Summer in the dojo

Part of the dojo.

A ceiling view.

Adventure in Slovenia

On Tuesday May 18th I enjoyed a new adventure.  Gregor and I climbed a mountain named Velika Baba using a via ferrata, which is basically an augmented trail that includes iron pegs and cables to provide secure hand and footholds.

Baba is in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps of Slovenia, and is just about on the border with Austria.  It was the only peak in the group that remained in open sky during out ascent (lucky for us!).  The rest of the peaks were shrouded by clouds for most of the day.  The taller peaks seemed to be making a rain shadow for Baba, and clear skies above held out until about 3:00 when we were already most of the way back down.  Safely on the trail section, the rain and hail just reminded us of the wisdom in going early, light, and fast.

This was my first alpine experience and I found the route to be a wonderful challenge both physically (in terms of fatigue from the hiking) and mentally in terms of maintaining focus.  The pictured section above was one of several stretches where the route ascended dramatically and the rock was relatively solid and reliable.  (Though note the loose gravel and kitty litter on the ledge that I am inspecting.)

I found the less steep but looser traversing sections to be more difficult mentally.  It was often a matter of finding a combination of holds and foot placements that were good enough to use briefly on your way to something better.

This partial view of the mountain was taken during the descent of the route.  The summit is on the rocky peak on the left, though the first half of the route climbs and then traverses the mass on the right.  After the gulley in the first picture you strike directly up a steep slab and follow that slab for several hundred feet towards the point of the red arrow, marked above.

Here I am standing about in the location of the red arrow in the previous photo.  This position comes after several hundred feet of exposed climbing.  After this is a scramble through some bushes, and then another lower angle slab on eroded Karst-like rock.  That ferrata section ends just below a large boulder that sits menacingly on the slab.  From there, the route scrambles around to the left, under the final rocky wall, and ascends the left skyline to the summit (as shown in the distance shot).

Part way through the climb I was reminded of the hidden value in the many hours of low intensity training that I had spent bouldering in the dojo.  During my ARC workouts I often like to focus my attention on how I execute every single movement, as a type of moving meditation.  I aim to place each foot and hand exactly where I intend.  That mental practice was key to feeling comfortable on this route which was a bit more challenging and technical than I had expected it would be.  The route required complete focus for long stretches of time, not just to find hand and footholds, but to place feet and hands in ways that would not dislodge the abundant loose rock on the route.

Practicing maintaining mental focus while ARC training helped me bring that same focus to this alpine route, where that capacity to focus was crucial for my own safety.
   
Soon I will add photos from other stages of the route, and from climbing at Misja Pec, and the climbing center in Ljubljana as well.

Updated Maxipull Workout

Read this:  cultivating deep hold fitness, 

and a Maxipull for doorway pullup bars 

The Red River Gorge is filled with deep, open hand holds.  Some are jugs, some are flat, and some are heinously sloping.  All of them require you to engage all four fingers along their entire length.  Oftentimes matching on deep, open hand holds is the only rest that you get.    

How can you best train for these types of holds?   

Simple design:  My first version of the max-pull board is made from a threaded connection piece of 6 inch (interior measurement, 7 inch exterior) PVC pipe.   I sanded off the ridges on the outside, cut it in half and screwed wooden feet onto the corners.   The hold surface is covered in skateboarding grip tape which overlaps the top edge of the pipe and is pinned between the wall and the top wooden feet.  This design simplifies others I have seen in the past and it is cheap to build.  Note:  you can see a band of white duct tape along the top inch of the pipe which keeps your grip lower on the pipe, making the grip more challenging and keeping an ergonomic wrist position.

Second design:  The second design uses 4 inch exterior pvc, and it allows a much deeper grip because it is mounted with almost the entire cylinder exposed.  This is better for longer duration hangs, beginners and for working endurance.  

