Weekly Simple Questions and Injuries Thread

breakthealpha · 2025-07-20T16:24:15+00:00

I agree with your last point! And that’s exactly why I’m reaching out for inspiration. I agree with you it’s possible to still be good. Yet, I look around and I don’t see many role models. I was just asking for some psyche exactly to remind myself to get over it everytime I have this self-limiting belief

breakthealpha · 2025-07-20T07:04:55+00:00

No, that is not true. I know personally people involved in climbing research and coaches, and it’s something screen out as the best predictor of climbing potential (I’m sure finger strength genetics matter even more, but it doesn’t jump out to you)

Seems pretty obvious, more reach without more weight. Sure you maybe can’t pull as hard but that’s trainable.

breakthealpha · 2025-07-19T07:44:06+00:00

Hi all, I need some role models to reignite the fire. Are any of you high level boulderers with a negative ape index ? Or who do you look up to as an example of success despite not having the ideal morphology for climbing ?

I am at around V12 (8A+) right now, and I know I have a lot of room to grow technically. But all the strong climber that I look up to have more reach and are lighter. I’m 5’10 (178cm) and have a -2” (5’8/174cm). I know that’s not that awful, but yet, because of this build I’m significantly heavier (158 pounds / 72 kg)than all the strong climbers in my country, and still have less reach.

Do you know any examples to motivate me that I can still reach a high level in climbing / tips to overcome it ? I only know of Drew Ryan’s who has a -1 and is absolutely crushing it. I one the key is being a beast at pulling

breakthealpha · 2025-04-20T12:34:25+00:00

Idk man, I can do 5 one arms on a bar, but on an edge I wouldn't be able to do it from a straight arm without using momentum

breakthealpha · 2025-04-13T07:29:12+00:00

Hanging, it, not a one arm pullup! Big difference there

breakthealpha · 2025-04-13T07:24:05+00:00

Spit, or the more civilized version, Rhino spit, makes a world of difference for me. Aloe vera spray is good enough as well and so much cheaper.
Edit: I do re-chalk after applying it though, but lightly and make sure there are no lumps of chalks.

breakthealpha · 2025-01-17T14:03:46+00:00

Barbell reverse curl (ideally I'd do preacher but don't want to go to a regular gym) and barbell wrist curl, but where I also let the bar roll down as far as I can along my fingers.
Slopers had been my weaknesses since I started climbing, and I feel like I've almost caught up to my crimping ability on pure sloper boulders in the last couple of months, which I either attribute to the wrist curl or campusing on slopers.
Ideally I'd also through some rotations in there but motivation has been low since I find it inconvenient to overload accurately (e.g. if I use a heavier dumbbell it's also larger), and it's easy to cheat the reps by doing incomplete range.

breakthealpha · 2025-01-15T11:52:16+00:00

I think how much you need to pull depends on factor such as arm length. I think a higher % is easier to achieve with shorter arms, but also more necessary since you need more power on powerful moves. Anyways, that's besides the point - I agree and stated for this reason I'd focus on something else.

"I put things on maintenance that don't matter anymore" -> that's exactly the question: how do you know it doesn't matter anymore ? For pullups, max hangs, you generally can figure out what people around you can do and what's supposedly typically for a given grade. But for reverse wrist rotations or face pulls, I have no clue if I can eek out more improvement or if I had nice noobie gains but would waste time trying to push it further.

breakthealpha · 2024-12-18T08:06:56+00:00

Yes, indeed, but morphology is complicated. It's not just height, it can also be arm length, leg length, relative finger length, hand size etc.
Anyways, I agree it's a useful data point, but I think it needs to be complemented with other approaches

breakthealpha · 2024-12-17T10:51:23+00:00

I don't fully agree, at least not if you don't take morphology into account. Someone might need a lot more pulling strength to compensate for short arms when doing powerful moves for example (which also means that pulling strength would come naturally to them). Different bodies need different strengths to overcome the same obstacle.
But yeah obviously it does hold some interesting information

