This post is all about finger health. Yes, finger health. Because in our world, the finger may be the most important part of the body.

Crimping, especially with your thumb on top of your other fingers, puts enormous stress on your joints and can lead to tendon injuries. The reason? Crimping puts your hand at a mechanical disadvantage because the joints are compressed or extended to their very limits.

Conversely, open-hand positions like on slopers create the same muscle development as crimping, with the fingers in a less vulnerable position. Overall, the best thing to do whenever you feel even one bit of finger pain is to S.I.E. What’s S.I.E.?

Stop Ice Evaluate

What’s actually happening in there when your fingers crimp? Take a look under the hood. Here are anatomical sketches of “flexor tendon pulleys and sheaths” at http://www.wheelessonline.com/image2/phl1.jpg, http://www.wheelessonline.com/image2/phl2.jpg, and
http://www.wheelessonline.com/image2/phl3.jpg

Now, in this age of specialization we wondered: are there orthopedists who specialize only in finger health? According to a Wikipedia entry, yes. Of orthopedic surgeons applying for certification with the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery between 1999 to 2003, the percentage specializing in “Hands and upper extremity” was 8.7% (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthopedics).

Labels: climbing, tips

If you’ve bouldered with some of the hardcore, you’ve seen Superglue used to reattach one of those flaps of skin that frequently get torn free with all the high stresses and abrasion of intense bouldering.

The committed boulderers thinking goes something like this: “If you tear a finger pad open, you’ll be out of commission for a week or more, and you might lose out on all the time and effort you put into going on a much anticipated climbing trip. It really sucks to be in great shape, ready to go in every other regard, but a bit of torn skin shuts you down completely. A liberal dose of Superglue in and all around the flapper to reattach it (yes, it sounds awful—but you wouldn’t rather not climb, would you?) will get you back in action at almost 100%.”

The urban myth is that medics in Vietnam used the stuff for serious battlefield injuries to help get the wounded back to substantial hospital attention.

Even a recent New York Times article acknowledged the practice,

“Nowadays, professional athletes often close small cuts with Super Glue or similar products to get back in the game in a hurry. The glues are also used by veterinarians, and many people keep a tube around the house to help them out of a medical pinch. It is believed that the glues — made from the chemical cyanoacrylate — not only stop bleeding quickly, but also lead to less scarring.”

The problem is that regular Superglue like you get in the drug store isn’t good for you. It has some side effects, especially if you get it into a deep wound. It can irritate and kill cells. And it probably doesn’t reduce scarring.

But the FDA has approved a very similar substance for these sorts of applications. It’s anti-bacterial and it’s safer. It’s called Dermabond, and you’ll be able to get it at the drug store. Put some in the pocket of your bouldering chalk bag and you’ll be able to salvage an otherwise ruined climbing trip.

Labels: climbing, tips

Are you climbing with someone who’s not as accomplished at it as you are, or a complete beginner? There are several things you can do to make it a much better experience for them.

There’s a powerful temptation to be a backseat climber and give them running instructions on every move.

Encouragement is one thing, but this kind of unnecessary bossing can be really aggravating and distracting. They’ve got eyes and can see the holds. And learning to climb is more of a physical, kinesthetic experience than a cognitive one where you learn by consciously following directions.

New climbers have got to acquire a sense of feel about needing to get that foot up to get stable, or moving onto straight arms. And they’ve already got so much going on that your instructions just confuse things more. To help you initiative newbies in a kinder, gentler way, here is a handy chart:

Another newbie mistake is to succumb to the pressure to get too wrapped up in the grades. There’s nothing wrong with doing 5.6s. Recall that you started there too. And even a highly accomplished 5.12 climber can learn something from them. One person’s struggle with a 5.8 crux can be just as hard, subjectively, and just as rewarding when they get it, as the hot shot’s battle with a 5.12d crux.

If you’re climbing with beginners, and you want them to love the activity and find it rewarding like you do, then you can do a lot with your attitude, your comments, and your approach to make it clear that ultimately the grades aren’t what’s most important about climbing. Most people rapidly move through the grades in their first 6 months or year and then the progress slows when they get to 5.10s. That’s normal, and beginners shouldn’t have false expectations about moving right on into 11s, 12s, and 13s that way.

