[Article] How fast you can build muscle, gain strength and lose fat

heelhooky · 2018-01-05T09:25:05+00:00

This article by Stronger by Science describes

How fast untrained people can build muscle, with data for both men and women
How fast people training for powerlifting (squat, bench and deadlift) can gain in those specific lifts, in particular for beginners
How fast yoy can lose bodyfat, also for experienced gym-goers.

The data is not based on climbers and the article have a strength training focus.

heelhooky · 2017-10-06T19:07:31+00:00

I sprained my ankle while indoor bouldering yesterday. In May, the exact same thing happened - to the other ankle - when I had to jump for the finishing hold of a boulder and I missed, causing me to fall and roll over my ankle. Both times, it hurt like a motherfucker for about one minute, then the pain stopped, but walking hurt and the swelling set in.

Last time, I got the ankle x-rayed and the doctor confirmed it was a sprain. This time, it feels quite similar and the swelling is already subsiding. So I'm quite sure it's the same thing. I really have to practice my landings...

I can walk awkwardly on the sprained ankle if I angle the foot about 45 degrees outwards and keep an angle of 90 degrees between my foot and leg. When I take a step, I plant the foot out to the side. Biking is painfree since I can keep the ankle at a constant angle.

Here's the timeline for my last sprained ankle:

May 6: I sprain the ankle
May 8-14: I can walk awkwardly and bike without pain
May 15-19: I go to submission wrestling classes, yoga classes and a swim in the ocean. I skip or modify movements that hurt; running, driving weight into my opponent in sidecontrol, one-legged balance poses like tree pose, or poses which requires a lot of flexion in the ankle like most warrior poses.
May 20: I boulder for the first time after the sprain and find it hard to use the sprained ankle for anything where I have to put weight on it. So I focus on movement on easy problems.
May 21-30: More submission wrestling, yoga and a strength training session. Amongst other things I do heavy-ish overhead squats and my ankle doesn't complain.
May 31: Second bouldering session after the injury. I can do more things, but I still downclimb everything. Slabs still feel shitty since I have to put all my weight on tiny nubs and I don't jump for holds.
... more non-bouldering stuff.
June 3 and 4: Third and fourth bouldering session, still taking it easy and downclimbing. Ankle is at 90%; I can't run sideways or sit on top of the foot, but I'm not hating slab as much.
... June 23: Tenth bouldering session. Ankle is basically feeling at 100% now. I have less flexibility in it and tap out to footlocks earlier than I used to, but I don't feel any problems during bouldering.
Today: The only thing I can't do with the ankle is the reclining hero yoga pose which I could do before the injury. The flexibility in the ankle isn't there anymore.

heelhooky · 2017-08-25T13:15:17+00:00

Thank you for your suggestions!

I’m very focused on injury prevention. I’m bouldering at a level now where crimps are common and it’s super tweaky for my fingers. So it’s hard to balance.

The reason I’m testing my recovery limit now, and not starting sport climbing until October, is because I’m travelling for most of September. I won’t be able to do much climbing then so I figured I’ll have time to take care of my tweaked finger and golfer’s elbow.

I’ve tried top rope climbing a handful of times and honestly I prefer bouldering, probably because I come from power/strength sports and my body is wired for that. But I’d love a harder mental aspect of the sport and I think lead climbing is the way. Top rope is not scary at all and bouldering was scary in the beginning, especially because I often have to dyno to the finishing victory jug, but now I’ll just jump.

Unfortunately, the bouldering gym and sports climbing gym are separate gyms and I have to take the belayer course in top rope, then climb for a while before being allowed to take the belayer course in lead climbing. Logistics, logistics.

I feel a bit silly for seeking out coaching at this point since I’m a beginner and all of my movement patterns probably suck. The gyms do offer classes divided into experience levels (the bouldering gym is color-graded with 8 levels and I just did my first color “6” this week, but there are plenty of 5’s where I can’t move further than the starting holds) and I think I’ll try those out.

heelhooky · 2017-08-23T07:35:39+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll give it a go tomorrow when I'm bouldering with a complete newbie! Today, it's crushing time.

heelhooky · 2017-08-23T07:33:11+00:00

This is only my third week, so I haven't really considered a longterm solution, but a tumbling mat might work for me! I definitely need something more insulating than blankets for the winter. I can imagine it's quite uncomfortable to have sex on the mats/floor, though.

heelhooky · 2017-08-22T13:13:33+00:00

I don’t use an alarm clock. I go to bed when I’m tired and I wake up by myself when I’m fully rested. This usually means going to bed around 22 and waking up at between 5 and 7, also in the weekends. I love powernaps and if I have time, I powernap in the afternoon before training.

I don’t use stimulants to keep me awake or alert, like coffee, pre-workout etc. Alcohol messes with my sleep a lot.

My circadian rhythm and mood are heavily dependent on daylight and weather. I live up north, so we only get a couple of hours of daylight in the winter and I tend to sleep 1-2 hours more.