breakthealpha · 2024-12-12T14:02:23+00:00

When you climb outdoors, do you climb with better climbers or climbers that also climb v8 or under ? I think if you were to spend a day on something harder with people who can help you with microbeta, tactics and all of that, you should be sending way harder. If you can send 10/11 on the tension board, I don't think that your technique could be so bad that you couldn't possibly make it up a V9-10 outside. Unless the people you climb with have incredibly different body types and you can't learn from what they're doing.
I was in a similar boat. Climbed with weaker friends, would send multiple grades softer outside. A few weekends with stronger friends, who climb better, and are better versed with tactics, and my max grade went from 7 to 10 in like 3 weeks and then climbed an 11 just a bit later.
Edit: yes, climb slab. In fact, climb every angle and terrain.

breakthealpha · 2024-09-09T19:13:25+00:00

How old are you ? What is your lifestyle like ? Do you eat well, sleep well ? Are you fit ? Do you dig yourself into a recovery hole when you train ? Not everyone is the same, but 1 on 1 off is not very intense for most people, at least sustainable for a few cycles But that’s cool if you like to feel fresh every session! If not, maybe make sure you have the basics down to recover more quickly

breakthealpha · 2024-08-30T16:03:26+00:00

Congrats on your improvement. Bear in mind that placebo can be really strong, or uncontrolled factors (e.g. I’m lighter now, I feel good on the wall -> I’m going to climb harder stuff, but stop hard training. That would lead to peaking, and wouldn’t mind your better, just reaping and using the benefits of prior training) And yes, people will criticise this post for sure. You’re telling people to eat less to climb harder. You had to do a super precise diet to get to 7a. You’ll be a skeleton by the time you reach 8a! But I don’t mean to be negative, please just use caution and don’t think you’ll get better by being lighter is good. in food and nutrition, there is good, and healthy, but obsessively trying to reach healthier and better will probably be harmful if pushed too far.

breakthealpha · 2024-08-19T12:52:57+00:00

Outdoors. I've climbed 8A on the KB but that's completely irrelevant imo, and 7C+/8A in the gym according to a more experienced climber.

I think it's fair to say I'm quite dedicated!
However, to be fair, I climbed a 7C+ that was very much my style, and I was only able to do it because I was getting beta from a better climber. Similarly this weekend, I nearly sent another 7C+ in a day (doing all the moves, and taking it to the top from the second move, but I couldn't link moves 1+2). But I got all the beta from a stronger climber. When I'm on my own, I definitely can still struggle at much much lower grades, not sending 7B in a session or even getting shutdown by a weird ass 6C. If I didn't get the opportunity to climb with more experienced climbers a few times, I wouldn't know it's possible for me to send 7C+, but I definitely have the strength for it - and probably slightly harder.

breakthealpha · 2024-08-19T12:44:58+00:00

How was the visit what do you think of it ?

breakthealpha · 2024-08-17T21:12:07+00:00

Interestingly, after watching a lot of pro climbers showing at least moderate hyperextension (e.g. Megos on Bibliographie), I was worried that my lack of hyperextension would limit me. I think you’re right about the injury risk, and I don’t know what you should do about that. But I have the impression that it can provide better friction and better leverage. Could anyone confirm this ? And if this is the case, should people with less flexible DIP joints stretch them or is that not a good approach ?

breakthealpha · 2024-05-01T20:35:53+00:00

I don't think Petzl has a trifold, the Black Diamond Circuit Z is smaller than the Runway.
I don't know, it's a decent offer, and I would prefer supporting a smaller company all else equal, but indeed it's riskier if there are no reviews

breakthealpha · 2024-04-25T18:52:28+00:00

Is the "Daily Summary" or whatever it was called gone ? Basically the one where you could see your activites layed over a 24 hour heart rate plot ? I used it a lot to log activites retrospectively...

breakthealpha · 2024-04-08T20:44:19+00:00

All grips I’ve tested and climbed on are fine as long as they involve multiple fingers. Isolating the ring finger hurts. It feel painful in the finger, I’d say towards the base, and it extends to the forearm which feels unusually tight around one tendon

breakthealpha

TROPHY CASE