In the picture, approaching the full tank. Today I definitely wanted to do something, being Saturday, after the hard week of rest, African temps and depression. So I started it out with a nice lie in. Then I went out to buy some books, then I practiced with my bass for a couple of hours. What else can you do to spend time before training?
Sadly with the Summer in full bloom, my options are not as I'd like: for a starter the gym is closed and I can't lift; then at the board it's always more than 30° and it's really hard to train well, everything feels nails without being nails. Plus, skin is an issue. I decided to do some weights at home, something that I don't particularly love, because I am a lazy bastard and I like to have all the barbells ready for my likes, instead of spending time mounting and dismounting them to adjust the weight for each excercise and set. Moreover, I can't do all the routines that I can do at the gym and this sucks.
A few weeks ago I had a great moment of psyche doing a few tests. I really enjoyed it and soon they became, as usual, a goal in themselves, with my mind completely centered on improving the hangs by a few seconds, each time.
One test I really cared about, but sadly I couldn't perform it properly. It's the maximum added weight you can hang for five seconds on a 1,5 cm flat edge. I had tried it at a friend's place, but the fingerboard is crappy, and mounted over a step, and I didn't feel like pushing it, so I got to 40 kg and called it quits. Today, with an entire evening at my will, I took the car, loaded the trunk with iron plates and drove around the building to the garage. There I started my journey into madness again.
It's been great. By putting together all the weights I have at home and the weightvest I managed to really get to the limit.
I did all ten seconds hangs up to 55 kg, then I did eight seconds with 60, then a final 5 seconds with 63, that incidentally are all the weights I have.
To be honest, this did not surprise me, because the day I tried the test, after not completing it, I was feeling very angry and I tried a few one arm hangs on the same edge, and I managed them; so it was quite clear to me that I could do much more than 40 kg, but still I had to do it to be satisfied.
I still don't know - and if someone does, please help me - how one arm hangs and two arm hangs relate. In my case things are quite coherent, I weigh 65 kg and managed to add 63. My right arm is a lot stronger than my left one, though, and this clearly shows in the one arm hangs.
It's been a good test.
It's very time consuming, though: I went on by 5 kg increases, so I did quite a few hangs with full rests in between; it's also quite hard on your body. I ended up attaching 50 kg at my waist with an old harness, and 13 more in a back pack. Just walking 20 cm under the hold was painful.
So, I don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon, but it's been a good test.
I haven't trained with heavy added weights in years. I used to, when I only had a fingerboard and a campusboard - oh, another question: why did I wait ten years before mounting a board in my house? - and I did it for quite a long time. I managed to add 47,5 kg for one pull up on a 0,9 cm edge.
Now I'm stronger, and I haven't attached more than 10 kg to my body when fingerboarding, in the last six or seven years, maybe more. The Beastmaker paid out, for sure. Isolating fingers clearly worked and this is all that matters.
Just after a few hours, I feel my body pretty tired. All the weight it took surely takes its toll.
In a moment of great personal turmoil, this stupid test - to which I already knew the answer, also! - provided a small oasis of calm and self confidence.
It's a window on the future and also the confirmation of good work in the past.
Now all I have to do is keeping the fucking faith.
Finally, I want to thank Tom and Hayley for their visit: another oasis in the storm; and Eva Lopez for giving me the inspiration and the answers.
And here. We. Go.
Sadly with the Summer in full bloom, my options are not as I'd like: for a starter the gym is closed and I can't lift; then at the board it's always more than 30° and it's really hard to train well, everything feels nails without being nails. Plus, skin is an issue. I decided to do some weights at home, something that I don't particularly love, because I am a lazy bastard and I like to have all the barbells ready for my likes, instead of spending time mounting and dismounting them to adjust the weight for each excercise and set. Moreover, I can't do all the routines that I can do at the gym and this sucks.
A few weeks ago I had a great moment of psyche doing a few tests. I really enjoyed it and soon they became, as usual, a goal in themselves, with my mind completely centered on improving the hangs by a few seconds, each time.
