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acollins
Jan 10, 2007, 5:35 AM
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Hi all. I have very little experience at training for climbing so I want others opinions on something.
At the start of last year my weight was 228lbs at the end of the year I was 257lbs. Long story but I took a new job and my exercise schedule ended but my love of food did not. Even at 257lbs I'm not fat. I say I am but almost everyone i know says I'm not but i could use to loose a few lbs. I've been climbing off and on for years but just started really hard about 4 months ago when I got $1000 worth of new climbing equipment for free. Before that I climbed in the gym when I could but not often.
I am on a diet and exercise plan, just doing more exercise and outdoor stuff and eatting better. No fast food! I'm loosing weight. I'm at 247lbs right now.
My question about hyper training is. I am comfortable with hiking and exercise at the 257lb mark and when hiking I wear a backpack so I have even more weight on me. As I loose weight should I replace that weight with weight belts or weight in my backpack?
I want to get down to below 220. My goal is 210. My thoughts about training with the weight on me is that one it will help me loose weight faster but I'll also be hyper training. Keeping my body in shape as if I weighed 257lbs. I'm loosing about 2 to 3 lbs a week so I don't think I would hurt myself by adding that to my backpack when I go hiking.
just so you know I went from doing roofing and carrying 80lb packs of shingles every day to working overnights at a tv station so my body can take the physical demand!
So what do the pros here think. Would this be helpful or would I run into problems when my weight gets down so far and i'm working out with say 40lbs on my back?
Thanks to all who can help
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miavzero
Jan 10, 2007, 5:59 AM
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Just keep living a healthy lifestyle and climb regularly. There is no need to worry about getting weaker (unless you have a great deal of pride/ego invested in heavy lifting). Ten years ago I was a muscular 215 pound body builder. Now at 178 pounds, I have a great stregth to weight ratio for hard climbing. I can't put up the numbers that I used to do in lifts like the squat and bench, yet I feel plenty strong to do physical everyday chores.
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angry
Jan 10, 2007, 6:11 AM
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You currently outweigh me by over 100lbs so I might not be the best guy to ask.
When I was cycling, I'd keep a bunch more weight on my bike Nov-March. By mid march I'd drop the 10 extra pounds on the bike. My theory was this weight would make me stronger in the off season, then I'd drop it for the season so I could practice riding fast again.
I think it helped. I've got no proof.
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acollins
Jan 10, 2007, 6:13 AM
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Thats a good point. I want to become a much stronger climber. Im not too worried about being able to lift several hundred lbs. I hear alot of people talk about hyper training and my thoughts were that if I train at the weight im at now then my body would adjust so much easier when I loose that weight.
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acollins
Jan 10, 2007, 6:19 AM
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I also thought about just training with 10 to 15lbs more than what I weigh. I'm not sure but by the time you loose 40 lbs that may be a lot to carry even if you did weigh 40lbs more 6 months before that.
I'm lucky because I live in Northeast Georgia and we don't have much of a winter here and my local area is kind of south east facing so its warm most of the year so i don't think there is much of an off season here. I'm active outdoors most of the year.
I just don't want to end up hurting myself by training with too much weight on me.
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mtengaio
Jan 11, 2007, 10:37 PM
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You're on the right track by first of all eating right. Good job!
Next comes the exercising. If you're looking to drop weight then I'd suggest running, swimming or cycling becoming an almost daily routine. Lifting low weights/high reps will help keep your metabolism burning as well. But, I don't see how adding weights to your backpack will help you lose weight, if anything it will build your legs bigger and stronger which is kind of a negative for cragging ( good for alpine though!). And I would not suggest climbing with weights attached to you unless you are already climbing 5.12 or above and need that extra edge during training, you're just asking for injuries. Just my thoughts though.
When I started climbing 7 years ago I weighed about 20 lbs. more then. I changed a few things in my lifestyle which have become permanent fixtures in how I now live, (running, x-country skiing, better nutrition, etc.). Permanent weight loss isn't something that can be rushed – you need to change certain aspects of your lifestyle and find aerobic activities that you enjoy and keep you motivated.
Oh yeah, and don't forget to climb a lot!
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haydenlake
Jan 12, 2007, 1:21 AM
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From what it sounds like you don't have any problem with strength and your body can take hard training. So if you want to get stronger at climbing dropping weight is surely going to help, of course keep climbing and doing normal toning exercises like dips, push ups, one legged squats, pull ups, etc. but focus the majority of your non climbing energy on cardio.
For instance I'm 6'2" and 165lbs and I'm bigger and weigh more than the majority of elite climbers. I have a 29" waist and my shoulders could be almost double that, when I was in spain my forearms measured larger around than my calfs. I could lose 8-10lbs of fat if I worked at it.
My point is that weight is huge for climbing, up to 5.12 its not super important but once you try to get on 13's it really matters.
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acollins
Jan 12, 2007, 9:41 AM
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I agree about the extra weight. I know that I was able to do many more pullups and chinups when I was 25lbs lighter. I plan to loose a lot of weight but i'm a very big guy. I'm just made that way. I don't know how low I can go. If you go by all the charts and such I should we around 180 I think but I don't think i'd be able to do 180 if I tried. I'm just too big. I'm 54" around my sholders so if I lost that much weight I would look strange. 
I am ashamed to admit that I've only climbed 5.6 outside. Not that I think its the best I can do at all but my partner likes the easy stuff. We however are going to try a 5.9 today in my local area. I don't think its too far outside of my climbing level though. I have a home wall that I climb on and not sure what to rate it at but its way harder than the 5.6's I climb on the crag. Tonight I'll fill you in to what happens on the 5.9 we try today.
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hsvclimber
Jan 12, 2007, 1:14 PM
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The weight will carry different. I was 205lb and could climb 5.11. Now I'm 135lb and at 5.12+/13-, but I don't think I could climb the 5.10's & 11's I was doing back then with a 70lb pack at 135lb. The 70lb were spread all over my body, it wasn't all on my waist or back. If I want to hyper gravity train above about 20lb, I wear a 20lb vest, 5lb each ankle weights and 2.5lb each wrist weights, thats only 35lb and it is different than climbing when at 205lb.
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reg
Jan 12, 2007, 2:05 PM
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IMHO - "hyper" training could cause you some injuries - "too much of a good thing.....", "all things in moderation", etc. certainly train - but rest as well.
lose weight, but anything below your "natural" body weight will be hard to maintain. remember weight loss is simple: burn off more calories then you put in = weight loss. just make sure you put in quiality stuff! you never mentioned how tall you are.
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acollins
Jan 13, 2007, 9:05 PM
Post #11 of 11
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Ok
So that 5.9 kind of killed me yesterday. I could only get about 30ft up it and then I would be so tired that I would fall. Guess that means that I need to do a lot more training. I'm kind of proud of myself that I made it 30ft up though. It's only about 70ft high I would say.
After that we went over and climb on our normal slab on another 5.6. I have to say when your really tired that easy 5.6 feels so much harder. :-)
Oh well. Better luck next time.
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