TapedTurtle falls off walls

[TapedTurtle]

After years of lurking on and off I figured posting something might some extra motivation to achieve my goals. With multiple injuries and Covid things the past few years haven’t exactly gone to plan and the one consistent goal I have had (getting that first muscle up) seems even further away than when I started.

I picked up bouldering at the end of last year and am thoroughly enjoying it so far but after a 9 month or so break everything feels incredibly difficult and I am still nursing a few injuries. Repeatedly falling off things I would have previously flashed is a little disappointing but on the bright side the additional falling practice is helping with my fear of doing difficult moves at height. Recovery will be my focus for this challenge.

 

 

Consistency is Key

Keep a similar structure each week. Whilst things don’t always go to plan I find myself more likely to put off doing things if I don’t have any form of structure. This is quite difficult with the hybrid learning my university is using this year and I find myself getting distracted easily and not achieving what I wanted to by the end of the week.

 

1. Create a daily plan at the beginning of each week to use as a guideline

 

Tape it Back Together

The wise master splinter said “Old wounds are slow to heal”. Building back my shoulder strength slowly and consistently will be my main quest. By the end of this 5 week challenge I would like to be able to achieve a pain free body weight pull up.

 

2. Keep Climbing 3 days a week

 

I have managed to climb quite consistently for the past month since everything needs to be booked in advance at the moment and the fee for cancelling is enough of a deterrent to keep me from skipping but as an extra measure I am going to add it as an additional quest. Cycling to the gym also helps serve as my cardio for the week since I am only cycling to university once a week this semester.

 

3. General strength training with a focus on assisted pull ups every Saturday. In addition to this I will also be adding antagonist muscle training on 2 of my climbing days to address some of the muscle imbalances I have.

 

Optional Goal: Core training 3 days a week

 

Get Flexy

As vertically challenged climber the need for flexibility and good technique is crucial but I often can’t seem to find the time in my schedule (Read: I never prioritise it) so I am going to start with something simple and hope it sticks.

 

4. Focus on flexibility whilst the kettle is boiling for my morning coffees.

 

Mindfulness

I get distracted easily and am unable to sit for long periods of time without completely losing focus so instead of spending that time mindlessly scrolling through reddit, walking when I notice myself getting distracted seems like a more productive option.

 

5. Take a walk on the days I study from home; it doesn’t have to be far but something to get the blood flowing helps my concentration afterwards and allows me some time to reflect on my day and reset my focus

 

 

Additional bonus goal:

Figure out how to create an attic mounted pull up bar. I have a few ideas but would like to get a design drawn up in the next few weeks so I am more likely to continue my pull up training as it gets colder outside. This will be my first ever DIY project!

[iatetheyeti]

I like how you've set things up here. Also:

 

19 hours ago, TapedTurtle said:

As vertically challenged climber the need for flexibility and good technique is crucial

 

I feel this. So much. Especially when climbing routes set by tall people!

 

[TapedTurtle]

33 minutes ago, iatetheyeti said:

Especially when climbing routes set by tall people!

 

Yes! Most of the route setters and climbers at my gym are like a foot taller than me so I run into this problem a lot. Everyone can just reach things so stealing other people's beta never works. I enjoy having to get a bit creative to be able to top things at times.

 

Tape it Back Together:

The week so far has been a little bit lackluster. After my pull ups on Saturday my climbing session on Monday was pretty disappointing, I went into it looking to focus on my project but just had no energy at all and was dropping moves that I could do easily on Friday. So I swapped to the wooden training board instead, combining that with dead hangs and push ups. Wooden holds are so much more difficult but I did end up managing to string a few moves together by the end of the session. The training board really seems to put an emphasis on good footwork so I think swapping this into my sessions occasionally would help improve my technique.

 

Woot moment: I managed twice as many push ups in a set during my session as I managed at home last week! I think it may have been a combination of strength gain and the motivation of someone doing them with me.

 

Get Flexy

I completely forgot about flexibility training when I made my coffee this morning, I ended up on autopilot. I plan to fit a longer session in this afternoon before I leave for the gym to make up for it.

 

Mindfulness

Yesterday was the first day I haven't really managed to get up and take a proper walking break although I did walk to take the bins out so it wasn't an entirely stationary day. I'm going to say it counts (something is better than nothing).

 

Consistency is Key

I managed to complete a plan up until the end of Thursday, I have an online exam on Friday with a 24hr time limit.This limits what I can plan for the end of the week since I am not sure how long it is going to actually take. Hopefully I won't overrun into my climbing time.

 

Once the exam is complete I will schedule the rest of the week.