One test I really cared about, but sadly I couldn't perform it properly. It's the maximum added weight you can hang for five seconds on a 1,5 cm flat edge. I had tried it at a friend's place, but the fingerboard is crappy, and mounted over a step, and I didn't feel like pushing it, so I got to 40 kg and called it quits. Today, with an entire evening at my will, I took the car, loaded the trunk with iron plates and drove around the building to the garage. There I started my journey into madness again.
It's been great. By putting together all the weights I have at home and the weightvest I managed to really get to the limit.
I did all ten seconds hangs up to 55 kg, then I did eight seconds with 60, then a final 5 seconds with 63, that incidentally are all the weights I have.
To be honest, this did not surprise me, because the day I tried the test, after not completing it, I was feeling very angry and I tried a few one arm hangs on the same edge, and I managed them; so it was quite clear to me that I could do much more than 40 kg, but still I had to do it to be satisfied.
I still don't know - and if someone does, please help me - how one arm hangs and two arm hangs relate. In my case things are quite coherent, I weigh 65 kg and managed to add 63. My right arm is a lot stronger than my left one, though, and this clearly shows in the one arm hangs.
It's been a good test.
It's very time consuming, though: I went on by 5 kg increases, so I did quite a few hangs with full rests in between; it's also quite hard on your body. I ended up attaching 50 kg at my waist with an old harness, and 13 more in a back pack. Just walking 20 cm under the hold was painful.
So, I don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon, but it's been a good test.
I haven't trained with heavy added weights in years. I used to, when I only had a fingerboard and a campusboard - oh, another question: why did I wait ten years before mounting a board in my house? - and I did it for quite a long time. I managed to add 47,5 kg for one pull up on a 0,9 cm edge.
Now I'm stronger, and I haven't attached more than 10 kg to my body when fingerboarding, in the last six or seven years, maybe more. The Beastmaker paid out, for sure. Isolating fingers clearly worked and this is all that matters.
Just after a few hours, I feel my body pretty tired. All the weight it took surely takes its toll.
In a moment of great personal turmoil, this stupid test - to which I already knew the answer, also! - provided a small oasis of calm and self confidence.
It's a window on the future and also the confirmation of good work in the past.
Now all I have to do is keeping the fucking faith.
Finally, I want to thank Tom and Hayley for their visit: another oasis in the storm; and Eva Lopez for giving me the inspiration and the answers.
And here. We. Go.
5 comments:
Great post, very inspiring! Care to explain at some point how you went from two-arm hangs to one-arm hangs - you seem to know what you're doing :)
Keep up the psyche......winter is on the way!
(A friend of Trev's) based in Ireland
Hey Neal,
Thanks for the appreciation and for finding the time to read my ramblings!
When I shifted from two arms to one arm for the deadhangs, I started on a 2 cm flat edge, taking off weight with a pulley. If I remember correctly I started by taking off 17 kg for the right arm and 20 for the left. Week by week I would improve a bit and after some (a lot) time I found myself able to one arm the hold.
Then I had a long pause from fingerboarding, and I started again more or less two years ago with a Beastmaker. I worked my way through all the different holds - with two arms obviously - over a good period of time, and then started packing in big sessions of hangs (6 reps of 10" for each hold). After a while I started with the 20 degrees slopers and the good rungs with one arm, and from there on again, on various holds taking weight off with a sling. On UKB there are several topics covering these subjects, with a lot of info!!! One of the most underrated aspects, for one arm dead hangs, is having really strong shoulders to stabilize your body. Otherwise it's close to impossible despite strong fingers.
I hope this helps!
Thanks again!
"One of the most underrated aspects, for one arm dead hangs, is having really strong shoulders to stabilize your body. Otherwise it's close to impossible despite strong fingers."
Wow, thanks for this - really appreciate it. That quote above is something I'd never considered (and makes sense now why I saw a big gain this summer after I started doing some free weight work - based of Eva Lopez's great article, http://en-eva-lopez.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/specific-weight-exercises-for-climbers.html).
Keep up the writing, always interesting, nice to see thoughts from other climbers outside of the usual local group - stops me getting complacent :)
:-)
De verdad que alucino.........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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