Open hand training.  The 7 inch half cylinder produces a deep, full hand sloper for training open hand strength and endurance.  The 4 inch cylinder produces a comfy open hand hold that ranges from juggy to slopey, depending on how deep you grip it. Both of these grips have a couple of great benefits.  First, they engage the muscles used when hanging from large open hand holds.  This is very helpful at the Red and the New, but also for bouldering on open hand sandstone slopers.  Second, the depth and large surface area seems to fully engage all 4 fingers in open hand grips (unlike shallower sloping holds which neglect the pinky).  Third, you can adjust the intensity by placing your hands lower or higher on the hold.  And finally, depending on what you want to train you can use each grip for strength (by adding weight) or for endurance, by going for a series of longer  hangs.   

Note:  I also have the RPTC hangboard, which is great for edges, pockets and pinches.  However, I feel as though these "Max Pull" designs engage the forearms in ways that are more specific to both open hand slopers (like at HP 40) and in preparation for open hand endurance fests, like those on the steeper, longer routes at the RRG.  

 The particular forearm muscle that engage while gripping are determined by the angles of the wrist and finger joints.  The 7 inch max pull angle keeps your joints nearly straight.  This inspires strengthening in the muscles that let you hold low angle slopers and seems to carryover to general levels of openhand strength and endurance.

The 4 inch pipe allows you to grip with the meat of your hand (hanging partly from the callouses at the base of the fingers), as one does on large jugs.  However, because the hold is slopey, this grip eventually tires too.

Uses: 

1. Short duration repeat hangs.  You can use it like other hangboard grips for training strength, either through short duration timed repeat hangs (10 seconds on, 5 seconds off), max weight hangs (by adding weight or by adjusting lower on the grip).
1. I plan to add pulleys for removing weight and some bumps along the grip to consistently identify starting positions that are lower on the grip.
2. If I move down just 2-3 cm this grip gets much, much harder to hold.  I really have to bear down on it.
3. Technical insight on hard slopers-   bear down hard from the start to prevent or delay the slide and loss of position on the hold.  This seems to be the opposite from intuitions that I gathered from hanging more positive holds.  
4. Recent pair of sets:
1. 15/10 duty cycle X 6 reps.  5X, nth= 8seconds
2. 15/10 X6. 5X, nth=10
2. Long duration repeat hangs.  Currently I am using two different protocols:  
1. Hang for maximum seconds (for me, currently about 45 seconds on rep #1), then rest for a briefer period (either 15 or 30 seconds), then hang again for as long as possible.  Repeat for a total of 3 to 7 reps per set.
1. I rest for about 5 min between sets.
2. Hang on 1 minute cycles, stating by hanging till your goal duty cycle, and then resting for the remainder of the minute.   At the new minute, start a new hang.  Repeat for 4-7 repetitions with a goal of getting to 7 hangs of 45 seconds with 15 seconds of rest.
1. On the 4 inch diameter, I successfully completed 6 reps of 40 seconds, with 20 second rests.  These were challenging, but not Madness cave level challenging.  
1. Recently I completed 7 reps of 45 second hangs fairly easily, if I allowed myself a deep grip.  The deep grip means that you can hang somewhat from the top edge of the hand as well as the fingers.
2. I switched to a lower grip where only my fingers were hanging on.  This upped the difficulty substantially, and made the experience much more pumpy.
1. set one:  45,45,45,45,30,25,21
2. set two: 45,45,45,45,30,25,25
3. According to some friends, if you can do 10 reps of these hangs you should have endurance sufficient for most routes in the Madness cave. 
3. Stooopid pumped recovery simulator.
1. Start with the long duration hang protocol #2, and hang until you get stoopid pumped.
1. Once your are stoopid pumped, simulate the recover process that you would experience while "shaking out" and hanging from from a large open hand hold on a steep route. 
2. Rest for a super brief time period, say, 2 seconds, and immediately start hanging again for a ~4 seconds, repeat. 
3. Then, extend the rest / hang duty cycle by increasing the rest period by 2 seconds, and increasing the hang period by 2X the rest period.
4. Repeat the recovery process at following intervals, 
1. rest 2 / hang 4; repeat enough times to move to next level
2. rest 4 / hang 8; repeat
3. rest 6 / hang 12; repeat
4. rest 8 / hang 16; repeat
5. rest 10 / hang 20; repeat
5. Tune the ratio of rest to hang so that you can just barely recover from the pump while alternating hangs and rests of increasing duration.  Just like you need to do while shaking on a giant open hand edge on an overhanging route. 
6. You can also tune the process by changing the depth of your grip between shallow and deep. 
2. There are physiological as well as tactical lessons to be gained from this protocol.  
1. Expanding the range of you maximum pump.   You will get more pumped on the Max Pull than you ever will on a route, and the process of maxing your hangs will teach you about new levels of pump where you can still hang on. 
2. Improved pump monitoring accuracy.  Levels of pump are like the color coding of storm severity on weather radar maps.  Feeling these levels will allow you to climb with confidence in the yellow and orange range.
1. Blue     totally fresh
2. Green    good but feeling it
3. Yellow  a bit pumped
4. Orange    pumped
5. Red   stoopid pumped
6. Pink   hands sliding off max pull
3. Recovering from the brink of failure.   Sending steep, pumpy routes means recovering while hanging/resting from open hand holds with most of your weight on your hands.  
1. Recovering while matching when pumped is like getting a giant pendulum moving.   You get a tiny rest, and then, slowly extend the period of the rests, while extending the period of the hang.  Knowing what this feels like and how to manage the recovery process are crucial skills that you can learn while training.

