On Nov 21st I went along to the injuries symposium held in Sheffield by the BMC, this was the second symposium held as the first proved a huge success.
There was a full turn out to the event at the Showcase in Sheffield, the talkers consisted of physio therapists, surgeons, pediatricians, musculoskeletal radiologists & nutritionist who have come together to discuss the identification and treatments of climbing related injuries and overuse syndromes.
The crowd was a mixture and lots of faces to recognise from doctors, coaches and instructors, although all still fellow climbers.
My particular favourite speakers where Volker and Isa Schöffl who have an unimaginable amount of experience, their work with climbers is endless as well as numerous papers and studies carried out. They have developed new techniques and ways of fixing us broken climbers and seemed to have devoted their lives to the improvements of the climbing fraternity, I personally say thankyou!
Many of my friends have used sports supplements for climbing, lots of them use protein shakes during and after training and some have used creatine in the past.
After asking them if they feel it makes a difference, the protein powder users mostly thought it did aid recovery from a hard training session and felt their body did recover faster if they used it, the creatine users were different as out of 8 people that were using it only 2 said that they felt there was a difference in their training.
For those who don’t know what they do;
Protein powder for climbers –
Protein aids recovery times after hard training session, with this thought people have no gone onto protein loading after sessions through supplements.
There are many different forms of protein and extracts claiming to do different things, the most common are Whey, Casein and Soy. There is much speculation to the use of protein powder as our body usually has sufficient amounts from a normal varied diet with enough calories. However there is a little evidence to support the idea of muscle hypertrophy within a one hour window following intensive training.
Does this mean we all have to get on the protein shakes?
If we are choosing to protein load then surely we can just eat more high containing protein foods after training in the hour window instead of supplements?
Creatine for climbers –
Our body naturally produces creatine but in small doses, this is stored in our muscle cells, it aids our high intensity muscle contractions, for example in hard bouldering moves. However a study with elite rowers taking creatine supplementation during a seven-day endurance training event experienced improvements in lactate threshold, an indicator of endurance compared with those taking a placebo.
Due to the lack of creatine in our body people have been known to take creatine with the thought that this will improve muscle mass, aid in pulling harder moves and increase training capabilities.
As for the evidence base behind the side effects of creatine use it is still early days, however there is lots of thoughts out there if you have a little look. At the end of the day, I’m pretty sure Ron Fawcett wasn’t using it…. And he was alright at climbing no?
My Opinion
Now this is the tricky bit, I have used protein powder after training, why? Well because everyone else was, I thought it might help.
Personally when I look back on my climbing I was climbing no better or worse when using protein powder, I cant remember ever suffering from training more or less and the competition results say no better nor worse, so I stopped, saved myself lots of money.
A jam sandwich and glass of milk is apparently more efficient at aiding our recovery. Could this be another ploy from the milk and Jam companies though? You know how sneaky those jam companies can get…..
Surely eating a controlled diet could give us the required supplements, more creatine; eat more meat, more protein; eat more lean meats, fish, milk etc.
All of this is in my eyes easily controlled through a varied and educated diet. Eating the correct foods after training will mean more vitamins, minerals and the supplements we are after, not just one specific section of our diet.
Thoughts from the Oxford research team and the British Medical Journal;
Oxford research team and the British Medical Journal said the science does not back up that claim.
Dr Heneghan said: “The evidence does not stack up and the quality of the evidence does not allow us to say these do improve in performance or recovery and should be used as a product widely.”
Nutrition expert Professor Mike Lean of the University of Glasgow described what little evidence there is that certain amino acids, which form part of proteins, may improve muscle strength as “absolutely fringe evidence and I think that that is almost totally irrelevant, even at the top level of athletics”.
Prof Lean said the market for supplements is “yet another fashion accessory for exercise… and a rather expensive way of getting a bit of milk.”
References
International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism”; Effect of Creatine Supplementation on Aerobic Performance and Anaerobic Capacity in Elite Rowers in the Course of Endurance Training; J. Moneta-Chwalbinska, et al.; June 2003
So Status update and hopefully a little useful information, I have finished the move to North Wales and the new job at the Brenin is going well, I think I may have been able to keep the state of the ankle under wraps and may occasionally walk with a limp but all in all everything is going well, it’s getting stronger everyday and I’m getting fitter everyday.
If anyone has ever had 8 months of no work then you can probably understand how unfit you get, how the beer belly develops and how you lose the ability to walk anywhere not getting out of breathe… Good news though as all of this has gone! Any now that’s the me section out of the way, now for a possible helpful hint;
I find people are always very interested to know how on camp you have such a small bag and what exactly you are taking, especially on summer ML courses when people turn up with 65 litre rucksacks weighing in at 20kgs. And wonder why they are beasted when heading out on night nav.