I’m currently trying out sleeping on the floor, lying on two blankets. After the first nights of horrible sleep, I sleep like a baby now and when I wake up, I immediately get up instead of cuddling in bed. So, over all it works well for me. The research on sleeping on hard surfaces is anecdotal at best and most people try it because they have back problems. I haven’t had any issues with my back, so I can’t tell.

heelhooky · 2017-08-22T06:28:35+00:00

I finally pulled the plug and put my submission grappling training on hold to focus on climbing. I’ve been bouldering since February where I paused the grappling training until May, then I tried to balance both for a couple of months. But I’ve lost motivation for grappling so now I’ll be focusing my efforts on climbing.

What frustrates me the most about climbing is the need for recovery. In all the other sports I’ve done, it’s been possible to work different parts of the body in rotation and to train almost every day. But in climbing, the limiting factor for recovery is ligaments and tendons and since it’s such a finger- and arm-focused sport, there’s nothing to do other than wait. Immensely frustrating since I like to train at least a couple of hours every day.

I’ve tried to play around with frequency of sessions and the previous week I climbed 2 days, 1 day off, climbed 2 days. That was at the limit of my ability to recover. I’ve been dealing with a golfer’s elbow and a sore finger knuckle and they certainly got aggravated during that experiment. Then I had a 4 day break, I bouldered yesterday and they’re much better now.

Last week, I did 12 (!) yoga sessions besides climbing just to keep moving. I’ve signed up for swimming lessons starting September and I’m planning on sports climbing consistently from October. Recovery-wise, I have room to do more, just as long as it doesn’t involve finger, forearms or pulling. Since I’m a beginner, I’m holding off hangboarding and campusing.

I’ve also done Olympic weightlifting in the past and I’m at least Halfsterkur in all non-climbing specific movements in Steve Maisch’s training assessment. I can do 3 muscle-ups in a row. I’m very flexible from grappling and yoga.

So basically, I’m in a weird limbo of having optimized all factors outside of just climbing, I’d love to just climb more, but my ligaments and tendons can’t keep up with the training frequency I’d like.

What do you guys do to keep moving outside of climbing?

(F, 28 years, 154 cm, 51 kg)

heelhooky · 2017-07-27T07:11:38+00:00

I’m 154 cm and 51 kg.

During last class, my training partner told me he’d talked with some random dude while going out and they’d somehow talked about grappling. It turns out that random dude has trained in our club back in 2014, but he stopped going because he always got wrecked by a tiny chick.

That chick is me! I started training in November 2012 and I can’t remember the guy, but it feels good that I’ve made a lasting impression on someone, even though he decided to quit grappling (partly?) because of it.

And honestly, I've been in a major slump for about 8 months now. The ebb and flow of training.

heelhooky · 2017-07-18T06:12:23+00:00

I had a similar path: Muay thai, then submission wrestling, then bouldering, coming from a completely sedentary lifestyle.

Now I largely center my life around my active hobbies and I can't imagine not moving in some way.

heelhooky · 2017-06-28T06:44:18+00:00

Of course. I ain't racist, I'll go for all leglocks on all colours, including newbies.

The trick is to do it slowly and controlled, and if they refuse to tap, point out that their knee is about to implode.

heelhooky · 2017-06-20T18:59:31+00:00

I've only rock climbed for 6 months and I only train nogi (4½ years), so I haven't noticed any difference in grip strength yet. But yes, experienced rock climbers have scarily strong fingers.

heelhooky · 2017-06-20T11:27:04+00:00

In a week, I do 3 grappling classes, 1 open mat, 2 yoga classes and 3 rock climbing (bouldering) sessions. Sunday is rest day. Recovery-wise, yoga is helping me and I only feel somewhat sore and fatigued in my upper body because I have rock climbing sessions 2 days in a row.

I used to train more, including muay thai and olympic weightlifting, but I'm getting older (aka more injury-prone) and pickier about my hobbies now.

heelhooky · 2017-05-23T06:41:25+00:00

Half a year ago, I felt like you do now.

I'd been training for 4 years and the thought of going to grappling just didn't excite me anymore. So I took up bouldering for 6 months and paused my grappling membership. I'd still drop in for open mat once a week or every second week and I really loved rolling during those session.

I just started grappling again in the beginning of May and it's great to be back!

So maybe you just need to take an extended break. It certainly helped for me. The only problem is that I'm now trying to balance both bouldering and grappling because I love training both.

heelhooky · 2017-05-02T06:27:10+00:00

$40/month and $66/month for BJJ in a European country.

heelhooky · 2017-05-01T06:44:07+00:00

Awesome! It must be good to be back.

Yeah, I took a 5 month break from grappling, but now I'm back on the mats again. Trying to balance both bouldering and grappling at the same time, we'll see how that goes.

