climber511 Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 My regular climbing guys showed up at the wall this morning - just 3 of us - the wives - and a few of their kids. We climbed about 5 hours then went up to my house and cooked a bunch of burgers and dogs etc. Then out to the gym we go. Both these guys are about 5' 11" to 6' tall - 190 to 200# - hands about my size (7 5/8"). Neither lifts weights - one works with his hands the other is an office boss but has done construction in the past. Handed them a #1 and showed them a very basic set - not deep at all but no credit card or block either. Both got it. COC 1.5 - both got it with a bit of fumbling around. COC #2 - one got it. Double leather pads and a 60d nail double overhand - both did it but struggled a lot. Then a 3/8" square hot roll by 13" braced - one got it - other didn't try. Atlas Stone - 150 then 205# to 48" height bench for both. Both struggled on 2 HP - 130 went but that was the limit. Neither one has ever even seen this stuff before. Bit bad - not bad at all! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yummy Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 Very Impressive but since they are climbers they have probably developed their hands/wrists from doing that. I knew a climber in high school and allthough he wasn't very big his forearms always impressed me and he could do some ridiculous bodyweight grip feats. Were any of them interested in training with those implements more? You should convince them to train with you more, I'm sure it will help their climbing and be fun for all. I think training in a group is the best way to get stronger no matter what you training for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel reinard Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Climbing, the underrated strength sport. Pretty cool story chris. I want to try an atlas stone too! In my comp there was only one male who didn't close a #2 with 20mm block set, and he got a #1.5. I think there were 5-6 people out of the 9 other athletes that reverse bent a standard 60d in single leathers. One guy was short but big, zero and I mean zero weight training. And also no work labor experience...he closed a #3 20mm set and axle deadlifts 370 and those were his last attempts, still had some juice in the tank. Now he was an infrequent gym climber so i'll put the credit there for us climbers. If climbing wasn't such a leisure extreme sport we may be able to turn them into grip strength competitors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climber511 Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 Climbing, the underrated strength sport. Pretty cool story chris. I want to try an atlas stone too! In my comp there was only one male who didn't close a #2 with 20mm block set, and he got a #1.5. I think there were 5-6 people out of the 9 other athletes that reverse bent a standard 60d in single leathers. One guy was short but big, zero and I mean zero weight training. And also no work labor experience...he closed a #3 20mm set and axle deadlifts 370 and those were his last attempts, still had some juice in the tank. Now he was an infrequent gym climber so i'll put the credit there for us climbers. If climbing wasn't such a leisure extreme sport we may be able to turn them into grip strength competitors. The sports certainly complement each other but climbers in general are just so much smaller than the better grip guys that few of them can really ever compete at the higher levels - but now that we have weight classes I am hoping to get a few of them to at least try a few events some times. Climbing is a fun time! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifesnotfair Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Thanks for sharing Chris! And these guys are Climbers in the 190-200 bodyweight range!!! This is why I could never resist and chime in in those "what does the average untrained guy can do at the grip feats" where people would reply with "a #2, 150# two hand pinch, and 250# axle DO DL".... LOL! Yeah right!! :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climber511 Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 Climbers come in all sizes at the recreational level. "Good" climbers are skinny (think darn skinny) and have wicked skills aimed at doing one thing extremely well. "Great" climbers are that special 1% just like in any other sport where they picked their parents well and then trained hard and smart (and of course lived somewhere they could climb a lot). These two are just normal guys who love to climb and have only been climbing a couple years - both are "weekend" climbers with families, jobs, and homes. Most of the really great climbers live or have lived on the road at some point - you have to go where the climbs are to be truly good. For every really good climber out there - there are probably hundreds of guys like these (or me) who live pretty normal lives and then go climbing once in a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Gillingham Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 My regular climbing guys showed up at the wall this morning - just 3 of us - the wives - and a few of their kids. We climbed about 5 hours then went up to my house and cooked a bunch of burgers and dogs etc. Then out to the gym we go. Both these guys are about 5' 11" to 6' tall - 190 to 200# - hands about my size (7 5/8"). Neither lifts weights - one works with his hands the other is an office boss but has done construction in the past. Handed them a #1 and showed them a very basic set - not deep at all but no credit card or block either. Both got it. COC 1.5 - both got it with a bit of fumbling around. COC #2 - one got it. Double leather pads and a 60d nail double overhand - both did it but struggled a lot. Then a 3/8" square hot roll by 13" braced - one got it - other didn't try. Atlas Stone - 150 then 205# to 48" height bench for both. Both struggled on 2 HP - 130 went but that was the limit. Neither one has ever even seen this stuff before. Bit bad - not bad at all! Chris - a few years ago at the Grip Gauntlet at the Olympia we had a climber come in late in the day the last day. We wanted to get out of there but he wanted to try. We were packing up while he was trying when I caught out of the corner of my eye him getting air under the blob. I worked with him on a few tricks and he eventually got real close to a full lift with the blob. He was tall but well under 200 pounds, real skinny but long slender fingers and hands. It was pretty impressive to see. He had no idea what he was doing or that it was a "big deal". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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