Nov 12, 2009, 3:36 PM
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Lifting and climbing grades
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This is kind of a mess. Read through all the answers, I hope I've covered you there.
Basically how hard do you climb and what do you do in the weightroom.
Personally, I was in the 5.12- to 5.12+ and never lift category but I had a shoulder that was starting to bother me. I have been doing some some light ROM work with medicine balls and it doesn't bother me anymore so now I'm in the lift for injury prevention category.
Hmm... the omission that I'd point out is some variant on "people who lift, but not specifically to improve climbing."
I climb 5.11- to 5.11+, and do lift a bit, but don't really equate that with my climbing. I lift (and only moderately) for general tone, and because it makes me feel good; to improve my climbing, I climb more. Any overlap that I've ever noticed between the two is modest at best.
I don't think you can necessarily correlate weight lifting and climbing grades. Climbing develops climbing specific strength, technique, and experience. Lifting develops strength in a rather generic way. If your limitation is not being strong enough, then lifting may help, from a pure difficulty perspective. At high grades, most people are failing from lack of finger strength and endurance, poor technique, and poor flexibility.
I think where lifting does help is from a resiliency perspective, if and when you are doing routes that are physically taxing. For example, big wall climbing where you are shuttling heavy loads, jugging pitches, hauling, pulling on your daisy, etc. For a weekend warrior, it is not really feasible to subject oneself to this abuse on a regular basis, so weight training can make you a bit more bullet proof when you make that trip.
Also, some lifting is potentially climbing specific. John Bachar used to do pull ups with heavy weights around his waist. John Long was a total gym rat. Lynn Hill was a gym rat.
Eric Horst's HIT strip training is a form of weight training, as the same movement is repeated under increased loading until failure. This is the bread and butter of resistance training.
For me, my shoulders do better with some weight training, and I feel like my footwork is better when I've been doing squats. I also hold up better with multiple grueling days, with less fatigue or soreness.
I climb in the 5.10's and lift for general fitness. I'm 31 years old and had a few unhealthly years in my mid twenties. I've been climbing 2 years, love it, and am trying to get into better shape. Hopefully it improves my climbing, but I don't think weight training (when done properly) can ever really 'hurt' you.
Making this poll even longer would have been an even bigger mess, but I think you also had to break it into separate categories by gender, because there is a significant difference in attitudes towards lifting between males and females, and thus the answers would be very different, IMO.
Making this poll even longer would have been an even bigger mess, but I think you also had to break it into separate categories by gender, because there is a significant difference in attitudes towards lifting between males and females, and thus the answers would be very different, IMO.
Tell us more...
My hypothesis / speculation would be that females would benefit more from resistance training than males, but would be less likely to do any.
Making this poll even longer would have been an even bigger mess, but I think you also had to break it into separate categories by gender, because there is a significant difference in attitudes towards lifting between males and females, and thus the answers would be very different, IMO.
Some of my college professors would call that sexism.. I call it common sense.
Any way, I don't lift weights and I chose the 11- range. I do pushups and pull ups now and then when I'm bored, other than that not much of a workout guy.
Making this poll even longer would have been an even bigger mess, but I think you also had to break it into separate categories by gender, because there is a significant difference in attitudes towards lifting between males and females, and thus the answers would be very different, IMO.
Some of my college professors would call that sexism.. I call it common sense.
Any way, I don't lift weights and I chose the 11- range. I do pushups and pull ups now and then when I'm bored, other than that not much of a workout guy.
It is not sexism to observe that a difference exsists between two genders in their attitude towards something. I am not suggesting that there is an underlying feature specific to females that makes them incapable of lifting weights. I am simply making observation about group behavior.
for me personally, the little training ive been doing has boosted my self belief and confidence, i know its a physicall thing to train but i kinde realised it couldnt be more mentel.. and i dont give a shit! as long as it makes me better.
Making this poll even longer would have been an even bigger mess, but I think you also had to break it into separate categories by gender, because there is a significant difference in attitudes towards lifting between males and females, and thus the answers would be very different, IMO.
Some of my college professors would call that sexism.. I call it common sense.
Any way, I don't lift weights and I chose the 11- range. I do pushups and pull ups now and then when I'm bored, other than that not much of a workout guy.
It is not sexism to observe that a difference exsists between two genders in their attitude towards something. I am not suggesting that there is an underlying feature specific to females that makes them incapable of lifting weights. I am simply making observation about group behavior.
I know, when I posted I had just got out of my social issues class, in which my professor has accused me of being sexist for making similar observations. He's a nut.
(This post was edited by TheRucat on Nov 13, 2009, 5:11 AM)
Making this poll even longer would have been an even bigger mess, but I think you also had to break it into separate categories by gender, because there is a significant difference in attitudes towards lifting between males and females, and thus the answers would be very different, IMO.
