Wall Crawling 1.1

Tips for first-time climbers:

1. Take your time and climb at your own pace. Enjoy the experience and do not mind what onlookers might say. The climbers had been beginners, too, at a certain point in their lives. The passive watchers on the other hand are envious of your guts to try the thing out, believe me.

2. Rest as often as needed when already in the wall. You could do so by pressing your body close to the wall. The closer your body is to the wall at rest position makes you recuprate easier as it does not add to muscular strains elsewhere (in either your arms or legs).

3. The weight of your entire body should be centered on your feet. Most would let their arms carry their entire weight for them which would tire you easily. Use the arms as balance support. You will get the picture once you are doing the climb already.

4. When feeling strains in your arms, wiggle a free hand upward with a couple of shakes then lower the same arm and do another set of shakes. This releases the lactic acid formation on strained muscles thus rendering your arm usable for the rest of the way up. Repeat the procedure with your other arm.

There are a number of tutorials on footwork and proper climbing posture available in the internet. I once did a research in my first few weeks of climbing and it really did help. Yep, no special classes for me (that beign said, you may have already chosen to classify my tips as rubbish or plain BS). But that is if you get interested, more so get hooked on this fabulous extreme sport.

posted by Fritz @ 6:32 AM