The phenomenal climbers in the magazines are the exceptions. Most of us take a year or two to become solid in 10s, and then take 10 years or more to get into 12s.

Examples of helpful encouragement:
Yes! You can get it! Good job! Nice work!

Labels: climbing, tips

Remember when Conan (Arnold) was trudging around that wheel of pain, getting bigger and bigger muscles, just thinking about the day he’d get his vengeance on Thulsa Doom for killing his mom?

Everybody’s got to spend their time on the wheel.

You won’t get better at climbing unless you spend some serious hours trudging away up and down those routes.

Just remember Conan’s 3 Noble Truths to keep you going: “To crush you enemies, see them run before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.”

Labels: climbing, tips

Any dude can fall off a wall, right? Yeah, but there are better and worse ways to do it.

Even in the gym with 12 inches of gymnastics foam under you, an extra bouldering pad, and an attentive spotter, it’s not uncommon for a falling boulderer to hit wrong and break a wrist or an ankle. To avoid disaster and being laid up on crutches or in a cast for 6 weeks, everyone needs to take some time to get better at falling well.

When you come off the wall up high, you’re going to have a lot of kinetic energy by the time you hit the ground. All that force needs to go somewhere. What you want is for it to get dispersed as much as possible and for all of your joints and limbs to take the least direct shock of it that you can manage.

One thing you can do is let your body fully collapse like an accordion when your feet hit the pad. Fold up your knees, your hips, and your back and make them loose as you hit the floor. This will help spread the impact over your whole body and keep a single part like your lower leg from absorbing more than it has to.

The fall you’re expecting rarely hurts you. Think about that move on your redpoint project where you are trying to smear off a tiny smeary foothold – you know you may not make it and transition from climbing to falling the moment you slip.

It’s when something unexpected happens that people get hurt. A foothold spins, and suddenly you’re sprawled on the floor with the wind knocked out of you, and your spotter apologizing.

One way to save your wrists and ankles, which are really vulnerable in these surprise falls, is to learn to hit the mat or pad (or cold hard ground) and roll in one continuous motion like the martial arts experts do. If you reach straight out and try to arrest your fall with your hand, your arm is going to take a tremendous dynamic load. If you can hit, bend the arm, shift your weight away and over the arm and go into a roll onto your shoulder, you can divert all this bone breaking energy into movement and spread it around. Get friends with martial arts or gymnastics training to coach you a bit. Go on, be a falling ninja.

Labels: climbing, tips

Why crack climbers consume more athletic tape than an NFL team doctor.

There are old, classic cracks in Yosemite with deceptively low grades like 5.7 and 5.9 that regularly reject seasoned gym and sport climbers. The whining and protesting can be heard all over the valley. “How can that thing be 5.7 - I can’t even get off the ground on it!” and “These grades are sandbags!”

There are a couple of special techniques that, once mastered, will make that route feel like it’s graded right. But without them, it might as well be a 5.13.

On a blank wall of glacier polished granite, the only usable feature might be a narrow, parallel sided crack. Inside the walls of the crack there will be little irregularities where it gets narrower, turns a bit, or widens up.

To climb such a crack under your own power (versus aiding it):

1. Pretend you’re making a “karate chop” with your hand and slot it into the crack pinky down just above one of those constrictions.

2. Twist your hand, flaring your elbow up and out to the side of the crack.

Alternately you can slot your fingers into the crack thumbs down and tuck your elbow down to your side to lock it. Now as you cam your fingers into the narrow bit, feel around and find the sweet spot where two, three, or four fingers seem to naturally fit and settle in most securely. It might even only allow one finger—just be careful and don’t rip it off.

3. Ensure the edge of the crack in grinding into the fleshy parts of your fingers between the knuckles.

Pain is good here—that means you’re getting a good lock. This is why crack climbers consume more athletic tape than an NFL team doctor.

4. Hold the positioning of that hand as much as you can as you pull down with your back and shoulders, find footholds, and smear your way up.

5. Once you’ve reached a bit of stability and you can extract one of your hands, pull it out carefully, reach up, find another tight spot in the crack, and repeat.

Spend some time down on the ground experimenting with how your fingers will lock into the confines of a crack, and getting used to pulling on them

Labels: climbing, tips

Here’s something you can do about over-gripping:

- Find a big hold near the ground over a pad and hang on it with your feet on a couple of small footholds.

