Amen to this! I just learned to do them after five years of climbing and very worth the while!

>people, generally men, underestimate how scary and difficult downclimbing is for new, weaker climbers who can't lower their weight on their arms in a controlled way Wow, I never thought about that.

Who would've known that having more strength to pull you up will help your climbing lol

2 tips for all climbers if you wanna 1up your pull up game and see gains in climbing. 1. After you can do 5 to 8 pull ups in a row with good form (not fighting/kipping or stretching your neck to get your chin over the bar,) Add weight to your pull up, 5kg to start and work your way up. After a month of +30% body weight (~20kg) I was able to bodyweight pull up to my chest and the movement itself was much more smooth and controlled. How you add weight is up to you, I used #12 AWG Cu Conductor like a belt and squeezed with my thighs to lessen the pressure on my waist. I would recommend a soft rope or a proper belt/strap/harness as when I first started I only had #12 AWG Cu Conductor and the thin material dug into my soft mid section. You can also squeeze the weight between your thighs to lighten to load on your waist or to bypass the need for a belt/strap/harness if you're strong enough. 2. Set your pull up bar in a way so you can pull up into a 2 arm 90 Deg. lock off but have enough room above to fully extend your arm and grab onto something good (I have a hangboard above my pull up bar in my door frame.) You will then be sitting in a half dead hang/half 90 Deg lock off. You can then shift your bodyweight around to isolate different parts of your lock off arm. Remember; Quality over Quantity will get you the best results. Always start low and work up to find your +max weight to prevent injury

Yeah can you believe.... only took us about a year huh?! :-D. The credit all goes to Sam our filmmaker .

Yeah especially since Tom likes to ramble.

kind of stuck 6b/occasional 6c and i've noticed the same. Going to go hard for pull-ups now and see what happens.

Cornelis Gräper I know Jonathan Siegrist has sworn by weighted pullups on every training session, but I would include a few weeks in cycles of rapid pullups, weighted pullups, and volume of pullups, in that order.

I had a similar experience - working at home, 2 small children - I managed to make significant flexibility and mobility gains in my hips and hamstrings together with a better understanding of my body and breathing, through regular yoga practice. Combined with finger boarding, some suspension training ( I's, Y's and T's ) and pullups / pushups - I was able to climb better after lockdown than I had before. It did take a while for contact strength and more powerful, dynamic movement to come back, but with stronger fingers and better mobility I had enough session endurance to focus on these once the walls opened back up

+1. I discovered the channel via videos showing advice on the wall (I still prefer those videos), but this episode was really good!

Doug Copestake thanks Doug!

BTW: Older people dealing with really old parents also get squeezed for exercise time and the stress takes a toll on exercise ability. I really wish my doctor or someone had ordered me to do just two half hour weight lifting sessions a week. Would have lost less muscle and gained less fat for sure.

Hey Hugh, have you ever tried yoga before? I noticed a huge progress in my male climbing friends when they started to integrate a little bit of yoga in their workout routine. yoga in general has a lot of moves to increase hip flex in a flow, but there are also a lot of videos on yt specializing on that! good luck!

I've been watching a lot of videos on flexibility and this is my favourite. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kNdmkqer2tHIc4k.html. (Also check out the science video link in the description). It's for forward splits, but provides tons of useful info on how to do any flexibility exercise. You'll also want to add in stuff for hip flexibility, so look up videos on yoga squats, pigeon pose, and cow face.

personally I really enjoy this video for hip flexibility. Nice pace for the follow along and personally have noticed easier range of motion doing drop knees and such from doing this a couple days a week. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oNBidKR5m9DGeJ8.html&ab_channel=TomMerrick

@@Vairrion Thanks, that was the sort of thing I was after.

Yup, it’s a very tough and compromised balance 😬

I think it heavily depends on the climbing ability. A good climber (>8a) doesn't benefit a lot from pull ups and should focus on more specific training. Climbers with lacking physical ability which don't have enough pulling power for basic moves may train it better with pull ups, but would also achieve the goal with climbing specific training (Moonboard, System wall etc.)

@@mikegruber1771 a, 'good climber (>8a) ' would have the foundations of a pull up deeply engraved into them already at that point so I agree moonboard, specific training etc would be suitable for a high level climber as far as training goes, however those physicality stats such as strength and power are fundamental, a high lvl climber will always maintain it through outside the wall training, and if they were to ignore such things it wouldn't neccessarily make them a much more worse climber, but they would be more weak, being stronger can help you more with certain moves that aren't so technical. morale of the story; do pull ups

@@Ashb98 you might be surprised to learn that Alex Honnold can't do more than 15 pull ups at a go, when asked he just said he don't do pull ups that often

@@verbalwound5874 that's pretty wild, in his case i guess he makes up for it in other areas

I think they just didn't get into details. For those who cannot do a single pull-up the profit of gaining some level at this is huge - but then it's not that important anymore, because one usually doesn't just pull himself up the wall (hopefully!).

