hi,

i've built myself a small crack machine in the garage, similar to shimanilami's one pictured here:

[image]http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8ce08b3127ccec52f8d86e5ad00000040O00AcNmbVs4cMmIPbz4a/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/[/image]

all good - but what on earth do i do with it now?

i'm currently too soft to hang off any of the sizes, even double handed , so at present i've been treating it a bit like a hangboard by doing 10 second (assisted) hangs on each size, alternating left hand above and right below, right hand above and left below.

this means that i do a lap through the five sizes in a three minutes, say, then repeat for five laps total.

does that sound a sensible way to do this? any better ideas out there? going out and actually climbing cracks isn't an option because the nearest suitable crag is a good five hour drive away, which would make for a long evening.

thanks for any help ya'll can offer!

steve

line the insides/front edge of the 'cracks' with fine-grit sandpaper to better simulate rock (or at least, to better prevent splinters).

Dingus wrote a guide to climbing cracks and I don't know the link off the top of my head but if you search here you will find it.

I would imagine that once you read it (and you need to) that it will give you the right mental imagery to improve your crack station to simulate real crack difficulties.

Someone said feet are part of the game and if you read Dingus highly agreed article he states that feet are almost all of the game and hands and fingers are largely for balance except where feet are really thin but you won't start on cracks of that nature anyway.

I would use some skateboard grip tape to line the cracks. To give your hands a break you might use some tape to provide a break although purists will beat me down for even suggesting that. So that is up to you really.

I would ditch the pulley idea except for helping with pull-ups. You really need your feet in the game and once you have that the need of a pulley goes away.

You climb with your feet, not your hands. Your feet give you
balance and security. Say it over and over and just like
with Dorothy going back to Kansas, it will come true.

I built a crack machine in my dad's garage some 30 years ago. I found it to be a waste of time, waste of materials, waste of beer money, waste of space, and totally devoid of motivational inspiration.

Add to that the fact that the mofo's are painful, and really are nothing more than an exercise in pain endurance. If you can make a jam that works, then that jam is going to be the same everywhere you encounter that size. Having said that, every real rock jam has it's nuances, and you would be much better served trying them in the real world. At home, work on general conditioning and pull-ups, etc to build the muscles.

My $.02

This is terrible advice. Sandpaper in a crack machine essentially requires taping up for the workout, even if you wouldn't normally tape. If my hands are in no shape to climb because of my workout, my workout is fundamentally ineffective.

Finishing the wood, sanding it well, and not skimping on the quality of the wood will do a lot more to prevent splinters without requiring that you tape up as well.

I searched for "Dingus Crack Guide" and the first result was "BINGO".

http://groups.google.com/...f2c5de026ec093?pli=1

Maybe you should just lump it and head up to the Bay for the weekend.

Failing that I'm sure that if you look hard enough around Wellington you will find some nice splitter cracks in the numerous towers of sedimentary rock laid down in the last fifty years.