Spring Bouldering

The "Rube Goldberg Traverse" includes some fragile footholds, but the problem is great fun.  It begins matched on a small horizontal pocket on the left side of the photo (in the shadowed area) and then traverses right along the face, below the main horizontal.  At the end of the face holds it rises to the main horizontal, and traverses back left, topping out just a couple feet above the start.  A circuitous and overly elaborated traverse.

Plan your spring season

I adjusted my schedule over spring break due to sickness and terrible weather.  (no outdoor climbing then).  Anyways, after Whipporwill this Sunday I get to start transitioning to strength training and HB.   I am pretty excited to see how this round of HB training can build on my two winter seasons.

Cold water immersion for forearm recovery

(you don't actually need Antarctic sea ice)

Note: The Rock Climbing Training Manual advocates for CWI for both treatment of finger/forearm injuries, and for everyday therapy for climbing induced micro trauma (Anderson and Anderson, 2014: 179). This is very helpful advice. This post follows up on that work by summarizing insights taken from freely available research online.

CWI for forearm recovery:   Cold water immersion (CWI) involves submerging a body part in cold water for a period of time in order to cause elevated blood flow after the cold is removed.  CWI can help athletes recover after intense training.  Use CWI after you are done for the day, and not in the the middle of your workout, which can reduce max performance (see Crowe, O’Conner and Rudd 2007).

Why they think it benefits muscles:  cold water immersion reduces blood flow rates while that region is cooled.  Subsequent to that restriction, the body elevates blood flow to the cooled region.  This elevated blood flow is shown to increase the removal of metabolic waste and theorized to aid repair of micro trauma. One study on climbing recovery strategies (Heyman, et al 2009) also found that low intensity exercise can increase blood flow and recovery rates (see recommendations below).

A range of sports medicine studies(Heyman, et al 2009; Ingram et al 2007; Bailey et al 2007; Meeusen and Lievens 1986) have shown that CWI can:

• increase muscular recovery rates and removal of metabolic waste
• increase recovery of maximum muscular capacity 24 and 48 hours after initial exercise
• reduce feeling of muscle soreness during recovery period
• reduce aches and pains during and immediately after CWI

Why it might work for tendons, etc:  Sports medicine studies tend to focus on things that are easier to measure, and focus on shorter term impacts, therefore there are few (if any?) studies of the efficacy of CWI for aiding recovery from normal wear and tear of tendon and connective tissue. However, CWI, might also

• increase recovery and repair of micro trauma to connective tissue, tendons, etc.
• reduce finger aches and stiffness (anecdotally observed)
• may aid recovery from injuries (research on this?)

