Wrist schmist, or how to train for climbing without using your arms (much)

Right now, I’m typing with one hand while the other soaks in an ice bath. I’ve been rehabbing my left bicep tendon, and my right index finger, for the last couple of weeks. Luckily, neither is serious, but both were overtrained and headed for serious if I didn’t back off, get some rest, and shift my focus to rehab exercises, stretching and conditioning.

Luckily, I have friends with stories, who can type with two hands.

Cue the amazing, bad ass Lydia. Read on for her story of climbing injury heartbreak, rehabilitation, and unfailing optimism. Plus, I’m the least yoga’d person I know, so enjoy the tips from Lydia that I could never give you myself! And, allow me one editorial comment… this is an example of why I don’t ski! Thank you for sharing your story, Lydia!

About Lydia… she climbs, hikes and designs and loves adventures with her dog Isabel. For more info, check out www.lydiawhitehead.com or follow her on Twitter.

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It was end of January and I was just starting to feel the mid-winter blues. I couldn’t go outside to climb (unless I wanted to hike through snow and freeze my fingers and toes off, which I did not), so I’d begun a super regular regime of gym climbing and was excited at the prospect of being ready for harder climbs outside in the spring. To help with the winter blues and enjoy the outdoors, I thought I’d try a winter sport. So I went snowboarding for the first time with a friend of mine who’s a seasoned snowboarder.

And that’s when it happened.

I took a lesson to get comfortable with the basics and at the end, I strapped completely into the board (we’d practiced with just one foot strapped, to get used to the feeling of the board on snow) and proceeded to take a nasty backwards fall down the bunny hill.

Not one of my finer moments.

In the process of taking that spectacular fall (and oh, was it spectacular, feet up over the head and everything), I also managed to sprain my right wrist. Brilliant. My first thought was, Crap, I need this wrist to climb on! I’ve just been injured in a sport that isn’t even one I practice regularly! Oh funny sense of humor the universe has.

The pain was intense for the first hour, but after some ice and immobilization, it waned oh-so-slightly and I thought to myself, at this rate, I could probably be back climbing in a week or so. Optimist, I am.

The doctor had other ideas. The diagnosis was no climbing, no putting any weight on the wrist for any reason, move it as little as possible for 6-8 weeks. Which meant that Super Regular Climbing Regime for Maximum Spring Fitness® was out the window.

What now?

While I was totally bummed, I knew that I didn’t want the inability to use my wrist stop me from training for climbing. Instead, I decided I would do everything I could training-wise that didn’t require the use of my wrist. This, by the way, was frustrating, because at that point I really wanted to focus on strengthening my upper body. Let’s not talk about how many pull ups I could do at that time (pull ups are still a big challenge for me).

So, I put an emphasis on strengthening my core and working on my balance, both important things for climbing. Here’s what I did:

Yoga Poses

For balance, I started in Mountain Pose, moved to Tree Pose, then moved to Warrior III Pose. I returned to Mountain Pose and then repeated the sequence with the other foot. As it got easier, I held the poses longer and also practiced them with my eyes closed.

For core work, I held Full Boat Pose and slowly lowered to the floor into Corpse Pose. I then did Dolphin Plank Pose, and from there moved down into Locust Pose to strengthen my back.

Balance Ball Exercises
For back strength, I did something similar to Locust Pose, see here and here.

For core strength, I did ab crunches (on a balance ball, these are much more difficult!)

Aside from the above, I did regular floor crunches with variations, as well as lunges. I added more cardio by running at least 3 times per week (which was difficult to find motivation for, it was winter, remember?)

In training that way, I found that I was happy to be doing *something* to advance my climbing ability and I felt my balance and core did improve. It also made those six weeks seem to go by faster. And it brought me back to running, something I enjoy but had fallen out of the practice of doing.

I’ve had my wrist back for a few months now, but I’ve kept most of those exercises in my training schedule. Now that I can climb again, I feel that I’m climbing with a bit more control and balance on the wall. Routes at the gym that were somewhat wobbly for me before the injury are less so now, which makes my heart do a tiny little fist pump and say “Yesssss!” I’m still no climbing bad ass, but I’ll take any improvement I can get.