Some of my college professors would call that sexism.. I call it common sense.
Any way, I don't lift weights and I chose the 11- range. I do pushups and pull ups now and then when I'm bored, other than that not much of a workout guy.
It is not sexism to observe that a difference exsists between two genders in their attitude towards something. I am not suggesting that there is an underlying feature specific to females that makes them incapable of lifting weights. I am simply making observation about group behavior.
I know, when I posted I had just got out of my social issues class, in which my professor has accused me of being sexist for making similar observations. He's a nut.
He's not a nut; he's a social scientist. What do you expect when you take a "social issues class"?
Making this poll even longer would have been an even bigger mess...
It's not really a mess. It's just that the limitations of the format imposed by the site make it difficult to see if there is a relationship between climbing level and weight lifting—by the way, people, if rock climbing is your priority, it is "weight lifting," not "lifting". Unless someone else does it first, tomorrow I'll organize the data in a table that hopefully will make it clearer what relationship, if any, there is.
Hmm, I think this thread got bombed. I don't think there are 5 people who climb 5.13 who read this website.
I onsighted a 13a once. And by "onsight" I actually mean "redpoint", but I swear I forgot all the beta. And by "readpoint" I mean that I haven't quite sent it yet, but I know it'll go down in one or two more tries. And by "13a" I mean "V7", which I read on one grade conversion chart was pretty much the same thing (after hours of looking for the most liberal conversion chart I could find). And by "V7" I mean the pink taped problem on my home wall which my friend said felt pretty hard. And, uh... no, that was the last one.
I know what you're thinking; pretty hardcore, right? I didn't get as good a I am by lifting weights in the gym, but I did find working with a shovel was good training.
Hmm, I think this thread got bombed. I don't think there are 5 people who climb 5.13 who read this website.
I agree, They need to fess up.
Alright, I admit it! It was me. I climb 5.13 and lift weights. In my defense I only hang around cause I find Sungam and Angry amusing
I suppose I have the option of saying I climb 5.13 but since the last one I climbed was a year ago, I don't claim that grade. Certainly though, I'd feel confident that I could redpoint just about any route 5.12- to 12+ anywhere without too much projecting. 2 days at the most.
If I want to get back into the higher numbers here, I'll have to bolt projects and cross my fingers they're hard. I onsighted one of the harder routes on the island in an effort to put project draws on it the other day.
Hmm, I think this thread got bombed. I don't think there are 5 people who climb 5.13 who read this website.
I agree, They need to fess up.
Alright, I admit it! It was me. I climb 5.13 and lift weights. In my defense I only hang around cause I find Sungam and Angry amusing
I suppose I have the option of saying I climb 5.13 but since the last one I climbed was a year ago, I don't claim that grade. Certainly though, I'd feel confident that I could redpoint just about any route 5.12- to 12+ anywhere without too much projecting. 2 days at the most.
If I want to get back into the higher numbers here, I'll have to bolt projects and cross my fingers they're hard. I onsighted one of the harder routes on the island in an effort to put project draws on it the other day.
Angry gets back into it!
I think that for this poll you maybe could have clarified style of climbing, and whether the grades are onsight, easy project (2nd go), or maximum redpoint. As it stands, you could have someone who consistently onsights 12c trad and someone who siege projected a soft 12a all season at the Red River Gorge clicking on the same level.
I will stand by my statement that in order to see what level you're at, take the lowest grade of anything you've fallen on in the last six months, and subtract a number grade. So, I put that I am in the solid 5.10 category.
Hmm, I think this thread got bombed. I don't think there are 5 people who climb 5.13 who read this website.
I agree, They need to fess up.
Alright, I admit it! It was me. I climb 5.13 and lift weights. In my defense I only hang around cause I find Sungam and Angry amusing
I suppose I have the option of saying I climb 5.13 but since the last one I climbed was a year ago, I don't claim that grade. Certainly though, I'd feel confident that I could redpoint just about any route 5.12- to 12+ anywhere without too much projecting. 2 days at the most.
If I want to get back into the higher numbers here, I'll have to bolt projects and cross my fingers they're hard. I onsighted one of the harder routes on the island in an effort to put project draws on it the other day.
Angry gets back into it!
I think that for this poll you maybe could have clarified style of climbing, and whether the grades are onsight, easy project (2nd go), or maximum redpoint. As it stands, you could have someone who consistently onsights 12c trad and someone who siege projected a soft 12a all season at the Red River Gorge clicking on the same level.
I will stand by my statement that in order to see what level you're at, take the lowest grade of anything you've fallen on in the last six months, and subtract a number grade. So, I put that I am in the solid 5.10 category.
I am a 5.7 climber then because I lost my balance on a 5.8 slab once.
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