Change is as good as a rest?!

For the last week I have had a complete break from climbing and taken myself off to bike the West Country Way.  5 days and 510km later, my legs are a little sore, but I feel incredibly serene and focused (unbelievably!).  Reflecting on why, I realised that there was something about the rhythm of cycling which helped me stay absolutely in the moment, riding through some beautiful countryside, thinking of nothing but experiencing everything.  It reminded me of what psychologists call a "peak experience", and what climbers refer to as "flow", something I have experienced a few times climbing.  This is when our mind is aware only of the present, something which can be difficult in today's striving society.  During this peak experience, time seems to both stretch and contract so that minutes seem to last both forever and to pass quickly.  We experience a sense of mental stillness, and not so much euphoria more as contentment.   This has obvious parallels with mindfulness meditation.

So even during my hard slogs uphill and at the end of the day where I was tired, I still felt contented and as though I had been meditating through the day.  Coming back home, I expect to see the benefits of these 5 days cycling transfer to my climbing in a number of ways.  Firstly there is the obvious benefit of having stronger legs and greater cardio-vascular fitness!  Second, there has been 5 days of practice at staying in the moment, even during discomfort (we often try to avoid staying with difficult sensations, thoughts or feelings).  And finally, there is the psychological advantage of knowing that something that seemed such a big task was achievable by breaking it down into small 15km chunks - more about "chunking" in the next blog post:)

Getting going

Yesterday a friend and I made the most of the sun with a trip to Tremadog.  Hopefully its reassuring to hear, that like many people on their first route of the year, we managed to get the ropes a bit tangled, faff with gear, and forget something (a helmet!).  Many people I have worked with are quite hard on themselves about this sort of thing, feeling that things have to be 'right'.  This can also extend to being hard on yourself about feeling nervous - well I certainly felt some nerves as I set off up a route which I knew was well within my capability!  The point is, we are not perfectly functioning robots.  We all have 'irrational' thoughts, difficult feelings, are easily distracted, have strange foibles.  But fighting them, not wanting to think or feel or experience them makes them stronger and 'stickier'.  My tip for the day, in fact for life is, accept!  Allow yourself to think/feel/do, and then return your awareness to the present.  For example, rather than fighting an understandable lack of fluidity and nerves due to lack of practice with "come on, get the right piece of gear in, get a grip", notice those thoughts and feelings ("ok, I am feeling a bit clunky and a bit nervous") and then return to the task in hand, without self judgement.  Focus back on the rock, the moves, the sights, sounds and feel of what is in front of you.  Your mind will do its own thing, conjuring up spectres without your help, and you are not your thoughts.  You are this solid, living person, here in this moment.

New Rock

A sunny weekend in the Lakes meant some new rock for me to try out.  I headed up to Kentmere and worked some overhanging problems, which was great fun.  Its a good idea to try out different types of rock as this helps you to become more flexible in your approach to climbing, as different rock types require different sorts of problem solving.  Even if you are restricted in where you can get to easily, don't fall into the trap of training on a few problems you know well.  Save those for recover or mileage days, but be sure to try harder problems as well, even if you only do a few moves.  Your brain needs fresh challenges to keep your motivation up but also to develop what we call "plasticity" or new neural networks.  Ultimately this will help you respond more quickly to whatever the rock throws at you.

Body tension

Managed a good bouldering session the other night, with strength and energy returning finally!  I watched a couple of guys trying an overhanging traverse problem and was instantly struck by what was causing them to fail on it.  Many people focus so hard on their hands that they neglect to keep awareness and tension through their core and into their legs.  The guys I watched were a case in point, with floppy legs causing their feet to slip off as they pushed rightwards to make a move.  

I am lucky in that my gymnastics training instilled in me very early on how to use the levers and muscles of the body, through keeping mental awareness in the areas that were necessary for the movements.  Things like having to point your toes, extend arms and fingers and so on, key to looking tidy in competition, were also helpful in keeping tension in core muscles.  This tension is a different kind of tension to that which you get as you grip a hold, its more of a static tension which isnt so tiring, but helps keep the body stable and in the positions you want.  It is possible to learn to do this, by practising aiming your awareness into different areas of the body, and by practising tensing and releasing different muscle groups whilst on the ground before trying this on the rock.

Expert Q & A

I was delighted to get a couple of requests this month for psychological advice, which is good news because it shows that people are finally tuning in to the idea of improving your mental skills for climbing.  The first was from Summit magazine, where I provided some answers to questions about the psychological side of climbing, such as how to manage fear, what visualisation is all about, and who could benefit from mental training (answer, everyone, regardless of level of experience or ability!).  The second was a request to run a coaching session for the British Youth Team - unfortunately I am already working on the date they needed me - but what an interesting workshop to run!  I have worked clinically with children and adolescents, and found that they can often be much more willing to try out new ideas than adults!  

