yoga

I’m not what you could call a ‘natural climber’. I’ve never been particularly outdoorsy, I didn’t start climbing from a young age, or have the built-in bouldering knack at my first session. In fact, it was pretty much the opposite. I was scared of being up high, terrified of falling, and struggled to get my limbs to co-operate (the latter is still an issue). Yet there was something about bouldering which had me hooked, most probably the challenge.

A couple of years down the line and I’m still working away at bettering my climbing-self, which in a very long-winded way brings me round to the point of this blog post.

There is always time to learn and improve.

One of my draw backs at the moment is flexibility, which is arguably the easiest thing to improve. I’ve been extremely lax with yoga, so I’m here to make a compromise in the form of weekly stretches tailored to climbing. I’ve said it before, but the hardest thing about yoga is actually rolling out the mat to do it. Stretching however somehow seems more accessible, and Netflix friendly. This small exercise will hopefully morph into a full yoga session at some point.

Specific areas for me to work on for climbing are shoulders, hips and legs.

So here’s the plan at a minimum:

-Low intensity jog on the spot to warm everything up

-Cow pose for shoulders

-Frog pose for hips

-Seated forward fold for legs

Hopefully stretching like this at home at least once a week will help me out on the walls, as I know I can definitely fit this into my week somewhere. It’s always a good pre-climb warm up if you throw in some dynamic stretches too.

As the title says, every little helps.

Yoga Update | 2

I’ve discovered that the hardest thing about yoga is actually rolling out your mat and doing it. I’ve been consistently inconsistent with practicing 2-3 times a week. Mostly I just ended up going straight to the Savasana, in bed, which is easily done after a day of work.

However I’m pleased to say I have managed to get 20 minutes in somewhere once a week, and I feel better for it.

I’m starting to find the poses and routines easier, and I can almost touch my toes which is something I’ve had difficulty with for a long time. I’m not sure if my yoga gains are translating into my climbing just yet, but I’m hopeful that high foot moves and anything stretchy will begin to get a little easier. Generally it just feels good, almost like a declutter for the body and brain. I think sticking to once a week is the best plan for now, as a little is better than none.

Once I get a little more confident with my poses and balance, I’m going to try and get A Boy Who Climbs to do some ~~crazy~~ Acro-Yoga with me. He is not aware of this plan just yet, so we’ll see how that goes in the next update!

17/02/2016 4

Yoga Update

No one really feels like contorting themselves into a pretzel when you can eat a bunch of real pretzels instead. Add in a constant flow of mulled wine, endless piles of mince pies and the general festive season…it was all a little distracting, and my yoga plans got derailed for December. I did get the odd session done last month, and I can tell you that both these practices are way harder than they look, but oddly still enjoyable.

But now, now it’s back on. Plan Pilates and New Year Yoga are a go! In fact, as I write this now, I have just finished a 30min yoga session. I thought I would write down my thoughts straight after, for some real time feelings:

I feel like I can see in colour again, especially after what felt like a very long day at work. Despite working the poses on achy muscles, I feel much better physically and less ‘smushed’ up. My brain has stopped whizzing around in the dark and foggy end of the thought pool. Overall I feel awake and pretty darn good!

I followed the YouTube video linked below, which I found newbie friendly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AYKMP6rOE&feature=youtu.be

Namaste.

13/01/2016 5

Training Plans | Yoga

I feel like I’m at a good place with my climbing, I know my weakness is mostly the mental side of things but I think a little more confidence in my body and strength would help overall. After reading and researching all different kinds of training programmes, I came to the realisation that even though I want to train and kick it up a notch, I don’t want it to feel like a chore or heavy gym session. After some more reading it seems like yoga is an obvious but gentler choice to help improve my climbing skills and for some mental gains. It’s also a buildable practice so I can work through at my own pace.

My plan is to do a 20 min yoga session 2- 3 times a week at home, in between climbing days. I’m really excited to see how I can improve, and I plan to keep track and check in monthly with an update about how it’s all going.

Naturally I headed over to YouTube and sought out some beginner yoga stuff. The video below is what I’m going to be working and eventually I hope to build my own routine.