2018 Climbing at a Glance

Another year over and another summary graph of climbs. In 2018 I made a number of changes to my routine, dropping to two indoor climbing sessions a week and added two gym sessions. The focus of the gym sessions was to improve my overall strength and prehab, to prevent injuries.

I am quite happy with the results. Even though the absolute number of routes climbed is lower, I did climb a lot more harder routes in the 7b range. A couple of key factors that I believe helped with this improvement were:

• I started climbing with a new partner who is a stronger climber and is also motivated to improve her climbing.
• We started doing regular fall practice. At the start of each session we now routinely climb a few easy route, don't clip the chain at the top, and fall. It took a month or more to learn to override your brains natural tendency for self-preservation and not wanting to fall. This exercise has made a huge difference in removing a major excuse to attempting harder routes and crux moves.

The addition of regular weight lifting sessions has been an interesting experience and one I would highly recommend. Since I had a lot more flexible schedule last year I was able to commit to two sessions a week and visit a gym during the less busy times of the day. My emphasis was on body weight exercises and compound lifts. My main take away from these gym sessions so far are:

• The first few months is going to be hard and the body will be sore. Stick with it as it does get easier. Have a trainer show you proper technique on all your lifts and check in with them periodically to review your form.
• Compound lifts like deadlift, squat, overhead press are great at engaging large groups of muscles. A lot of climber have issues with shoulder and elbow pains, have good pulling strength but under use other muscle groups. I have noticed that a lot of the pains and niggles I normally had have gone away and I am attributing this to these gym sessions.
• I find climbing more sociable and easier to be motivated as you are climbing with a partner and can't decide at short notice to not go training. With a gym you need to be more motivated.

I didn't get outdoors as much as I should have last year however I did have a few good trips to Fairhead, The Burren, and Wicklow. This year I hope to remedy this situation.