the best possible position, hand foot matching, one touch drills etc etc. There is an endless amount of skill work that can be done. The Power Company Climbing youtube channel has a lot of good drills to use. I do 3-4 of their drills every single session.

For ideas about aerobic workouts check out the crimpd app by Lattice Training. Under the endurance tab they have a few different protocols to choose from. A decent session might be to get warmed up doing some drill and skill work on 10-15 easy problems and then go through an aerobic capacity workout or a regeneration workout depending on how you feel. The different workouts will hopefully keep you a bit more engaged than traversing endlessly for a month.

Make sure you keep the intensity low to moderate. You should not be failing on any of the climbing. Auto-belays and circuit walls will be your friends if you have them available. You are going to sweating and moving a good bit during these sessions, so that will be a nice boost in terms of calorie burn as well.

Add in shoulder and finger rehab work as needed.

This is all great, thank you vm appreciated

I'm hoping the shoulder is good enough Saturday to climb a few hard boulders, after that using these strategies and continuing the backoff/rehab period seems like the ideal approach

I forgot to add this link. It is a quick video with Esther Smith showing some stretches and exercises to maintain healthy shoulders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV3lSdmg0AA

Downloaded that app, not too shabby.

9/1

Climb 3:30

Sent a few new 3’s and 2 new 4’s plus a ton of old routes. My former climbing buddy/coach came to town and sent basically all the 4’s and 5’s in the gym plus some V6. Apparently one of my 5’s was soft but most of the 3’s through 6 in the gym are spot on.

No significant pain this session, avoided any shouldery moves. One new V4 crimp climb hurt a little. Next session likely on Tuesday, will try to finish off an old 5 and some new routes. There’s one V3 and one V4 left and apart from that I’ve sent everything under V5 in the gym

How tall are you?

190 pound dudes who are as active as you are should lose weight fairly rapidly on 2000 calories. The week was most likely a fluke. Just trust the process.

As for weighing yourself, infrequent weighing is one approach, but I prefer weighing daily and putting little importance on any specific day. Then record the values on a spreadsheet and use a 7 day moving average. The moving average will give you more accurate feedback than the random fluctuations inherent in one reading. It will go down pretty much every week unless your rate of loss is very slow.

Edit: I just read the start and know who you are now. I would never had made the post comparing you to fatties if I'd known, fwiw.

Solid advice anyhow, imo. I do the spreadsheet thing kind of mentally, or just look at the trend for 1-2 weeks. TTGL, have found that if I'm binging one day the weight goes up more than expected, collecting liquid because of salt or some other reason. But it goes away almost as fast as it came.

I think you’re right re: 2000 average being low enough for consistent weight loss. I had a 3500 day yesterday, so if I hit 1700/1800 the next week average will be around 2k.

I’m not super active though, climbing 2x week and PT 1x really only accounts for 7 hours of activity plus 3 hours of walking the dog or so. Mostly sedentary otherwise. + Meds

I see the misunderstanding, was wondering what the hell you were thinking, lol. All good

As others have said, I wouldn't sweat the increase in weight on the scale at all. Who knows what could have caused it. Some weeks will be better than others diet wise and sometimes the wheels will completely come off. It is all part of the game. There is no need to beat yourself up over the inevitable.

If you consistently keep cranking out weeks of 2K calories like you have been, you are certainly going to reach your goals. No doubt about it. The hardest part, though, is the waiting. We all overestimate what can be done in a couple of months and underestimate what can be accomplished in a couple of years.

I don’t have a couple of years though, I’m 30. There’s no good reason I shouldn’t be able to lose 1.5-2 pounds/week on average the rest of the year and make my goals

2000 average will probably be OK. If I can go lower without getting hungry or tired though, I will do it

9/2

PT 15 mins
Climb 45 mins
Some hangs from 3-4 finger pockets

I was surprisingly fresh and not at all sore after climbing 3+ hours on 9/1 so I said **** it and went to the gym again. Unfortunately the strength was there for a short climb but finger tips couldn’t take it. Climbed 6-7 boulders V1-3 and called it a day.

Next climbing session will be Weds. PT tues

Shoulders seem to be doing quite well. Still tightness and minor pain in a deep Gaston/chicken wing position. Fingers did not hurt from the pocket hangs. Still not ready to crimp hard again