Your results may vary, but this worked quite splendidly to get me through my climbing hiatus and keep me out of the injury doldrums.

Filed under: Guest Posts, Injuries and Rehab, Training

When the French say "il pleut à verse" they’re not talking wine…

I have yet to travel internationally for climbing (not counting Squamish), or anything else, for that matter (not counting Canada) — but luckily I’ve got friends to serve as scout party and inspiration for my future international adventures. When Lauren Yant tweeted that she was on her way to Fontainebleau, in part for a climbing trip, I asked if she’d be willing to write a guest post. She agreed, but then when she got back, she was discouraged because they’d had lousy weather and hadn’t gotten in as much climbing as planned. We chatted a bit, and my take is… sometimes that’s what climbing trips are. So, I’m thankful that Lauren was willing to still write, and she sent the following story and pictures.

Here is the first in what I hope will be a series of international adventure stories from my guest-posting, world-traveling friends… at least until I get my own passport again, sometime soon!

About Lauren Yant
Lauren is an outdoorswoman and marketing professional based in Salt Lake City. She’s also the style, brains, and everything else behind Ruthie Pearl, her line of funky, fantastic reusable tote bags. For more information about Lauren, connect with her on Twitter or visit RuthiePearl.com.

Special! Lauren set up a coupon code for rockclimbergirl.com readers. If you use the coupon code theclimbergirl at checkout on RuthiePearl.com, you’ll save 20%. Thank you, Lauren!

Now, here’s Lauren’s story!

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Our “climbing” trip to France started on a lazy Sunday afternoon at the Blue Plate Diner in Salt Lake City. My boyfriend, Scott, had always wanted to climb at Fontainebleu. And me? I just wanted to go to Europe. I turned to Scott while enjoying my fry sauce (THE world’s best condiment, note), and I said, “Let’s do it. Let’s book our trip to France.” That afternoon, we started searching for flights and finally settled on two tickets at just under $700 each (not a bad deal at the time).

The next few weeks were spent anticipating and planning for our trip. We found an amazing deal on a “gite” in the small town of Trezan just minutes from the climbing areas of Fontainebleu. We were to land at Charles de Gaulle, rent a car, and drive there to stay and climb for one week. After that, it was on to Paris for a week of sightseeing, eating, more eating and enjoying cheap (but delicious) wine.

Upon landing in France, it was obvious that our plans would have to change. It was raining. Not a torrential downpour–but raining. And kind of non-stop. We drove into Paris to find wi-fi and check the local forecast. Rain. Rain for the next week. And then (of course), sunshine for our week in Paris. I was quite distraught–mostly because I knew that Scott had dreamed about this trip for years. We decided to make the most of the situation and drive our car to Luxembourg…after…yes, about 20 hours of travel. We stopped at multiple rest stops on the five-hour drive and took naps. I vaguely remember the drive and our arrival in the city.

For the next three nights, we stayed in various hotels in Luxembourg for around 100-160 euros/night. Not the cheapest, but it was the best we could do on such short notice. We walked all around Luxembourg (where Scott grew up), and we even visited two castles on the countryside. The food was divine, and the scenery was equally impressive. However, I wanted to be the typical American tourist and “rack up as many countries as I could” in one visit. With that, we were off to the oldest city in Germany, Trier (just an hour’s drive from Luxembourg).

We stayed in a nice but reasonable hotel run by Days Inn. I would have preferred something more quaint, but at the rate we were going with our spending, it was the best option. For two nights, we enjoyed waffles with nutella, ancient ruins, German accents and vending machine beer. In sum, Trier was probably my favorite city.

After a relaxing couple of nights in Trier, the clouds began to melt. We decided to drive back to France to spend a couple nights in our gite and check out the boulders at Fontainebleu. The gite, just 230 euros for a week, was super. My only complaint was the shower. It had no door or curtain, and the entire floor got soaked every time I used it. Bed linens were also not included in our rent…but these things seemed relatively common throughout Europe (especially the shower thing–they have really weird showers).

