If difficult climbing could be simplified to the bare minimum - one uses their fingers to support the weight of their body while using the technique and larger muscles, like those in the legs or the back, to make upwards progress. As the lactic acid builds up in the forearms, the time is running out. The stronger the fingers and the less weight those fingers have to support, the fatigued the forearm muscles will me - the smaller holds they could use and the longer they can hold on.
Low weight + strong fingers + good technique = sending the gnar brah.
Large weight+a rack of hexes+plenty of excuses=posting useless shiet on the internet.
At the moment, I am trying to be somewhere in the middle of this highly intellectual equation...
A few weeks following the return from Ouray, I weighted in at 179 lbs. While great for an athletic male of my height (6 feet 2 inches), it is the most I have been in about a year. I can't say too much of that is fat, but I look more like a pre-steroid era NFL linebacker, than a rock climber. When I saw a 'Diet Challenge' thread on the Supertopo, I decided to allow the peer pressure aid my will power to harden the fuck up and quit pounding the energy bars before sleeping. It will be a hard road out of hell, but with the help of chewing gum, pickles and ZzyQuil, I am planning to drop down to under 165 lbs. I will document my struggles mixed with hypoglycemic rambling. Blogs are not meant to CONSTANTLY be glamorous. Much hard work goes into making gains, so why not include the struggle... BUT...very soon, when I am in shape, it will be back to spraying...especially, when I am sending YOUR proj brah!
A trip report about the FIRST day cutting calories:
First of all, I woke up feeling like shit due to a flu I caught a few days prior. Thought of skipping work, but because staying occupied is essential for not eating, because I was not gonna deal with the patients and because I think I am no longer contagious, I went. Instead of the regular breakfast the night prior, I prepared three servings of salad and three jars of stir-fried veggies, without much oil used for the cooking. The stir fry is for dinner and the salad is something to keep me satisfied through the day, for the next three days. To aid the fullness there is plenty of coffee, tea and Splenda. Yes, when I said things are far from glamorous, I really meant it. There is protein in form of scallops, which are added to the salad and the stir fry, but I am cutting out the protein powder.
The day went better than expected and I walked for 40 minutes during the lunch break. Though the fun begun after. Feeling like a POS due to the said flu, I decided to do what any reasonable person with the goal of losing weight would do - go to the gym and bang out over an hour of low-intensity cardio and 1.5 hours of yoga.
CARDIO
First of all, the stair stepper I was gonna use was getting occupied, so I tried to use a bike, which did not work. I tried to use the treadmill, which was broken as well. Another opened treadmill however, worked fine. Just over ten minutes passed and the person on the stair stepper had enough, so I got on and lost about 700 calories according to the little heart rate sensor. By the end of the session, I felt less and less psyched for yoga. But I already wrote the yoga class on my schedule, so I couldn't say no to something that I already praised myself for. In addition, it was a whole hour and a half of not thinking about how hungry I am.
YOGA
Much more fun than the cardio. Instead of listening to gangster rap and NuMetal, I had the pleasure to hear the instructor talk nonsense about staying in the moment. The only wise thing that came out of her mouth was when she brought up the Martial Arts. According to her, people that participate, are able to focus on 'the moment.' "Well, no shit, BINGO!" I thought, "the Martial Arts usually involve someone trying to punch you in the nose - much easier to prevent the mind from wandering. When I climb, have sex, ski through the trees and so on, the mind IS in the present. But a vinyasa class, in a PACKED room of people? I WISH, some day in the distant future, I could get better and concentrate for more than thirty seconds, but as is, I can't turn my brain off from thinking about the month of suffering I will have ahead, the level of crankiness close friends will endure, the verbal diarrhea of nonsense a co-worker put me through yesterday and most important of all, the instructor's white, skin-tight pants. Was she not focused on the detail or put on the black thong underneath on purpose? I appreciate the effort, but it makes me uncomfortable to be in the plank position, in front of so many strangers...Did she say downward dog? LOL" Just a few thoughts with only a bit of sarcasm in the mix. Usually I like all the reminders about focusing on personal practice, but last night was "I choose the child's pose, if the option is there" kind of day.
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