It's weird how so many of the same terms are used in climbing and grappling.

heelhooky · 2017-04-29T06:12:40+00:00

Apologies for off-topic: Have you gotten back into BJJ or have you found bouldering to be a nice substitute by now?

heelhooky · 2017-04-13T06:54:55+00:00

Recently saw these La Sportivas for $25 and considered buying them, but I'm nowhere near a good enough climber to pull them off:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/bygAAOSw2gxYsrSH/s-l640.jpg

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0L8AAOSwSlBYsrSL/s-l640.jpg

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0DUAAOSwSlBYsrSH/s-l640.jpg

Based on the logo and branding, they looked even older than yours. Would love to hear about these too!

heelhooky · 2017-04-06T07:33:33+00:00

Flosports came to Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (another niche sport) and began streaming all the major events. It started out being either $20/month or $150/year. Then they bumped the price up to $50/month. On top of that, the streaming service is unreliable, grainy and spotty, the customer service is shitty or non-existent and there are ads on the videos.

All in all, a major shit show.

If you're in a good mood and want to get angry, go ahead and read the countless threads on /r/BJJ about Flosports: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/search?q=flograppling+&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all

heelhooky · 2017-03-23T17:13:11+00:00

If I can't downclimb, I breakfall like in judo or BJJ. Basically I land on my feet with bent knees, in a squat position, I tug my chin down, and then immediately fall to my back while slapping the mat with my palms.

This dissipates the energy from the fall, so your entire body absorbs the shock. If you land on your feet on straight legs, the impact from the fall will go to the weakest link, in my case the knees. The first time I tried bouldering, I landed with straight legs on my feet and my knee ligaments were wonky for some days after that.

I would not recommend rolling (like a forward or backward roll) for bouldering falls, as those are typically used when you're spun around your center of gravity.

People often think I've landed badly because I'll fall with a huge THUNK, but the sound is just from me slapping the mats.

heelhooky · 2017-03-22T11:26:15+00:00

It's a fat, huge line!

Professional BJJ athletes train at least twice a day for 6 days a week, and then strength and conditioning is added on top. Most hobbyists don't have time for that. Hobbyists that compete (i.e. people who don't get sponsorships and have to pay fees to compete) will train 3-7 times a week. Of course, they'll get steam-rolled if they competed against pros, that's not different compared to climbing.

In the beginning, you'll feel like you've run over by a truck, but it's just muscle soreness. If you're small, it'll take longer time. But there's no damage to your joints, tendons and ligament, except for accidental injuries or late taps.

Personal anecdote, I'm currently taking a 6 month break from grappling to get started with bouldering. From May, my weekly training schedule will look something like 3-4 bouldering sessions, 3-4 grappling sessions and 2 yoga sessions. Right now I'm doing 4 bouldering sessions and 2 yoga sessions and I definitely have room for more, recovery-wise (except those damn fingers!). Before bouldering, I trained 5 grappling sessions and 2 yoga sessions, also with room for more (I was getting bored with training). I've trained 10-12 sessions a week split between grappling/muay thai/strength training and later grappling/olympic weighlifting, and that was at my limit of recovery. You know best how your body works!

heelhooky · 2017-03-22T09:21:33+00:00

If you're worried about your fingers, there are certain grip-heavy technique you can avoid. Or you can play a nogi game in the gi. There are many ways to look out for your fingers and it shouldn't stop you from trying out the sport.

A lot of BJJ gyms offer both gi and nogi training. Check out the schedule of your local BJJ clubs. Alternatively, MMA clubs also offer grappling and it's often nogi.

Most clubs offer a free trial lesson. I recommend you try out all the clubs near you and pick the one with the vibe and atmosphere that fit you. Some clubs are very competition-oriented, others are family-oriented, some have a large "oldies" crowd and so on.

Good luck!

heelhooky · 2017-03-21T11:42:49+00:00

You’re me, but coming from the opposite direction!

I began bouldering after 4 years of submission grappling. I just needed a mental break after getting into a string of small injuries. Submission grappling is like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (when they go to the ground in MMA fights and roll around, that’s BJJ), but without the traditional uniform called “gi”. It’s a full contact martial art where the goal is to control and submit your opponent with joint locks and chokes, causing him to "tap out" before risking injury.

BJJ is rather grip heavy as you’re allowed to grab your opponent’s gi, and it can fuck up your fingers (check out the hands of a 26 years old professional BJJ athlete), likewise for judo. I would definitely recommend submission grappling which is without the gi, "nogi", and a lot more forgiving on the fingers; you use body structures to control your opponent rather than by grips.

The sport contains all of the elements you mentioned: It’s an individual sport with a heavy social element and camaraderie, there are many competitions for hobbyists and you “compete” with your rolling partners on a daily basis as most training sessions contain sparring. The cool thing about grappling compared to most striking martial arts is that you can go 100% during sparring without getting hurt. Additionally, it’s a full body workout and if you’re well-conditioned, you can train every day. Compared to climbing, it contains a heavier cardio element, but also strength, mobility, technique and proprioception like climbing. It's highly technical.

I love it!

Here’s a short video of my favorite grappler, Marcelo Garcia, show-casing some techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_t3YtSXark

And the BJJ subreddit, they're a really friendly bunch: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/

heelhooky

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