- Get comfortable, and then very slowly relax your hands and release the contraction of the muscles in your hands and forearms that are keeping you on the wall.

- Keep relaxing them until you are just about to fall off.

- Then go ahead and release all the way so you plop down onto the pad.

What’s surprising is just how little effort it actually takes to keep you on the hold compared to how much you were exerting when you first started the exercise.

Repeat the steps above and focus you attention on just how much you’re exerting and how much is needed. Get the difference really clear in your head and try to apply it on your routes.

Labels: climbing, tips

How over-gripping even 5% on dozens of holds really adds up

You’re a pretty good judge of the state of your mind and body when you’re working out or climbing. If it’s hurting, you know it. And probably, if you’re distracted, you can tell. But a lot of what is going on in there isn’t obvious to you and you won’t be able to tell.

You can be tense, distracted, or not performing your best, even though you don’t notice. It will take deliberate training to overcome this problem; the payoff is that doing so will make you a better climber and athlete.

The problem is especially bad with over-gripping. The slightest bit of tension or fear will manifest itself in your squeezing the holds too hard and contracting the involved muscles harder than the minimum necessary to do the job.

Cutting down on over-gripping is vitally important because over-gripping just a little bit, say maybe 5%, on the first 20 or 30 moves of a route all adds up. That’s a lot more work that you’re demanding of muscles with limited resources, and it will result in premature failure. If you fall off near the top, you might conclude that it’s because those moves near the end are really hard. You might even spend extra time rehearsing them. But those moves might not be the problem! It might be that over-gripping from the ground up led to your fall.

In the next part of this series we’ll suggest a way to tell when you’re over-gripping – and how to stop yourself. Stay tuned.

Labels: climbing, tips

Are flared elbows effective despite being weird-looking?

Raise one pumped claw if this has ever happened to you:

As you get more and more tired on a route you’re just barely managing to hold on. You manage to squeeze out one move, and then another, and desperately pull off another. As you get more trashed, your elbows start creeping up and out behind you until they’re sticking almost straight up and back, like the joints on a chicken wing.

(Mmmm, hot sauce…how that lactic acid burns!)

As the relatively weak muscles of your forearms get taxed, your body is using bigger muscles in your back and shoulders to try to help. That is, as your fingers start opening up, your body levers your failing fingers back down on the holds by moving your elbows up and out at the other end of the ‘lever’ – your forearms.

There’s nothing technically wrong with doing ‘chicken wings.’ But you probably don’t want to get in the habit of it. Even if you could force yourself to bring your elbows back down, your trashed fingers would just drop you.

It’s a good thing that you’re throwing yourself into finishing the route with so much gusto – way to stick with it! But once those elbows start to flare, it’ll be over in seconds. In general, the better strategy is to climb more efficiently overall. Use some strategy, and exploit every kind of rest on the route you can so you can finish with some control and style instead looking like you’re trying to take flight.

Labels: climbing, tips

Trying to break into 5.11s? 5.12s?
You might need new shoes.

Part 2 of 2: Getting sensitive

Here’s the run down on shoes.

First, the single most important part of the shoe is that couple of square inches of rubber under and on the edge of your big toes. You need a nice clean, crisp 90 degree edge of rubber there that you can press and roll right into the little edges, nubbins, and creases of tiny footholds. Once that part of your shoe gets worn and rounded off — stop reading right now and go get them, hold them up to the light, and look closely at that edge right under the outside edge of your big toes — the best you can do with them is kind of smear them crudely over the whole area of the tiny features on small footholds.

Smearing will work, and smearing is an important part of good climbing. And sometimes the additional contact with the wall or surrounding rock can make the difference between slipping and not. But trying to smear bluntly over the whole area when the hold is a tiny crease or edge is inefficient, and it won’t give you the most purchase.

And whether you realize it or not, when your foot is a little less secure on that tiny edge, the rest of your body knows it and tries to compensate. The only way to compensate for slipping feets because of rounded worn out, clubby shoes is to bear down harder on the tiny handholds that your fingers are dealing with.

Now after you squeeze, crimp, or clutch a bunch of holds just a little bit harder, then that means that your forearms,which are always the weak link in this whole process, are going to flame out that much earlier.