The nearest “town” to Trezan was Malesherbes–so we went there the next morning to get a couple of baguettes and pastries for our day on the rocks. One of our funniest memories was the owner of the local grocery who was so proud of his “English.” Every time we would walk out of the store, he would say, “Hello!” in the same tone you would tell someone “goodbye.” He seemed so proud of his ability to speak to us that we never corrected him. We just waved, smiled, and filed it in the good memories bank.

The first day of bouldering was mellow. We went to Buthiers, and everything is put up in kind of a “circuit”–you select your level of difficulty, start on #1, and go from there to climb around 30-40 boulders in one workout. I climbed mostly on the orange circuit–probably around V1-V3. Scott worked some harder things, but the moisture on the rocks and our lack of a crash pad made for a bad combination. It should also be noted that there is a large amount of quartzite on these rocks–not a good combo with small footholds and wet shoes. (Think Horsepens slopers mixed with Ibex glass and water = no bueno.)

To elaborate on the lack of a crashpad: yes, there were places to rent pads near the climbing areas. Our decision not to get one was based 1) on the moisture present and not knowing whether we would even be able to climb and 2) our feeling that we should do as the French do…you know, just wipe off your feet and go. This was definitely bad judgment as Scott has about 60 pounds on me…and there’s no way I can even spot him. And even though the landings are generally good and sandy, there’s nothing like a day of jumping/falling down from 10 feet to make your feet excruciatingly sore for a week.

Anyway, the next day we went to a different, much better climbing area–Trois Pignons. When we set our eyes on this magical playland of boulders, we began to second-guess our decision to spend the next week in Paris. There were plenty of folks around willing to share their crashpads, and the whole scene was simply captivating. From babies to elderly men, everyone was climbing. I began to understand why Americans get so overweight–they don’t have places like this to go with their families, and where they do, they definitely don’t take advantage of it. It was on that day that I decided I wanted to move to the French countryside. And Scott, of course, was totally down with it…”as long as there’s bouldering nearby.” And bouldering nearby, there was. Everywhere.

After a sun-filled day of climbing in the 65-degreesish weather, we packed our car and somewhat sadly headed to Paris. Our climbing wasn’t over yet, though…

About three days into our French sightseeing (the Louvre, the Notre Dame, the Seine, etc. etc. etc.), we were walking down a crowded street near the Bastille when a curious thing happened. “Salt Lake City! Salt Lake City!” I heard someone yell. I turned to see several familiar faces sitting at a cafe enjoying coffee and a couple smokes. It was some of our climber friends from The Front (an amazing bouldering gym in SLC). We chatted for a while and learned that they had another week or two of climbing and were staying near our original location in Melun. So a couple days later, Scott and I took a train there to get in another day of climbing.

Our third and final day of climbing was somewhat windy and cold…but at the same time, I think it sort of made my trip. I almost finished a problem that I didn’t even consider to be within my range (maybe a V4-V5), and we met some wildly interesting people from around the world. Perhaps my favorite was the 70+-year-old guy in the biker shorts (with a hole in the crotch, no less) who was climbing harder than anyone else there. I also loved the large number of kids who could barely walk that were running around in climbing shoes. When these folks do it, they REALLY do it.

We drove back to Paris and finished our trip with some relaxing days visiting the Eiffel Tower, taking the train to Versailles, and climbing the 300 steps to the top of the Sacre Coeur. But the weird climbing coincidences weren’t over just yet…

On the train back to the airport to catch our departing flight, we overheard the people sitting next to us talking about their flight to SLC. They were clearly American (as they had their new scarves and berets in tow), and maybe even from Salt Lake. I thought it curious that of all the trains headed to Charles de Gaulle out of France, we would be on the same one. But then, when we got off the train, we saw two more of our friends from The Front. It turns out that we were sitting next to their parents the whole time, and almost their entire family was in the train car with us.

So…an amazing trip. Good bouldering, good food, good wine and good friends. And The Front? Turns out it bring a lot of people together. I guess it’s a climbing thing–it truly is a small world, isn’t it?

Bottom line: Fontainbleu. Highly recommended. Sort of a cross between Horsepens and Ibex with a French accent. The weather could have been better for us, but we’ll be back again–probably more than once.

Filed under: Guest Posts, Trip Reports