Arizona Bouldering & Climbing

dear lord, my hands apperently only know how to close on things. thanks to joe showing me a few simple opposition workouts for my hands i have come to realize that my hands are the human equal to an aligators jaw. its soooo sad that climbers, at least dumb ones like me, never realize the importance of training both sides of our muscles. so for any jackass, like me, out there.... train your opposing muscles before you turn into a worthless, injured climber.

oh and by the way, this forum is really boring..... fish or minko, please say something stupid. i know both of you are completely capable. fish, say something even remotely gay or immature. minko, just say something.

I will try to say something smart this time (which is very hard for me to do)!

Anyway, for those who don’t know Steve, he is a great guy, but he is facing a same type of injure as many others, and here is my vision of why that happens:

PEOPLE BOULDER TOO MUCH! No one realizes how hard is for your body. Muscles get strong really fast, but fingers don’t!

what kind of opposition workouts are you doing? i've been trying to train my fingers daily, but adding some new stuff would be good.

I agree with you Minko. I think people CLIMB TOO MUCH. Its hard to take time off because you loose climbing strength, but being that climbing is a highly abusive sport, its wise to take sometime away every now and then.

Steve, it was when I was doing a lot of opposing excercises that I ran into more hand problems. This is just my experience. My cousin was doing this thing where you fill a bucket full of rice and put your hand in and sprout your fingers open in a explosive manner. Said after a couple weeks he started to notice chronic pain in his hands and all the way up to his elbows.

I've found sticking to good ol' barbell finger curls behind the back, keep my hands strong. I think you've seen me do this before. I grab the barbell off the bench set and load up atleast a 45 on each side and pick the bar up behind my back (starting in a squat) and then roll the weight as far down to the ends of my fingers tips as possible, and then roll it up and curl your wrist up to the sky flexing your forearms as hard as you can. I stuck with this for a couple weeks just to see how it effected my hand strength, and I was breaking holds off the wall. It MIGHT also have something to do with the 16 yrs of drumming...

Steve, for what its worth (maybe nothing), take a look at how your gripping holds. You already have vice grip strength, but it might just be a matter of grip technique thats causing repeated injuries. Back in my mid teens I use to flare my elbows a lot ("chicken winging") and that made my hands move to a more open handed position which created great strain on my tendons. Jim Waugh was watching me do this one day and said, crank your elbows in. Ever since I heard him say that, I've really focused on keeping my elbows in to help line up my grip better. I've had less tendon related injuries since and IMO its mainly because I'm focusing on grip placement. I haven't done a single bit of climbing training since I was probably 20. I no longer believe in finger boards, campus boards or anything that takes away from my climbing time while in the gym. I know many will disagree with me on this, but I seriously believe that bouldering in hand with weight lifting will make you much stronger and more fortified for the abuse that bouldering puts you through. Working out your entire body through lifting will create symmetrical balance and strength in the body.

Just my 2

climbo_bg wrote:

I will try to say something smart this time (which is very hard for me to do)!

Anyway, for those who don’t know Steve, he is a great guy, but he is facing a same type of injure as many others, and here is my vision of why that happens:

PEOPLE BOULDER TOO MUCH! No one realizes how hard is for your body. Muscles get strong really fast, but fingers don’t!

HEY GUYS... DEWDS... CHECK OUT DEES TRAVERSEY I PUT UP. I USE IT TO TRAIN FOR HEFFULUPUGUS

OneArmCrank wrote:

I agree with you Minko. I think people CLIMB TOO MUCH. Its hard to take time off because you loose climbing strength, but being that climbing is a highly abusive sport, its wise to take sometime away every now and then.

Steve, it was when I was doing a lot of opposing excercises that I ran into more hand problems. This is just my experience. My cousin was doing this thing where you fill a bucket full of rice and put your hand in and sprout your fingers open in a explosive manner. Said after a couple weeks he started to notice chronic pain in his hands and all the way up to his elbows.

I've found sticking to good ol' barbell finger curls behind the back, keep my hands strong. I think you've seen me do this before. I grab the barbell off the bench set and load up atleast a 45 on each side and pick the bar up behind my back (starting in a squat) and then roll the weight as far down to the ends of my fingers tips as possible, and then roll it up and curl your wrist up to the sky flexing your forearms as hard as you can. I stuck with this for a couple weeks just to see how it effected my hand strength, and I was breaking holds off the wall. It MIGHT also have something to do with the 16 yrs of drumming...

Steve, for what its worth (maybe nothing), take a look at how your gripping holds. You already have vice grip strength, but it might just be a matter of grip technique thats causing repeated injuries. Back in my mid teens I use to flare my elbows a lot ("chicken winging") and that made my hands move to a more open handed position which created great strain on my tendons. Jim Waugh was watching me do this one day and said, crank your elbows in. Ever since I heard him say that, I've really focused on keeping my elbows in to help line up my grip better. I've had less tendon related injuries since and IMO its mainly because I'm focusing on grip placement. I haven't done a single bit of climbing training since I was probably 20. I no longer believe in finger boards, campus boards or anything that takes away from my climbing time while in the gym. I know many will disagree with me on this, but I seriously believe that bouldering in hand with weight lifting will make you much stronger and more fortified for the abuse that bouldering puts you through. Working out your entire body through lifting will create symmetrical balance and strength in the body.

