Cross Training-- Crush Some Top Ropes!

Why my shoe? Why not :)

I was finally able to make it to the gym yesterday (I blame my professors who believe in waiting until the last month and a half of school to decide to make us do things). 

Lately, because the weather has been so nice and because I have been working on more of my bouldering technique for my competition, I found that I have been snubbing the top rope climbs when I am at the gym. I am a decent climber and I can (usually) flash a 5.9 and get a 5.10 after a few times and because of that (and that I am no where near as good at bouldering) I just put it on the back burner. 

This is not a good idea, guys. 

Last climb of the night

Not because it is going to be detrimental to your climbing or that you are going to get on the wall and have to start at a 5.6, but because it is actually a really good part of your climbing workout.  

If we compare climbing to running (everyone knows running, right?) bouldering would be the same thing as your speed and specialty strength training. You can work on specific moves and technique a lot easier if you are bouldering because it is a shorter route and it is usually already focused on those particular skill sets. Top climbing is the endurance workout. This is where you test out your ability to put it all together and then have to keep climbing for ten more minutes. 

I got on the wall last night with my friend and we stayed mainly on the ropes, because she can't stand bouldering, and I realized how much I had missed top climbing and also how much better I had become in my actual technique. After almost a month of straight high intensive, short climbs, I noticed how much more relaxed and smooth my climbing had gotten. 

So the moral of the story is to mix up your climbing every once in a while, you will probably be surprised by the results. Oh and do coreture (or a crazy amount of core exercises after just finishing climbing), but that is a story for another post :) 

Go love some rocks!