Rock Climbing with Rob Pizem

February 24, 2014

Treadwall Training with Piz: When and When Not to Drop Knee Video

Contact Piz at pizem@hotmail.com for Motivational/Instructional/Entertaining Speaking Engagements, Climbing Instruction, Training and Weekly/Monthly Training Programs

Until then... Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

Thanks to my amazing sponsors: www.arcteryx.com www.camp-usa.com www.scarpa.com www.sterlingrope.com www.americanalpineclub.org www.brewersledge.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wWLjG-0-jI

Watch this video to learn how to drop knee.

Dropknee: when you reach up with a hand and rotate on the toe of that same foot into the wall.
Purpose: It will keep you closer to the wall (your hips) and allow you to reach further up the wall, and it will be a more efficient use of your energy.

Straight on Reach: this is when you do not drop knee and keep your hips square to the the wall (meaning that they are not twisted from one side or to another)
Purpose: Sometimes its tough to drop knee due to the location of the feet and it makes more sense to use a little bit of power to pull straight on.

I use both as I complete this problem.
Think about how you can switch and use the appropriate one while you are on your climbs!

February 21, 2014

Zion Weekend Outtakes

Zion Fun... I think

We went out to new route and all we found was dead animals. Was it a good sign?

I was not really psyched with my first anchor. The rock was bad and it took lots of bad placements on soft rock to just get here! Sterling Ropes all ove the place!!

Ben joined me after I hauled the haul bag up the wall. He was nice enough to jug next to it and help it get unstuck!

It was a jungle out there!

A wall hauler and a new static line from Sterling Ropes!

The views can not be beat while on a wall in Zion!

Me and my impression of Gene Simmons!

On the way down we were able to get down just by rappeling off trees! What a day. We made it up about 800ft only to find the loosest, rock that I have ever climbed, so we rapped back down to the back packs and headed out in the dark.

Good thing my ropes were 70 meters cause we would not have reached the bottom of this chimney/offwidth.

Standing under the choss!

Just following the beta for the route!

Summit Grapevine (Dallas,Tx) Gym Review

Contact Piz at pizem@hotmail.com for Motivational/Instructional/Entertaining Speaking Engagements, Climbing Instruction, Training and Periodization Programs

Until then... Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

Thanks to my amazing sponsors: www.arcteryx.com www.camp-usa.com www.scarpa.com www.sterlingrope.com www.americanalpineclub.org www.brewersledge.com

So this is a great smaller gym with more top roping and leading than bouldering.
The routes that I climbed were well set and the grades seemed right on par with other gyms.
I really liked how the setters used the features in addition to the smooth paint vs textured features.
This made it challenging to grab them and to stand on them if it was the slick feature.

With respect to training there was a speed wall (where the kids excel at and often win national competitions. I had never seen one, it is set with just a few holds and the kids figure out how to move quickly up through the odd shaped holds.
Personally, I would have set real routes on it because it was just slightly overhung and very wide. Perfect to set any kind of route on.
The training area is a second thought. They have finger boards poorly placed in a corner, they have a weight bench with just a few weights, they have a pull up bar that is free standing that is not attached to the floor so it can fall over if you were to rock it to one side.

In all I like the gym but the training area is lackluster. No systems board, no campus board, no real equipment, no space and no instruction for what they do have.

The bouldering area was small as you can see below. Get a lot of people in there and you will be falling on top of each other. It had the right amount of angles and plenty of holds to make up your own problems if you wanted.

There was an arch in the lead area that was quite fun and again well set.

Slick feature

Textured feature

Classroom/yoga/party room

February 18, 2014

Rowan Playing

Training with Piz: Campus Board Lock Off Reach (Static Moves)

This is a straight power movement.
You can do one on each arm and rest or make it a power-endurance move by performing a few in a row.
The goal is to lock off after doing a pull up and then statically reach high with one hand.
Then lower (doing a negative) and pull up again and reach with the opposite hand.
Keep you core engaged and your chest to the board in addition to your arm and hand close to the wall.
It is not about grabbing a campus rung but reaching slowly as high as you can.
If this is too challenging then you can always add a foot to the wall and build up to the no feet version.

February 14, 2014

Training with Piz: How Much is Too Much?

Contact Piz at pizem@hotmail.com for Motivational/Instructional/Entertaining Speaking Engagements, Climbing Instruction, Training and Periodization Programs

Until then... Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

Thanks to my amazing sponsors: www.arcteryx.com www.camp-usa.com www.scarpa.com www.sterlingrope.com www.americanalpineclub.org www.brewersledge.com www.windx-treme.com

How much training is too much training?

This seems to be a big issue. As I talk with folks about how much they train, I get a lot a different answers.

Some people have been training/working out for years and have a high tolerance for pushing hard multiple days a week and some people are just entering into their new lifestyle and don't have the ability to go that hard or that much. Some have past injuries that they have to be aware of while some can become injured if pushed too hard one way or another.

So the answer lies within you. It is important to be honest with yourself about your current and past fitness level. In addition to any past or present injuries. Even when working with guidance, you can still over do it and work into negative gains. It is less likely to occur when working with someone everyday, but more possible when working remotely with someone. The day to day interaction and observations that a trained eye can make are immense, while following a script can be beneficial it also can lead to questions of whether or not you are doing things correctly.

The bottom line is that you have to listen to your body, no matter what you are doing and objectively identify how your training is going. Evaluate how you are feeling and go from there.

February 13, 2014

Training with Piz: Barbies

The Barbie is the NEW BURPEE

Just add a weighted bar to the mix and get after it.
What a great full body workout.
It focuses on your core, power in the legs with the jump,
oppositional muscles in your arms with the pushup,
cardio from the speed.

It's time to get down!