The healing process is going well and a few days ago was the first time that I was able to “climb” in over four weeks. I headed to my local climbing gym, Elite Climbing, to do some one footed top roping. Doing my workouts on my hang board have really paid off! I was a bit apprehensive on how I was going to climb but when I got on the wall, even though I couldn’t use my left foot, I felt pretty good. My endurance was not terrible and I felt like my finger strength was not completely gone. I think with the following weeks ahead of me I will be able to really work a lot of my weaknesses and continue to train on my hang board and go to the climbing gym to top rope before I am able to climb with both my feet again.
A few people have inquired about what I do on the hang board for my workouts. It pretty simple considering there is not too many extreme workouts you can perform on a hang board; use the picture below for reference. So here is a single workout I do (sometimes times a day). I start each workout by hanging on the upper jugs of the hang board for maybe 10-15 seconds or so. To continue the warm up I do 10 pullups on the lowest of pinches (very positive and not tweaky on the fingers at all).
Next it is one arm lock offs on the same pinches. I start with both hands on the pinches do a pull up and let go with my right hand first holding with my left arm in a locked off position for 10 seconds. I then do this with the right hand for 10 second and then again with the left for 10 seconds and then one last time with the right for 10 seconds. Without coming off I campus to the upper jugs do a pullup and bring my knees up into an L hang. I hold that for 10 seconds and then lower my arms to a 90 degree angle and hold for another 10 seconds before finally dropping off.
Next it is more L hangs. I grab the slopers directly below the jugsm do a pull up, hold an L hang for 10 seconds, bring my arms to 90 degrees hold it for ten seconds, and then repeat this 3 more times without leaving the L hang position or letting go of the slopers.
Then it is 10 pull ups on the smallest two finger pockets followed by 10 pullups on the bad pinches on either side of the board. Then I go to my other board and do 10 pullups on the smallest crimps, 10 pull ups on the biggest crimps, and 10 pullups in the middle slopers.
After this it is back to the blue board again. This is the most difficult part to explain so bear with me. I start with both hands on the good pinches down low. I campus first with my right hand to the crimp rail on the middle of the board then with my left hand to the jug at the top. Then right hand to the jug. Hang, then bring left hand to same crimp rail, campus back down into the pinches with both hands and repeat this 3 more times switching which hand goes to the crimp rail first. And then finally I do 10 pullups on the first good pinch and then campus to the jug and do 10 more pullups and by that time am pretty exhausted and can barely crutch back into the house!
If you have any questions regarding this or are completely confused feel free to comment and ill try and answer you the best I can.
I feel like the healing process is going great! My foot has more and more movement every day and I am able to start to put small amounts of weight down with my left foot while crutching around. I am hoping that my next doctor’s appointment on December 5th will end with some great news. But until then I will continue to do my workouts and top rope at the local climbing gym!