Just my 2

"Chicken Winging" if I am not mistaken... occurs when the shoulder becomes too tired. The climber then lacks the ability to crank the elbow in, putting stress on the fingers.

Finger training is still valid-- Ben Moon and the infamous "school room" in Sheffield, is still actively used. The workouts are hangboard and campus intensive. With the right cross training and opposition, you can finger train. People that pop tendons are typically just strong fingered but lack any kind of muscular support, which leads them to stress their fingers. I have strained a tendon, but never popped anything-- probably because I have enough balanced muscle to stabilize. I have also never pulled a hamstring, probably because my damn quads are so big.

Over-training is a definite issue. However, more injury is likely to be had from jumping on small holds without properly training or developing strength before hand. Finger training can be effective if coupled with a good diet and hydration and opposition training. Bouldering too much is not an issue-- I feel stronger and less injury prone when I climb 2-4 hours each day in Hueco, or like I did this summer. Daniel Woods, Chris Sharma-- they rarely get injured and they climb almost daily. They have conditioned themselves to the stress. But also, look at Chris and Daniel-- they both have never popped tendons (to my knowledge) because they are physically fit. Dave Graham on the other hand, is always bitching about strains because he doesn't have any support from opposing muscles. Dude is a waifer.

I'm done.

And Gerber... I just don't know about you, because from the passerby, it seems like you'd have enough body muscle to help alleviate strain on your fingers... but maybe you are just f-ed.

Fish wrote:

climbo_bg wrote:

I will try to say something smart this time (which is very hard for me to do)!

Anyway, for those who don’t know Steve, he is a great guy, but he is facing a same type of injure as many others, and here is my vision of why that happens:

PEOPLE BOULDER TOO MUCH! No one realizes how hard is for your body. Muscles get strong really fast, but fingers don’t!

HEY GUYS... DEWDS... CHECK OUT DEES TRAVERSEY I PUT UP. I USE IT TO TRAIN FOR HEFFULUPUGUS

Ooohhhhhhhh Yes,

Let see the guy FISH AND CHIPS, who never does traverses. For example, two nights ago, P.L. tried the 14a route at the gym. I haven’t seen anything more desperate in my live. He abused his belayer by pulling on the rope and keeps falling on the first draw for 30 minutes straight, wearing his new climbing uniform: a tight pair of shorts and an Abercrombie and Fitch tang top (red color and gray).

I sorry Fish, but it seems that you are failing of being Euro, you are pretty good of being French (A-hole), but the metro look is missing. I think, I am better gringo than you are Euro, I can easily be fake and I always create competitions.   

AAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaa AAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhhhhhhhh AAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaaaa......................

 

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my life would be so much easier if I didnt have to get out of bed.

oh sweet lord... thats what im talkin bout!!!!!!!!!! ah yes, some good hostility between fish and minko. for all that have given advice, thank you. my injuries have been annoying to say the least, and im sure they are from under-training opposition muscles. i have been doing the bowl of rice thing, a couple rubber band excersizes, and some silly putty excersizes. it seems to be working.... well, its too soon to really tell. but my hands are very tired, not sore, just fatigued (if thats how you spell it).

anyway... fish, please resond to the climbing uniform comment, cuz damn that is funny!!!!!!!!!!

this is what i have missed in this forum. some good, clean, rediculous, girlish name calling. VERY ENTERTAINING!!!!!!!!

I feel that a lot of finger injuries tend to be caused by climbing so much indoors rather than outside. Many plastic holds tend to put your fingers into the exact same position constantly which seems to stress out the muscle and tendon sheath itself.
Climbing outside you are pulling on holds of all different shapes and sizes and give you an all around muscle and tendon strength. You are also not having to use the same feet that may be meant for a tall climber or short climber, instead you are able to put less stress on your hands by using your own balance and foot placement outside.
All I am saying is that I can climb 1-2 hours in a gym and have trouble opening up my hands the next morning, but can climb outside all day and just feel like I had a great all around workout on my hands.

OneArmCrank wrote:

Steve, it was when I was doing a lot of opposing excercises that I ran into more hand problems. This is just my experience. My cousin was doing this thing where you fill a bucket full of rice and put your hand in and sprout your fingers open in a explosive manner. Said after a couple weeks he started to notice chronic pain in his hands and all the way up to his elbows.

Gerber....I NEVER mentioned any of those exercieses with an "explosive" movement. For your poor friend TW, what did he think would happen doing that exercise in that fashion. Think if you never did a bench press, and then went at it with an explosive manner?   A similar case could be compared with dynos, and newbie climbers. One needs to build up the necessary strength for explosive exercises through slow exercises.

OneArmCrank wrote:

........... but I seriously believe that bouldering in hand with weight lifting will make you much stronger and more fortified for the abuse that bouldering puts you through. Working out your entire body through lifting will create symmetrical balance and strength in the body.

That would almost be true if you knew what muscle groups were out of balance. You could be getting them more out of balance by continuning to work the stronger ones. Most weight lifting for climbing totally bogus. You should stick to body weight exercises, as you will be less likely to get injured.

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my life would be so much easier if I didnt have to get out of bed.

tryhard wrote:

Most weight lifting for climbing totally bogus. You should stick to body weight exercises, as you will be less likely to get injured.

Amen Brotha

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Cause you'll never know till you've got the bone.

Not True!!!!!!

Speaking of bodybuilding... anyone been to AZR lately? You may have seen...

THIS!!!!!!!