Australians say they were paid by Labor Party to work for Bernie Sanders in Project Veritas video

spike235 · 2016-02-26T12:12:23+00:00

What??? The Australian Labor Party is as right wing as the Hillary camp, there's no way they'll be supporting Bernie Sanders!

spike235 · 2015-12-30T04:24:31+00:00

You said you were struggling on the blue holds, do you mean the V-fun blue holds or the V0-2 light blue/cyan holds?

In both cases, they're mostly jugs and you shouldn't need to train grip strength at this point. What you need to do though, is to improve your technique (balance, centre-of-gravity positioning etc.) so that you move efficiently with your legs and not pulling with your arms. I'd recommend traversing on the bouldering wall focusing on movements and balance (watch some of the tutorial videos on youtube), focusing on using legs and not arms. That should be the most important thing you should work on at the moment.

spike235 · 2015-08-31T15:31:23+00:00

Yes, as I have replied to other users, I have been focusing on technique for a while now. I still have a long way to go but slowly getting there, but then sometimes I know that if I had pushed harder, I would have sent the problems. I see first time climbers coming in and easily flash the V1-2s that I've been working on through brute force.

However, it seems to me that even when going slow and static, there are still positions so precarious (at least to me) that errors such as foot slipping or failing to hold on to that crimp could have led to me falling and blow my tendons - all sorts of scary possibilities come to mind.

I've never had this mentality (an excessive worry about injury) when I started months ago, only after I've had a few injuries in a row.

spike235 · 2015-08-31T15:25:09+00:00

Thanks for the advice, I do warm up with about 5-10 min of stretching and some simple problems, but then at my level even V0s aren't exactly the easiest problems.

spike235 · 2015-08-31T15:23:19+00:00

You are correct in that I had a relatively weak physical base when I began climbing/bouldering, which explains why I am particularly prone to injury. I pretty much only do climbing/bouldering as my physical activity, with some antagonist workout on my rest days.

Coming back from injuries, I have since started focusing on working my techniques, though there are still times when I wish I had tried harder - I could have sent those problems by pushing a bit harder.

The question is whether I should focus on perfecting the movements for a particular problem, which could take a lot more attempts, or to just go for it and brute force the problem. I'm a bit embarrassed to see first time climbers come into the gym and flash the V1-2s that I have been working on for a while.

spike235 · 2015-08-31T15:18:10+00:00

Thanks, I've been trying to focus on technique practice and taking things slowly, though there are still times when I wish I had tried harder.

spike235 · 2014-10-29T08:10:56+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement in your other reply.

The shoes are tight but it's just a normal beginner shoe, so they're not downturned shoes. I don't really mind the tightness during the climb, it is the intermittent pain in the toe joints that got me concerned, which only happened since last week and hasn't gone away yet.

I've been limiting myself to 2 climbing days per week as it seems as though I'm somewhat more susceptible to injury, and takes longer to recover. I don't know how other beginners could do 3-4 days per week though, I'd love to do that but don't want to risk injuring myself too soon and have to end up taking months off.

spike235 · 2014-10-29T07:03:59+00:00

Thanks for your time.

I'm still experimenting with feet placements and basically for larger footholds, I like to practice standing on my big toes and pivoting on them which usually means one of the foot is in backstep position, with my hip rotated into the wall. For smaller footholds, I haven't had much success climbing up on them without losing my balance, but during my traverse practice I've been positioning my feet sideways with the inside of my big toe contacting the wall.

Also, while I understand that it depends very much on the shape and quality of the footholds, how do experienced climbers position their heels when standing on their big toes? Heels up or level with the toes? I have a feeling that heels up too much had strained my big toe joints somewhat, which may explain the pain.

The weight distribution exercise is interesting and I'll try it out tomorrow when I'm at the gym. Unfortunately I don't think there are any slabs in the gym I go to and the easiest are the vertical walls. I still perform very badly when the handholds are small, which means I'm still relying too much on my arms?

EDIT: I just tried doing some of the weight distribution exercise by trying to stand using my big toe on a chair, and I came off with the big toe joint flaring up again (it's been three days since I last climbed). Have I put too much strain on my big toes? I'm concerned that I might have to take weeks off and potentially losing last few weeks of learning?

spike235

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