Climbing Dad

Psyched to send my first outdoor V7. Hang Ten at Horseshoe. View this post on Instagram Hang Ten 🏄🏻 My first V7 (in over 20 yrs)! The start moves are out of shot. Oops. But the ending is pretty funny 😄 #supportteam A post shared by Mike Campbell (@uk_mike_c) on Oct 8, 2019 at 8:17am PDT

I was doing my usual max hang routine recently at the gym. Someone wandered over, pulled briefly onto one of the finger boards and then jumped off with a gasp. They walked away holding their hand in pain. View this post on Instagram About time for some climbing training. Working on those max hangs. A post shared by Mike Campbell (@uk_mike_c) on Jun 24, 2019 at 11:02am PDT I am definitely a fan of using the finger board. I actually wrote a really well thought out post (in my opinion) about the benefits of max hangs and some of my learnings and observations but I accidentally deleted it whilst trying to add the iG video above. Absolutely gutted I walked away from my blogger aspirations for a while. I tried hangboarding after I got a wrist injury. Collateral ligament sprain on both wrists. I couldn't climb as any sideways load sent shooting pain through my wrists. But I discovered that I could hang on my finger tips w...

I had a bit of a reality check the last couple of weeks on my mission to climb V8 and 5.13. A few things happened. First was a fun weekend with Ammi at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. Second a day out at Kilnsey in the UK with a strong Sheffield crew. Third a bouldering session at Craggy Island near London catching up with another old friend Duncan. Horseshoe Canyon Ranch First day I decided to warm up on The Greatest Show on Earth 5.8. Above the third bolt I looked down, the last bolt well below my feet and a flash pump setting in. I was gripped!! On a 5.8!! Lead climbing indoors the bolts are so closely spaced you can clip with the last one at your waist and it does not prepare you for the bolt spacing outdoors. Next up, Crimp Scampi, 5.10d. This should be a piece of cake I thought... Boom, gripped again I found myself shouting “Take”. Gutted. This little fella hitched a ride home from HCR Kilnsey It’s 20 years since I last climbed here and what a crag. Such an incredible density o...

This video is ace: Aside from the copious ads, I really enjoyed watching it and it has some great info that kind of ties in with my finger strength goals. The leader board shows that some of the numbers in my last post were a little off. Oops. Oh well - don't quote me! From what I gleaned watching this video the blogger (Andrew) climbs V7 and he tested the two arm hang with 36kg. They mention that is approximately 50% of body weight, which would give a strength/weight of ~75% per hand. Then they say that he is strong enough to climb V9-V10 and needs to work on using momentum to get there. What!!?? He is also fit enough to climb 7c (5.12d) after doing 106 moves on the lattice board at 20 degree angle. Another stat that I can use to see if I am physically 5.13 ready. If I ever get around to actually climbing routes outside. Maybe I just need to sign up and do the Lattice Test...! Anyway, for now, I'm sticking with my 80% target for sending V8 as it is a nice ro...

Are my fingers strong enough to climb V8? There isn't a ton of information out there to be honest. Lattice have the biggest database and occasionally drip feed some nuggets of info such as Alex Megos can hold 130% of his body weight on one hand. Wow!! BEAST! Steve McClure posted on his facebook that he can 'only' do body weight or slightly less. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he can do 100% on a Rainman 9b day. The best info I have found is a study conducted by Beast Fingers Climbing Research - "Optimising Muscular Strength to Weight Ratios in Rock Climbing" by Aman Anderson, published March 2018. TrainingBeta put the link up on their instagram a while back and I downloaded it. They actually include all of the test results in the paper Appendix. So I did my own analysis, with the hope that it would shed some light on where I need to be to reach my goals. Here are some stats from the paper: So young and light! They tested on a 19mm ...

Just a few weeks after getting back in to climbing I developed pain/inflammation in the pads of both my pinkie fingers (left and right). My first of many comeback climbing injuries. The location of the inflammation is shown below, it was in the region of the A4 pulley. I 'managed' the injury by taping up both fingers using the H-taping technique and continued climbing. It didn't clear up but it didn't get worse. This continued for a couple of months. Then after buying the book "Climb - Injury Free" by Dr. Jared Vagy I read about resisted finger expansions as a strengthening exercise for pulley sprains. The book prescribes 3 sets of 15 repetitions with a 5-second isometric hold once per day. So, I dug out some elastic bands from the stationary room at work and started doing a few reps at random times throughout the day. Now, I didn't do this with any specific plan to rehabilitate my pinky problems. I just saw it in the book and had separately read...

I want to climb V8 and 5.13. The only problem is that I am in my early 40s* and I just returned from a 15 year climbing sabbatical. So expectations and reality may not be entirely aligned! I reignited my climbing passion in November 2017 after a couple of Momentum rock gyms opened in Houston and have been making bumpy progress ever since. Bumpy because of a seemingly endless series of climbing related injuries. That 15 year break has really taken it's toll on my tendons and ligaments! But each injury has been a learning experience and I have used them as opportunities to try different things and experiment with various training methods. So, the intent of this blog is to capture some of those learnings and chronicle my training journey.  There is no time limit on my goals. I'm playing the long game with a focus on staying healthy.  Well...let me take that back. My kids are 9 and 12 years old and they seem to be enjoying climbing. So I want to hit my targets before they ...