That is, you’re going to pump out and fall off long before you finish the route. And it happened because the rubber on your shoes is worn out. But since the rubber wore off slowly over the course of weeks or months, and since you can’t really detect every bit of compensation your body is doing for the foot insecurity, you never even realized that it was the shoes that were starting to suck and not really you.

So it’s time to put away those solid beginner shoes.

What you need to look for as your technique improves, as you get stronger, as your feet get stronger, and as you get into the harder grades, are shoes that fit your foot like a glove.

Different manufacturers use different lasts to shape their shoes. One of the companies will have a last that produces a shoe that fits your foot really well. Go shopping, try lots of them on, and see how as many different pairs fit on your feet as you can.

Most likely, if you're trying harder grades you are also getting ready for a pair of thinner, softer, more sensitive shoes. As your toes get stronger and your technique gets better (you don’t drag your toes up the wall any more, do you?) one of the sportier, pointier, toe down models of shoes is going to be more appropriate for you.

With the pointy toes and sharp edges, and snugger molded fit, you’ll be able to press the shoe right down into the feature and wring every bit of purchase out of it with your feet, and that will take some of the load off your burning forearms. And that will put you at the anchors on those hard routes thinking, “wow, I never realized how important my shoes and my footwork were.”

Labels: climbing, tips

Trying to break into 5.11s? 5.12s?
You might need new shoes.

Part 1 of 2: Moving up

If you’re like most climbers, when you first got into the sport, the price of a pair of climbing shoes was more important that performance. You were just learning how to tie a knot, so you didn’t have a concept of performance. So you bought a solid pair of entry level shoes. Then you pawed, scraped, and dragged them up routes until as you got more and more hooked on climbing.

So now you’re doing 5.10s in the gym with some regularity. Maybe you are even managing to do the occasional 5.11. It’s time to revisit the shoe issue. It’s time to start thinking more carefully about the ways your feet can make the difference between doing hard routes and not. When your rise through the grades starts to slow down, one of the things that is happening is that you’re managing to exploit the upper body strength you’ve got for all it’s worth. And your fingers have gotten stronger and more used to the stresses. But muscle power just won’t get you very far in climbing, contrary to what it seems.

What becomes important if you want to keep getting better is learning how to efficiently use every bit of your muscle power and stamina with strategy and technique to get you throw routes with more hard moves, more challenging sequences, and fewer rests.

One of the pieces in that puzzle is being sure that you have the right shoes, they are well suited to your foot and the type of climbing you are doing, and you are squeezing every bit of potential out of them.

There’s nothing wrong with those clunky old shoes you started with—I know you love them. And I know that you and the shoes have lots of fond memories. But now you need some precision surgical instruments, and if you learn to use them right, it will buy you a couple of letter grades at least, and maybe a whole number grade. We’ll save a discussion of foot and toe technique for a future column.

Labels: climbing, tips

Climbing better requires knowing what your muscles are capable of and what they need. It’s too easy to climb yourself into a situation on a route where the moves are too hard and you’re stressed and over gripping.

The key is learning how to maneuver your climbing around your limits. Think of your fitness level, or your capacity to climb, as a bathtub that’s got water pouring in and an open drain emptying it out.Your fitness level is sort of like the depth and size of your tub, the rate at which you can pour water in, and the rate at which it can drain. If the rate at which the tub fills is faster than the rate it drains, then it overflows and you have a disaster. If you stress the muscles at a rate faster than they can recover, they shut down.

Muscles have stored glycogen that they burn to contract. Then the byproducts of that energy exchange must be metabolized. Wastes need to be shuttled out of the muscle tissues, and fresh oxygenated blood with more energy needs to be brought in. If you do too many hard moves in a row, the load you’re putting on the muscles quickly overwhelms the system’s ability to keep up. Lactic acid saturates the muscle fibers and they quickly reach failure. Now there’s water flooding all over the bathroom floor and threatening the drown the downstairs neighbor.

What can you do? Strategize your movement. Take advantage of any and all rest situations. Snatch a quick shake for either arm before the hard sequence if you can. Move through the hard part fast and get to the bigger holds. Then take the time for the system to catch up. Don’t hold your breath (if you put the stopper in the tub, a flood is inevitable).