So hopefully I will go through all of the items I have in my rucksack, there are lots of different factors to take into consideration but this is what I took last week with 9 clients, 1 overnight camp, good weather with temps around 16 degrees in the day and 2 degrees at night.
HOW TO:
Go backpacking with 1 overnight camp and 35litre rucksack weighing under 10kgs…..ish
This is my aim whenever I go out, it forces me to get rid of all the crap out of my bag!
First I’m wearing a pair of appropriate trousers, a thin base layer and warmer base layer for walking, all with wicking properties.
A pair of suitable walking socks and boots
Deuter 35+ guide rucksack
1 x Kangri tent (I have the tent split up into different dry bags, this allows the tents to be packed easier, stuffed into smaller spaces and if you put the tent away wet it doesn’t affect the rest of your kit)
1 x Airo air mat
1 x PipeDream 400
1 x Silk liner
1 x Stove
1 x Titanium spoon
1 x Gore tex jacket
1 x Lightweight waterproof trousers
1 x Filo
1 x Gloves
1 x Hat
1 x litre of water, a Nalgene bottle or something similar, not a platypus or camelback, if it bursts you are stuffed, also the pipes dirty very quick if heading into hot climates. (I start with this empty as I’ll fill it up on the first stream, drink lots, empty it then find some more when I need it… possibly a bit risky so know your terrain!)
Water bottle is wrapped in Gaffa tape for repairing etc, not carried separately, it’ll stick to itself then unwrap pretty easy, I tend to keep around half of a small roll wrapped around the bottle.
Food for 1 x night, 2 x lunches (Aim to leave the hill with no food left but not feeling hungry, it’s all too easy to pack too much food)
1 x Carbon walking pole
1 x Pen knife
1 x First aid kit.
I believe my kit is reasonably extensive, although it is not heavy nor too large, I keep it in a dry bag to make sure everything is always… well, dry.
My first aid kit consists of:
1 x Report form (These can be downloaded off the internet)
1 x pair of gloves
1 x Resusciade
1 x Field compression dressing (The Israeli’s make the best ones, I’m sure you can guess why)
Asprin (Good for thinning the blood, heart attack, hangovers etc)
A few plasters (If I’m getting my first aid kit out it’s usually for a very good reason, not a tiny cut, a man up sticker should be available for these)
A small rap of cling film, good for mountain bike grazes/cuts or camp burns.
2 x Absorbent adhesive dressing 10cm x 10cm
1 x Roll of vet rap (The best stuff in the world for fixing broken people)
1 x Triangular bandage
1 x Tube of superglue
1 x Strip of steri strips
Dioralyte
Imodium
A few things that may change or make things lighter;
So if I was not to be carrying a tent then I would almost always have a blizzard bag, if there was more in the group or if I was in a working context then I would make sure everyone had appropriate shelter or I would carry a group shelter.
Nailing the basics of summer backpacking are essential if you are hoping to extend your adventures into the winter.
If the weather was to be forecast amazing and I had a good study of the weather then I would also consider taking a bivi bag instead of a tent, this would make me lighter and also save some space, the downside of this is if there are lots of flies this could very quickly get annoying, you don’t have your own space or any wind shelter for cooking in open spaces. I usually take a tent unless I’m going very lightweight.
So the annual trip to the bouldering Mecca Font has happened once again, on February 19th 12 young climbers and 8 Jurassics (older than young) hit the road in a van (boulder mat carrier), minibus (carrier of people) and a car (team doctor and photographer).
Before any trip to Font like this I never look at the weather, I don’t dare to, we just need to get there and deal with whatever is thrown our way. In this case we had a couple of showery days, one day which was very poor but Team Awesome went for a nice long run then a slack lining session over the river outside the Gite. The last two days though was good weather, just in time for Team Crush to get some crushing done!
People were more psyched than ever and most of them had been the previous year, some had also come the year before so they were getting to know their way around the boulders pretty well. Their skin was looking relatively good as the previous few days had not been great conditions.
Team crush enjoying dinner
An enthused Gracie Martin takes up the story… Font was AMAZING and I would not change anything that happened whilst we were there for the world!!!!!!!!!!!! Climbing outside doesn’t compare to climbing on plastic so it awesome to have 5 days on real rock! We went to a different area everyday and so got to see lots of different places. My aim was to tick a 7a but as I found yet again the Fontainbleau grading system is not what you’d call precise, as one day I couldn’t even start a 4b!! However I was really pleased with my ascent of the Mary Rose and I also enjoyed trying lots of very hard problems including La Arabesque and Carnage. It was great to watch the stronger people climb and see how it’s really done. Lunch was always very tasty as Naomi and I created a new type of sandwich which consisted of cheese, crisps, nutella and milka chocolate!! They probably had enough calories in to account for our total daily intake!!! The gang of people I went with were sooooooo brilliant, we had loads of laughs and I think Ben has been scarred for life by our singing!! I’d like to say a big thank you to my Mum for letting Dad and I go, as I know she’s going to have to put up with stories from the trip for months to come! I would also like to say a massive thank you to Dan for organising such an awesome trip, and I hope we can go again!!!!
