Tuesday 22 May 2007

The lord of the rings

Man, I love training in the rings! its the knowledge! a lot of the time with climbing you stop because you cant technically do a move or you get a power fade on, its not often that you work a muscle group so hard that you ache from the effort. Its the endorphins apparently that make you buzz off hard physical effort, and its a good feeling!
 
I suppose though, that this means that you dont need to work those muscles so hard to climb well? if they dont ache as result of doing what it is you are training for, then they aren't needed and you dont need to make them ache through training? Typing and reading that sentence back I think I just missed the point. The idea of training is isolation - of working one group of muscles to failure so that they supercompensate and other stimulus that uses that group finds them stronger when they need to recruit.
 
On a lesser note, when its hot and sweaty, training in the rings gives you a good work out when it would be too hot to pull hard on small holds.
 
Beefcake doctor Rick Moranis lookalike Follicle was off tending the incontinent and couldnt make it last night, so young gun Feehally was recruited. He is STRONG! and another beefcake! I weighed myself and was suprised following a weekend of eating rubbish, to find that I was light - 10.5st. Ned is 12st! its all those massive shoulders though as theres no fat on him. This got me thinking about the age old dilemma of light vs heavy but energy. I'll not spell it out, as anyone with half a brain and a desire to hang off small holds will have thought about it themselves. Concluded that there is no rule of thumb. You must find for yourself a weight that you feel spritely at and yet have enough beans to crank without a massive power fade. Anyway, waif or beefcake aside - we both climbed like un sac de merde. Roll on Wednesday.
 

5 comments:

bonjoy said...

"...it would be too hot to pull hard on small holds. "
You'd be surprised, we watched Rich Heap cruise up Mecca plus half of the extension in blazing midday sunshine on Sunday, I shit you not! I was aghast

dobbin said...

I heard via the Harris. This is quite seriously impressive. I want to be that good!

lore said...

hey,
im not very sure about the isolation thing, but ive never trained with rings so i dont know, but id think thats the overall coordination and recruitment that gives you so much benefits, plus the fact that you train alot muscular groups that are less trained usually, like pecs and triceps.
anyway, as usual im quite jealous about your training opportunities, cos varying your training is the key, instead of always doing the same.
oh well, i hope i get a job and at least can build a 2x3 meters board at home.
sigh.
Nibile

dobbin said...

Hey nibs - if you have a high enough ceiling you could get some rings - mine came from www.ringtraining.com.

Paul Bennett said...

After watching you and follicle doing uneven grip pulls on the rings a week or so ago i've been giving them a bit of thought. Surely this excercise is a poor equivalent for assisted one armers as you don't stay front on?
Anyway I reckon by really hitting other areas of the body you allow the climbing muscle groups to grow larger whilst preventing injuries as massive overdevelopment in one way (aka the power curve evident in most strong climbers)can surely only lead to one outcome - PAIN.