Breathe, relax, and don’t over grip. Develop a sensitivity for how hard your muscles are working at any given time by paying attention to them. When you’re training, figure out where your failure point is. Find the point at which you’ve pushed so hard you can’t adequately recover.

Labels: climbing, fitness, tips

It’s easy to get into a training rut. You find something that yields good results, and you want to stick with it. But after a while, the old motivation doesn’t seem to be there anymore.

That’s when it’s time for a drastic change. If you’ve been climbing, switch to bouldering. If you have been doing hard routes, take some easy ones. Or challenge yourself with an even harder one.

Or you can stick with your old workout routine and introduce a few variations. Try to climb up and down five times without stepping off the wall. Set a goal of 20 routes. Try doing a route as fast as you safely can. Or take it as slow as you can. Trying combining parts of your workout that you haven’t before. Boulder for 30 minutes then lift weights, and so on. Keeping it interesting can solve the motivation problem. And having the right people with the right atmosphere helps too. The right music in your iPod can motivate you so much that you might hurt yourself. Try climbing to Ministry’s “New World Order” and you’ll see.

Labels: climbing, tips, touchstone

Sore muscles and other pains are part of the climbing experience. When you push yourself to the limit, you’re going to feel it, and that’s all right.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore every ache, however. Pain is your body’s way of getting your attention, so take some time to find out what your body is telling you.

Some tweaks and twinges you can climb through. Others may be signs of real trouble. The classic mistake is to let enthusiasm eclipse common sense, whether on a climb or just working out. It’s hard to describe how to tell the difference, but with experience you’ll learn to read your own body’s signals.

It’s pretty common for climbers in their first few years to have problems with finger tendons, for instance. Tendons and ligaments don’t grow as fast as muscle, and they don’t get a lot of blood. So give yourself time to condition them for the high, dynamic loads of climbing movement. Once you’ve built up your strength, you may only need some climbing tape to support a finger tendon that’s acting weird or hurting a little bit.

One thing to remember is that when your muscles are warmed up and flushed with blood, an injury may not reveal itself as much as it will the next morning.

If you tear a tendon, pull a muscle or otherwise really hurt yourself, you simply have to lay off the hard climbing. Some light movement after an initial immobilization period can help a lot. When you come back, start slow, use tape, and build up gradually.

It’s common sense, but sometimes we need reminders.

Labels: climbing, tips, touchstone

Climbing takes a lot of energy, so it’s only natural that climbers would want to put the right fuel in their bodies, in the right amounts.

But finding nutrition tips specifically for climbers can be tough. The most common advice is “eat right,” with no specifics about what’s right for the day of a big climb vs. the night before, or what’s best to keep handy for an energy boost in the middle of a climb.

The second most common advice comes in the form of posts from climbers who are glad to describe what they eat and when, but with little insight as to why their preferences are better than anyone else’s. Vegan or omnivore? Clif bars or Snickers? Energy drinks or sports drinks. Or water? Before, after and/or during?

Here are some resources that offer a bit more insight:

To get some insight into what happens to all that food you eat, take a look at the description of carbohydrate loading at indoorclimbing.com. Roam the site to learn more about how muscles work and their protein requirements, and the nutritional advice for preparing for a competition. You’ll find the recommendations change as the comp date nears, with more emphasis on carbohydrates.

Energy bars are popular, but not all created equal. Even the bars from a single manufacturer aren’t all created equal. Take the popular Clif line. As graded by the Calorie Count site, most of the company’s products fare well nutritionally. But a few, such as the Mojo Honey Roasted Peanut bar, rate only a C-plus.

For some full menus, there’s Beth Bennett’s “Nutrition for Climbers.” The 1993 paperback from Chockstone Press is only about 30 pages long, but offers recipes for complete meals.

Labels: climbing, tips, touchstone

When you are about to flash a route, take some time beforehand to find out what the route is telling you. True, you have had no rehearsals, but some of the moves should be obvious from the ground. If there’s a part where you can’t tell what the moves are, there may be a hidden hold or something else that’s invisible from the ground. Ask around for someone who has climbed it before; good beta can be vital to getting through these sections.