Sector Rocher Guichot, the girls topping out
Tom Bonnert got more than he bargained for when the rock fought back landing him in hospital… It was nice to be outside and having a break from all the training. I really enjoy the training and pushing myself to the limit to get stronger and better at my climbing. However its always good to have a break and chill out with your mates at an amazing place like Fontainebleau. There’s so many problems to choose from and you don’t have to wait for them to be reset. Some of the problems are not always easy to find so its worth taking something to help. Get a Dan Bradley. Another part of advice is to not take the grades to seriously. Particularly on the easier circuits. Even after the climbing has finished it is such a laid back atmosphere and everyone was having such a great time.
My most memorable moment is Le Toit du Cul de Chien. Amazing moves and it took me quite a while to get and when I did get it is was really psyched. I also managed to get at least a 7a every day which included two 7a+ s and two 7a’s. And lastly the trip to the French hospital will always be a memorable experience.
The accommodation was in a fantastic old water mill with excellent food cooked by Dan and his assistants. And I particularly appreciated and enjoyed my no egg birthday cake cooked by Naomi and Gracie. It was awesome. Thanks a lot to Dan for organising the whole trip. Thanks to the the drivers of the mini van which were Kent, Mark and Roger. Thank you to everyone for making the trip even more amazing. And lastly a big thank you must go to the Alpkit guys for letting us use their boulder mats. (Which turned out very successful in Wayne’s massive fall) Without the mats the trip would have been a lot more difficult so we really appreciated that. That’s it and look forward to next year 😀
Billy Ridal at the Cul di Chien roof
Billy Ridal was with us last year and keen to get some 7a ticks this time round… For me the font trip was a great success down to good planning, great cooks and an altogether nice group of people. Font is a very different style of climbing to any indoor walls I have been to and in my opinion it is far better. I have to admit that even though I did get a few 7a ticks that I had been aiming for my two most memorable moments were; firstly making a giant tower out of Jenga bricks, and secondly, the slack line over the river, which although it was immensely cold and I failed completely, watching Ben fall in made my day. Finally I would like to say thanks to Dan for doing the cooking every night and organising the whole trip.
Luke Tilley on Arabesque
One newcomer to Font was Naomi Tilley, just one of 4 Tilleys on the trip!… This was my first trip to font and it was… Amazing! I had one aim; I wanted to make my fingers bleed, to really be at one with the rock. I succeeded within the first day! I normally prefer steeper, more powerful problems but this week, I fell for the slabs. I loved the sketchiness of them and the relief when you top out. It defiantly is a whole other world to indoor plastic. The best bit of the trip….. It would defiantly have to be the epic sandwiches, made by myself and Gracie! The most enlightening moment would be, sitting on the “naughty” table with Dan, Ben and Paul. And the most entertaining would be story time, a daily hour or so of Flo, Sarah and Gracie reading 127 hours to Dan. Oh, and the climbing was good too!
Gracie Martin, Area 95.2
It was also the first time for Will Smith. Will went expecting a lot, and didn’t come away dissapointed… This was my first trip to font, I had heard a lot of good things about the climbing there and it definitely lived up to my expectations. The number of amazing boulders and awesome looking lines is unbelievable and I am left with so much more to go back and do. I found it was easy to get sucked in to one problem and spend all day on it so I tried to limit how long I spent on each problem but it was hard to resist another go! I’m looking forward to going back to finish off stuff and find more inspiring problems. On the non climbing side of things, the gîte was amazing and the food even better. A huge thanks to Dan for the cooking and of course for organizing it all, thanks to all the parents that helped, thanks to Alpkit for sponsoring the trip and letting us borrow their awesome mats and thanks to everyone for making it a really enjoyable trip
Naomi Tilley enjoying the forest and some slacklining
I would just like to say a massive thank you everyone that came, Derrick Bolger aka the Bleausard who can be located all too often in the forest of Font secretly kicking peoples ass. Mike “the psych” Mowbray for being team Doctor and just generally being so motivated and awesome, and Paul Philips for taking all the shots including bonus video of Ben Meakin on Kift on the Facebook page.
Thanks to everyone for helping out, it all makes a difference and makes my life much easier. Thanks for reading my book to me, you know who you are, it normally take me years to read a book and keep the concentration!