 

[spezzy]

Hiiii good luck with your challenge

I find that plans sometimes, I'll do a loose weekly and then fill in more details the night before when schedules are absolutely crazy and I can't plan too far ahead. Allows for more flexibility and we still get in planning

 

And yes! Something > Nothing always

[Scaly Freak]

"Get flexy" applies to planning and scheduling too.  

[TapedTurtle]

On 10/30/2020 at 12:11 AM, spezzy said:

I'll do a loose weekly and then fill in more details the night before when schedules are absolutely crazy and I can't plan too far ahead.

 

I really like this idea, definitely going to adopt it going forward. I'm finding that if I do a weekly plan I leave everything until the last minute and if I fill out all the days ahead of time if I don't get something done it never gets added to the next day. This seems like a great solution. Thanks!

 

23 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

"Get flexy" applies to planning and scheduling too.

I'm starting to find that it applies more to this challenge than I thought it would. Looks like I'm going to have to get very flexy with Lockdown 2.0 coming to the UK.

[TapedTurtle]

Some highs and lows this past week.

 

1. Rough weekly plan is complete, I've decided to try out a spreadsheet to compare the estimated time I think the activity will take vs the time it actually takes to complete. Hopefully this will help me manage my productivity a little better.

 

2. I managed to send 2 of my projects this week!

 

I am also one move away from the other two I've been working on. The two I am struggling with seem to be a mental block more than anything else, low percentage moves right at the top of problems absolutely terrify me.

 

 

3. All of the pull ups! I opted to move to a lower resistance band this week as I found I could still keep good form for almost the same number of reps. I have had less energy for antagonist training than I would like but I still manage to get a few sets in.

 

4. Flexibility is still a bit hit and miss as to whether I remember but once I start I normally opt for slightly longer sessions. It actually isn't so bad once you get going.

 

5. I have successfully pulled myself away from my desk to take a walk every day even at the weekend and it is doing wonders for my productivity.

 

 

 

The weekend took a bit of a nose dive, hearing gyms were going to close just after I'd started to get back into the swing of things killed all of the motivation I had mustered. I used a couple of days to mope and reset (and watch a lot of ninja warrior videos) and am back more motivated than ever.

 

This does mean some adjustments are going to have to be made to my challenge (I hope that's ok, I am supposed to be getting flexy after all). I'll post an update once I've figured out the details but it should just mean changing goals 2 and 3 up a little. 
 

 

[Elastigirl]

Good job on week 1!

[Scaly Freak]

54 minutes ago, TapedTurtle said:

This does mean some adjustments are going to have to be made to my challenge (I hope that's ok, I am supposed to be getting flexy after all). I'll post an update once I've figured out the details but it should just mean changing goals 2 and 3 up a little. 

 

Not only is that okay, that is what we do here. If your original goals don't work for you, you analyze why, and you adjust them. The point of this is not to adhere strictly to a goal no matter how unrealistic it is. It is to push yourself and improve.

 

Do like the GPS does, and recalculate. That's what it is supposed to do.  

[Mirrodin]

Just wanted to let you know I am following :). Hope you are doing ok? Lockdowns can be aweful for moral....

I am a climber myself, And during lockdown there are ways to improve your climbing. Maybe a fingerboard can be for you? I have this one and one that is build by a good carpenter. Helps a whole lot on (keeping/gaining) finger strength!

[TapedTurtle]

On 11/9/2020 at 3:31 PM, Mirrodin said:

I am a climber myself, And during lockdown there are ways to improve your climbing. Maybe a fingerboard can be for you? I have this one and one that is build by a good carpenter. Helps a whole lot on (keeping/gaining) finger strength!

 

Funny that you mention this, I've been working on some plans to build a freestanding frame for a fingerboard and some campus rungs. Mostly inspired by this and was going to get the Beastmaker 1000 (2000 looks impossible for me at the moment) to incorporate into it along with some slopers. Unfortunately I can't really drill anything into the walls here to just mount one easily so this seemed like a good option to just stick in the garage for whenever I feel like training.

 

I'm doing ok with lockdown so far but as of yesterday have to quarantine until my other half can get a Covid test so hopefully will be able to keep myself busy and put together some kind of workout with what I have available. 

[TapedTurtle]

Haven't been updating this nearly as much as i wanted to. Things have been a little crazy recently.

 

The day before lockdown started I managed to get a massive climbing session in. I managed to get 2 of the highest grade I have ever climbed and finish a few things I thought I would never get done. The atmosphere was incredible and everyone was putting in max effort, it was a great send off. 

 

In my walks I managed to scout out a few different parks nearby with pull up bars I could use whilst we are locked down so have been making full use of them and managing to mess around on the monkey bars too. Managed to get one very slow but painless full bodyweight pull up with proper form! 

 

I have pretty much neglected flexibility entirely though so definitely need to put in a lot more effort there which should be easier with more time spent indoors.