While you are working the route, pay close attention to what you are doing on the hard moves. See what works and what doesn’t work. Once you figure out a sequence that works, rehearse it at least three times to lodge it in your head. The next time you go up, you’ll have the pattern in mind and you’ll float right through the hard moves while your muscles are fresh.

When you are working a set of moves, be ready to try improbable stuff. You never know what might work. And you may discover the new trick you need to break into the higher grade.

Labels: climbing, tips

When climbing, try to use your feet more like hands. Sometimes, especially on steep routes, it's possible to hook your heel or even your toes on a hold and pull your body in.

Also, try to relax -- don't over grip on the hand holds. It often takes much less force to stay on the hold than an anxious climber exerts.

And shift your hips -- you can produce dramatic differences in the difficulty of hanging on a stance with subtle shifts in hip position.

Labels: climbing, tips

Stuck at a desk and looking for some inspiration? Google Video offers one quick way to see fellow climbers in action.

The obvious search term is "climbing," but it may return too many hits that don't interest you. Try a few of these search terms instead:

* rock climbing
* indoor climbing
* sport climbing
* bouldering
* Yosemite climbing (or El Capitan climbing, or San Diego climbing, or any
other destination you like)

Some terms don't work as well. Search for "top rope" and you'll get mostly
pro wrestling videos, for example.

Don't forget, you can sort the results by date, title, relevance and viewer
ratings.

To get you started, here's a look at the World Cup competition last year in Dresden Germany.

And, be sure to check out our online photo
gallery for pictures from past competitions. (You might see an old friend
having fun.)

Labels: climbing, tips

When you want to push yourself to do harder problems in the bouldering area, find a friend who knows how to give a sweet spot. It will help you mentally -- when you want to stab for that last high hold to get the redpoint -- and physically, by heading off sore ankles and other minor mishaps that can happen indoors.

Boulderers who fall in a controlled way also have the best chance of receiving help from good spotters. A good spotter will be close enough to grab the climber's hips and guide them to the floor, but far enough away to avoid being squashed.

A good spotter will also scoot a pad underneath a climber as she moves, plus will slow and guide her fall onto a mat so that the climber doesn't injure a wrist, twist an ankle, or hit her head.

Labels: climbing, tips

Do you know your anaerobic threshold?

Depending on your fitness level, your body's systems are able to process the waste byproducts of exercise and replenish your muscles for more work. You cross the anaerobic threshold when you exceed your body's capacity to keep up with the load and waste products like lactic acid accumulate and the muscles cannot be replenished.

Aerobic activity is relatively low level activity that can be sustained for long periods because your body's systems can successfully resupply the muscles with oxygen. Anaerobic activity is high intensity activity that cannot be sustained for long periods because your body's systems cannot resupply the muscles with the necessary oxygen.

Labels: fitness, tips

Ask the Dr. w/ Rachman Chung, DC, ART, CMT on November 7th from 6-8pm at Mission Cliffs.. Dr. Chung graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic West, cum laude. Dr. Chung is a former extreme sports athlete & knows from personal experience what it is like to suffer from chronic injury and the level of commitment necessary to fully recover. Dr. Chung is fully certified in Active Release Technique. His examination and treatment methods combine principles of postural analysis, orthopedic, neurological and musculoskeletal tests, gentle touch, adjustments of the spine and extremities, and progressive rehabilitation. This is a Free Event!

Labels: event, mission cliffs, tips

Touchstone Concord staff have favorites in the retail area. Here Scott Chandler and Andrew Descalso share their top picks.

Scott says: The Petzl stainless steel thermos will surely become your most used and dependable crag companion ever. While sleek and stylish, it is also extremely durable and will keep your beverage of choice piping hot for hours on end. It sports a cap that doubles as a cup and for easy one-handed operation just press the red button to open and close the valve. Whether on your way to the crag or in-between attempts on your latest project, the Petzl thermos will be there for you, dishing out the heat you need.

Andrew says: One pair of jeans, in three different colors describes my normal cold season wardrobe of Prana’s Drifter Jeans. For me, they are fashionable enough to wear out at night so I don’t get hassled by my many girlfriends, even though “I bought them at the climbing gym.” The jeans are an agile and comfortable pant to climb in, especially for colder outdoor sessions or the relaxed Friday night plastic-pulling social hour.

