4 Climbing Tips to Stop Cutting Feet!
After a spinal cord injury in 2019, I was unable to weight my feet while climbing (and barely while standing). With muscle weakness and no feeeling, I couldn’t tell the difference between rock and air. My spinal fusion in 2023 has improved my muscle strength greatly and has somewhat improved my feeling. Nearly every workout I’ve done for the past 2 years has been focused on being able to maintain body tension. I’m finally starting to reap the benefits of all these workouts. I thought I’d share the top four climbing exercises that have helped me avoid cutting feet.
Hang and Hold
This is the first step to learning how to keep body tension. Just being able to hold the position is key to being able to do it while climbing. Start with a good hold with one hand and a bad hold (or no hold) for the other hand and good feet. You don’t want two good holds becuase you want to ensure that you are properly weighting you feet. While holding the position, make sure your hips dont drop towards the ground. As you are easily able to hold your body up with big foot holds, switch them out for smaller foot holds. Make sure to train both sides and use foot holds at varying heights to make the most of this exercise.
2) Climb with Intention
For three months straight, I did one climbing workout- Climb with the intention of not cutting feet. I started this during my warm-up, which lead to me even projecting some of my typical kilterboard warmups. I had to figure out how to statically do something that I had always thrown to and this made all grades challenging and exciting! If I cut feet in the middle of a climb, I came down and tried again until I could do it without cutting feet. Now, I do other climbing exercises, but I still do this during every warm-up.
3. BUMP IT UP
This is one of my newer training exercises. Pick two good start holds and a good foot. Then pick a finish that is also good but is several holds away from your starting position. Without cutting feet, bump to every hold that is on your way to the finish hold. As you progress with this exercise, choose worse feet.
I also use this exercise when there is a big move I can’t do and I want to teach my body how to keep my feet on at the end range of the motion.
4. Bump it UP and BUMP IT DOWN
This is an extension of exercise 3. Once you have mastered bumping up, then you bump back down to the starting hold. This adds a level of fatigue to the exercise, making it tougher to remember and being able to maintain body tension. Make sure to do this exercise on both sides and adjusting the foot positions, so that you can maintain tension at variety of angles and positions.
I hope these exercises are helpful! I’m still deep in this journey of learning how to use my legs. If you have any exercises that help you not cut feet, please share!!