Potentially, the benefits of CWI for tendons, joints and connective tissue would be caused by the same increased blood flow mechanism attribute above. This might be especially true because baseline rate of blood flow to connective tissue is much lower than for muscle.  

Now, here is what you should do:

Cool down and stretch first:  Build cool-down climbs and “active rest” into the end of your climbing day.  Ideally these cool downs will work the same muscle fibers recruited in your hard workout but at a much lower intensity.  At the very least do some range of motion exercises that get your hand and finger grip muscles working at a low intensity but active enough to increase blood flow. Always do your finger, hand, forearm stretches at the end of your workout, on your way home, or while smack talking at Miguel’s.  Rest completely for 30 min (as you eat your pizza).  

Ice, Ice, Baby!

• Get a suitable container (window planter, long tupperware or wide PVC pipe).  
• Partly fill with F 50-64 [c10-18] degree water (not too cold)
• Completely submerge your forearm (fingertips to above elbow).
• Keep arm submerged for 10 to 15 minutes.   
• Remove and allow your arm to warm up on it’s own.  
• Repeat for other arm.

Things to avoid:  Don't make the water too cold.  Don't give yourself frostbite.  Don't stretch or exercise your forearms after you ice.  Don’t do anything to restrict blood flow to the region during the warming period. Don't elevate your arm afterwards, see (Hughson et al 1996) who find that elevating the hand/forearm above the heart reduces blood flow rates (study tested during exercise).  Don't hop into a hot shower until your arms have warmed up on their own.  

Do:   Be consistent, being consistent is the hardest part.  Keep notes on timing, temperature, and results both short term and long term.  The suggestions above are based on research studies drawn from a variety of sports, and should be fine tuned to what seems to work best for you.   

Abstracts for all the papers cited are online at pubmed, if you want to look them up. There is plenty of room for further studies. Get on it! Here they are:

(Bailey et al 2007)
Bailey DM, Erith SJ, Griffin PJ, Dowson A, Brewer DS, Gant N, Williams C “Influence of cold-water immersion on indices of muscle damage following prolonged intermittent shuttle running.”  Journal of Sports Sciences [2007, 25(11):1163-1170]  http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/17654228
(Crowe, O'Conner & Rudd 2007)
Crowe MJ, O'Connor D, Rudd D “Cold water recovery reduces anaerobic performance.”   International Journal of Sports Medicine [2007, 28(12):994-998]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17534786
(Heyman, et al 2009)
Heyman E, DE Geus B, Mertens I, Meeusen R. 2009.  Effects of four recovery methods on repeated maximal rock climbing performance. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise [2009, 41(6):1303-1310]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19461534
(Hughson et al 1985)
Hughson RL, Shoemaker JK, Tschakovsky ME, Kowalchuk JM.”Dependence of muscle VO2 on blood flow dynamics at onset of forearm exercise.” Journal of Applied Physiology (1985). 1996 Oct;81(4):1619-26.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8904578

(Meeusen and Lievens 1986)

Meeusen R, Lievens P. The use of cryotherapy in sports injuries. Sports Med. 1986 Nov-Dec;3(6):398-414.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3538270
(Ingram et al 2007)
Jeremy Ingram, Brian Dawson, Carmel Goodman, Karen Wallman, John Beilby, 2007. “Effect of water immersion methods on post-exercise recovery from simulated team sport exercise” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.  http://www.jsams.org/article/S1440-2440%2808%2900038-8/abstract

Spring Break Possibilities

Current best weather prediction is Fort Payne, Alabama.  But 8 hours one way is not ideal for just 2 days of climbing.  Could stay closer to home instead.