Further proof that I, as a man, will never understand women’s fashion was given when I saw designs and writing on the inside of the new women’s t-shirts in our retail shop. These shirts from Mission Playground all sport inspiring phrases, such as: “Live with Passion” (on the front of this Kelly green 100% organic cotton t-shirt). Despite my confusion over seeing art on the INSIDE of a shirt, I appreciate the message stating that their non-profit organization funds the outdoors I love. Flip their shirt inside out today to find out what Mission Playground is all about.

Labels: climbing, concord, tips

A clear head helps you take the lead
Part two about how to improve at lead climbing

Lead climbing is a mental challenge as well as a physical challenge. When we lead, we think more about falling, about the distance between bolts, about hazards on the wall below, and all the things that never bother us when a rope is attached to the top of the climb. Whether it’s conscious fear or just a vague feeling of unease at the back of your mind, it takes its toll: You grip everything a little bit more, you climb with less confidence, and after a while you're worn out on what should be easy moves.

In Part 1 we discussed the mental challenge, along with tips for getting in the right frame of mind. But muscles still count. Mind and body work together, so here are some ways for your body to help your mind.

First, remember to rest on the route. It’s more important when leading than at any other time. Even if you are climbing at optimal efficiency, leading takes longer and you have to exert yourself more. You have to stop at every bolt, shift around, find a comfortable stance, and then hang by one arm long enough to clip.

When you do clip, don’t always use the same arm. Spread the load from arm to arm so you don't get to the top with one arm complete trashed. Get into the most efficient, comfortable stance possible. Tense leaders clip from bent arms and wear themselves out. Instead, hang low on a straight arm, letting your legs carry the weight.

Also, get your clipping down cold, so you don't fumble getting the rope into the carabiner. Every extra second here leaves less strength in your arms for the most difficult parts of the climb. Don’t wait until you are on a climb to get both arms used to clipping. Hang a draw someplace handy and practice clipping it. First use your right hand, clipping from the left and the right. Then use your left hand, clipping from the left and from the right. Some climbers will hang some practice gear on the rear-view mirror in the car and put a rope in the front seat. That way they can clip while they are stuck in traffic. (But keep your eyes on the road when you start moving again.)

The final tip is partly mental, but mostly physical: Use some strategy. Break the route down into pieces. There should be obvious, easier places to clip from. Climb quickly between these and the rests. Don't hesitate in the hardest part, especially when you know what you need to do. Make the clip and then climb with confidence.

When you pull it off and lead a challenging route -- and do it with some psychological composure instead of whimpering for your mommy -- nothing feels better. All you can think of when you are done, ironically, is getting back to those great moments between bolts when you were cranking hard moves.

Those are the moments climbers live for.

Labels: climbing, tips

On Thursday, October 12th from 6-8pm at Mission Cliffs, Dr. Rachman Chung will be answering questions and providing advice regarding musculoskeletal health, injury recovery, and general healthy well-being.

For anyone who has heard something in their body pop, tear, or squish - or for those who wish to prevent such common maladies - this informational session is just what the doctor ordered.

Dr. Chung (DC, ART, CMT) graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic West, cum laude. He is a former extreme sports athlete and knows from personal experience what it is like to suffer from chronic injury and the level of commitment necessary to fully recover. He is fully certified in Active Release Technique and is currenty pursuing a post-graduate degree in Chiropractic Neurology through the Carrick Institute. He is also certified in Zen Shiatsu. His examination and treatment methods combine principles of postural analysis, orthopedic, neurological and musculoskeletal tests, gentle touch, adjustments of the spine and extremities, and progressive rehabilitation.

Labels: mission cliffs, tips

A clear head helps you take the lead
The first of two articles about how to improve at lead climbing

Lead climbing is a challenge that goes beyond physical obstacles. You may know that you can do the moves, you may already have climbed a grade easily on top rope, but somehow when you lead it's inexplicably hard. You fall off pumped - with swollen, overworked muscles.

The problem is less about muscles, however, and more about what’s in your head. When we lead, we are understandably anxious about falling, about the distance between bolts, about unexpectedly hazards on the wall below. Sometimes you aren’t even conscious of the fear. It's just a vague feeling of unease at the back of your mind. It takes practice to recognize it, much less eliminate it.