Meanwhile, I am trying to take advantage of the sun slowly, as I am beginning finally to feel a bit fitter and getting back to good health.  Off for a boulder in a mo - enjoy the sun:)

Focus on recovery

Unfortunately I am still unwell, so for this week's meditation practice I have been focusing on my immune system! Before you think I have gone mad, let me just say that there is evidence to suggest that the mind has a huge influence on the immune system.  So I am hoping that by imagining the blood flowing round my body, full of oxygen, nutrients and white blood cells, my body will get a gentle reminder to pull its socks up and fight off this infection that has been troubling me for a couple of months.  

I have also been using this week to take some gentle exercise, and getting lots of sleep.  Again research suggests that good quality sleep is essential for renewing cells, and very gentle exercise is good for circulation and so on.  Coupling this with eating healthily and avoiding alcohol and anything that would stress my liver also seems like a good idea.  I would be lying if I said I wasnt a little despondent, but focusing on how annoying and miserable it is to be ill will only increase stress and negativity, and wont help me get better. So if I catch myself ruminating about being ill, I simply gently move my attention back to things that will support my recovery.  This is a mindfulness technique, in yet another context.

seduced by the sun

such a lovely spring day today, so despite feeling pretty ropey still with not much of a voice and pretty tired, I went for a boulder. My intention was just to do a very gentle session and move all my muscles. However, seduced by the sun, and the fact that having been ill for 2 months, I have lost a stone in weight so feeling very light, I ended up doing a bit more than I should. There was a real lesson here for me in terms of watching my mental processes, which are always about "try a bit harder" - my own private inner personal trainer, pushing me. And today, that was not what I needed. Consequence - a burst blood vessel in my finger and a dry crampy pump in my shoulders after trying a problem I used to easily climb last summer. The brain remembered how to do it but the fitness and body-sense wasnt there, and rather than stepping off, I was driven to over try. People tend to fall into 2 camps, those whose brains tell them to ease off way before their limit so they dont climb up to their ability level, and those whose brains push them too hard and can get themselves in trouble by ignoring body signs or danger signs. And we can all do either/or at different times, depending on our mood and the situation. Its important to know your natural / usual tendency, as well as to recognise where you are today. For me, I should have been listening to my body rather than my inner slave driver!!

Imagine

Still making use of the time off from climbing that I am obliged to have the moment. Some research showed that spending time imagining movements (in this study's case a piano sequence) results in the motor cortex (the area responsible for movement in the brain) expanding by the same amount as if the movements had been actually performed. Amazing!

In my case, having small hands, I have always found slopers quite difficult. So part of this week's meditation has been to think back to sloping moves and imagine my hand sticking to them like glue. I'll let you know the results when I get back to climbing! But if it can work for piano playing then there is no reason it cant work for climbing.

So, let your imagination run wild...

meditation's what you need...

Having been poorly with a chest infection for the last couple of weeks I have been obliged to take some time off climbing and indeed any exercise and focus on getting well.  I've used the time to really practice meditation, and have been trying a few different techniques which I thought I might share with you.

The first is the bodyscan, a mindfulness technique which involved deliberately moving your awareness around your body, from big toe, to breathing, to hands, to top of the head.  Sounds easy in principle, but staying focused in the body, at the point where you want to be focused is actually quite hard, as our brain's tend to wander off topic!  And also in my case, sometimes to sleep - proving what I needed perhaps was a little more rest!  In climbing terms, a useful technique to practice for moves which require precise body placement.

The second technique is a yoga breathing technique, moving breathing through chest wall to deep abdomen.  Again, harder to do than it sounds, but useful for keeping breathing rhythmic and smooth at times of stress.

The third technique is a deep relaxation and visual imagery.  I have in mind a particular route I would like to do, and after progressive muscle relaxation, count myself down in steps to the crag, visualise gearing up, and then doing the route.  Its very important during this kind of visualisation that you both feel the route and that you see smooth progress.  So again, if the mind wanders, bring it back gently to the task in hand.

I teach some of these techniques on my courses, but there are lots of excellent cd's out there if you want some help getting going on your own.  Great mental training!

Quick, quick, slow

On Friday I took a bit of my own advice and went climbing with some friends who I havent climbed with for a long time.  The change of partner did me the world of good as I did different routes to usual, boosting my motivation.

As someone who likes to climb slow and steady, using mindful techniques to anchor myself in my body, I normally struggle on steeper climbs, where a slightly more attacking approach is needed to compensate for my lack of core strength!  However, steep was the order of the day on Friday, so I changed my tactics for the session.  I began by warming up as I always do, keeping movements controlled, slow and steady so that I could place my awareness into different parts of my body at will.  Once both mind and body were warm, I switched tactics and took longer before I stepped onto the climb to memorise sequences , rests and clip positions, and then tried to move smoothly but continuously through the route.  The important thing here was not to try to move quickly, but this was an inevitable by-product of creating continuous movement.  Result - rapid smooth progress up steeper routes.

So, top tip for today, try to vary the pace of your climbing.  Mostly we dont pay attention to speed unless we are trying to avoid a fall, but being able to control the pace at will can be a useful skill.  Practice on well-known routes or problems until you are able to vary at will, and then go ahead to transfer to newer or harder routes.