It just isn't the case, aerobic limits in climbing will always be determined by the muscles in your forearms, this is down to forearms improving in localised capillary density and your muscles adapting to be able to use its energy systems better.

@@sebastianflynn1746 So, I'm no expert in this (physiology etc.), so I can only go by what I've read. So I'm curious what you have to say to this: "as described above, aerobic activity that trains the large muscles of the body to increase consumption of blood lactate for energy will hasten the return of homeostasis (in the pumped arm muscles) at rests during (or between) strenuous boulders or roped climbs" (page 162 for Horst's Training for Climbing). Again, I don't have the background to know if that's wrong, outdated, or misinformed. But given's Horst's reputation, I doubt it's wrong or misinformed. Note I'm not saying running makes stronger forearms, it clearly doesn't, I'm saying it has other benefits not to be overlooked.

Ruben de Klerk hmmm... well, they’re both useful. Hard to make a generalised call really. Neither has extremely high levels of specificity of course.

What about stamina, don’t you think a person training every day pull-ups by the end of the year be a better climber than a every other day climber doing pulls

@@gabrielgagne3850 So, i am not that much into the science behind that to give you an solid answer but i guess that you may have more stamina, being able to do more pullups, but not being that much stronger (more weight or being able to pull more with a single arm to reach something).

In most cases, it's still a "cost" to the body and you'll start affecting your recovery. It's a very fine line indeed and also a very fast path to either overtraining or poor returns from training.

I have excema but luckily not on my hands, but as an ex pole dancer I need good grip on ALL of my skin not just my hands so I still have some insights. Moisturisers doesn't work for me but more "oily" products like ointments do, but they can mean a lot of oil being released from your skin during the day. Atm I have a cleanser from botanics that you put in and then clean off right away, so it doesn't leave your skin "bleeding" oil over the next few hours. Otherwise the body shops body sorbet is generally "grip safe" as long as you put it on at night and don't climb straight away the next morning. I'd also consider trying different chalks as I know some of them can make excema worse. Best of luck ♥️

There are eczema specific moisturizes. At least here they have to be prescribed by a doctor, but they exist. Might be worth a shot. I think the one I have at home is based on hydrocortisone, but there are tons of different ones which might work.

@@timonix2 yeah! bepanthen excema worked for my partner's hand excema but didn't do much for my own, everyone's skin are so different so it's all trial and error with finding what works for you

Your body adapts after a few months of similar stimuli. You grew all the muscles your 75 pushups require, and your nervous system has gotten good at recruiting enough muscle fiber for it. The downside of this is injury. If you don't recover one weak "tweak" a muscle, or start some wear on a tendon, you're going to stress the same part the same way next day, and the next day, and the next day. Because of this its a good idea to vary your exercises every few months and allow some rest periods and deloads for your body to heal.

@@randommcranderson5155 Thanks man.

fuyiy interesting! Not seen that before! 🙌

Weirdly I find this as well, not a runner (cyclist mostly) but try and get out once a week, I think it’s the stretching that helps me recover from the run.

I've found this too. I'm no sports scientist, but my theory is that the stronger core you get from climbing makes it easier to hold running form when fatigued.

rrrents there’s no defined boundary on this... it’s a slow transition for most and as we all know, the hormone levels amongst individuals can be hugely variable. It IS worth noting that you will eventually end up at one end of the scale at some point so it’s worth knowing the important aspects/changes 😊

@@LatticeTraining I definitely agree, I already feel that I need more rest than a few years ago. It creeps up.

@@rrrents 35 and up I'd say is older

@@Snowbound2643 Thank god, I still have a year.

Yeah we know.... sorrrrrry! 😅😬

feelsbadman

Fingerboard pullups are ill advised except on edges where at least a 20+ second hang is standard, aka a warm up edge. Even then, have to be aware as you lift the forces on the ligaments in the fingers will increase

Everyday you become an older climber:). At 55 I am still getting older, but climbing is keeping me younger.

Gerald Camp superb answer, that made me smile on my birthday 👍🏻😊

Tristan Mayfield nein, nein!!!

And now I can’t unsee 😂

@@rachellim3297 same :D

End of his elbows?!! :-D But yes, the pull up is a great tool when used well!

rastaroumain but they’re reeeeeeally clean 😁