That fear takes its toll however: You grip everything a little bit more, you're less willing to take risks, you don't flow through the moves. As you move up the route, all those little things accumulate and bring on a crisis. Suddenly you're worn out on what should be easy moves. But the problem started way back when you were tying in.

There are two things you can do: train your mind and train your body.

Let’s start with the purely mental aspects.

First, you simply need to lead a lot. The more time you spend doing it, the more comfortable you get with it. You develop good habits. Eventually it becomes second nature. Ensure you know the principles of safe lead climbing, have an attentive lead belayer, and that your early attempts to lead have been closely observed by an experienced lead climber. Then when you are at the gym or at the cliff, don't pass up an opportunity to lead, even if the top-rope is already up. If you are outside, pull the rope and lead it for yourself. If you are inside, lead it if it's allowed.

Second, lead routes that are well within your comfort level, especially when you are warming up. Get on routes that you know well, and that you can lead with ease. This gets your thoughts into a good groove. You are telling your stressed-out nervous system, "this isn't so bad." You are establishing confident, strong, relaxed associations with leading and with climbing. If you haven’t developed much confidence yet, fake it. Make your body act like it is strong, comfortable, and relaxed. Act this way long and often enough, and somehow it becomes true. Psychological research has shown that forcing yourself to smile, for example, even when you don't feel like it, actually has a neurological affect on you that makes you feel better.

Confidence and relaxation on a route work the same way. If you have spent enough time doing easy routines that you know well, and developing good mental habits, your body and mind will slip into that familiar groove, even when the route might have completely stressed you out or sent you falling off otherwise.

It's a cliché, but if you focus too much on negative thoughts, you are sure to make the anxiety worse and guarantee a bad time on a route. If you fill your head with thoughts of the dangers, the run-out between bolts, how tired your arms feel, or how hard the route is, they’ll take over your body as well. Pessimistic predictions will fulfill themselves. Repeat affirmations to yourself. Laugh, smile, keep busy (when you are not climbing), or whatever else you can find that works for you.

Being a good lead isn’t entirely mental, however. In Part 2, we’ll look at a few physical tips to keep you at the top of your game.

Labels: climbing, tips

Anyone fed up with the media’s apparent complication of information regarding food groups? Touchstone’s CEO certainly is. ‘Study after study on the topic of health is flawed. Correlation is not causality’ he says. ‘And besides, we’ve known many of the answers to basic health for decades.’ Mark Melvin, a casual reader of Scientific American, finally dug up an old article and had it reproduced for members as a courtesy of Touchstone. If you’re interested in hearing that fat percentage does not equate to being fat, and that whole grains might as well not be the same group as non-whole grains, ask for a complimentary copy at the front desk of any Touchstone gym.

Labels: community, fitness, tips, touchstone

Jardine revolutionized trad climbing with invention of Friends in 1970s

In the early 70s, like many Yosemite Valley climbers, Jardine's climbing abilities were exceeding the current state of climbing gear technology and pushing the boundaries of climbing difficulty.

Jardine had a background in aerospace engineering, and had been pushing the limits into the 5.12 range (a level that only a handful of people could climb at that time.) He had run up against the limitations of passive nut protection and hexes on routes. He could also see the inherently destructive nature of continuing to use fixed pitons and other hammered gear in pristine Yosemite granite.

So with the help of a buddy and a fully equipped machine shop, he began working on the first of what would become modern SLCDs, or spring loaded camming devices. His early prototypes had a rigid stem and no trigger or cables--you needed four hands to retract the cams. He carried the prototypes around in a bag and kept the secret quiet.

While they were preparing for a climb on Washington Column, a buddy asked him if he had his bag of "friends" with him, refering to the crude but incredibly helpful prototypes. The name stuck.

Later, after he refined the design, Jardine was able to put the Friends into full production with the Wild Country company in England. The devices revolutionized climbing, making it possible to safely do routes that had never been done before, and to do routes that could not be climbed safely otherwise. The camming devices were incredibly strong, versatile--expanding or contracting to fit a wide range of cracks, and they were easily placed and removed.

The modern version of the original Friends that you have on your rack with strong, flexible stems, double-axels, expanded camming range, and bomber breaking strength are direct descendents of Jardine's ingenious homemade gagdets.

For more on the first 'Friends', check out Ray Jardine website.

Labels: climbing, tips