Bouldering is going great. I’ve been steadily progressing and I’m now projecting 6Bs and 6B+s – flashing most 6As and even flashing some 6Bs. This is a big jump from my evaluation in April and I didn’t think I’d ever get this far.
My planned exercises aren’t going too well, but that’s ok. I do still occasionally do stair climbing cardio, but it’s mostly the 30 minute bike rides (and back) that have been improving my stamina. Besides that I haven’t done much exercising lately.
Points of attention:
- Elbow: I’m starting to feel my elbow again, if I don’t work on my antagonist forearm muscles I feel like I will get tendonitis from the muscle imbalance. Or maybe since it’s mostly my right elbow, it might also be mouse RSI worsened by climbing. Anyway, wrist roller seems to immediately make it better, so I should do that.
- Clavicle: I have some mild pain in my right acromioclavicular (AC) joint, but not from bouldering; I always get this when I do pushups. Again it might be mouse arm RSI, worsened by exercise. I think I should strengthen my rotator cuff and work on scapular control. Probably my shoulder stability is my most limiting factor in bouldering at the moment. Instead of pushups I could do band chest press, which is a bit more controlled.
- Core: has been getting stronger from just climbing lately. Could use some extra exercises, but no longer as big an issue as it was in April.
- Finger tendons: my finger strength has been steadily increasing without issue despite not doing any specific exercises. I’m a little worried that extra finger strengthening would be too much because I already boulder 2-3 times per week, so I’m no longer doing hangboarding.
I’m thinking about doing an antagonist muscles & shoulder health exercise routine after every bouldering session, because then I’m already “in the flow”.
- Warm-up
- Broomstick dislocates
- Wrist roller
- Main circuit (repeat 1-3 times)
- Band face pulls with Y-raise
- Band chest press
- Band external rotations left/right (optional)
- Band Paloff press left/right (optional)
- Cool-down
- Wrist roller (optional)
- Broomstick dislocates