Forget footwork, get your grip stronger!

"Use your feet!"

"Work on your footwork!"

"Use your legs!"

You hear it all the time. Advice given to novice climbers from "seasoned veterans." I've heard it so much that even I, a newb, scream it at other newbs. Because I am very much still a novice, I remember how frustrating it is to hear that advice. Perhaps the intermediate/advanced climbers have forgotten what it's like to be a novice... with absolutely no hand strength.

Here's my take on the "work on footwork" spiel given to newbies...

So I've gotten that spiel many times. I mean I constantly heard it, from everyone and everywhere.

Then I took a break from outdoor climbing and did a couple of months of gym climbing. The next time I climbed outdoors, people were all like, "Wow, your footwork has really improved!" and "I've noticed you use your feet a lot better now."

So what changed? Did I go the gym and purposefully work on my footwork? Fuck no. I went to the gym and massively increased my hand/finger strength.

And guess what? It's a shit ton easier to "work on your footwork" when you're not so worried about losing your grip.

In other words, because I can grip holds more easily and for longer periods of time (and in some cases, grip things I couldn't before), I am actually comfortable enough to take a few moments to concentrate on my feet, maybe even experiment around with their placement.

So there it is, straight from the hip, newb to newb. Yes climbing does require high amounts of contact/finger/hand strength.

Acne Meds

I had really bad cystic acne once and got prescribed Accutane. That shit works. It works amazingly well. Not only does it get rid of acne, but it makes your skin really nice (gets rid of wrinkles and blemishes). It's more or less a miracle drug, imo.

Though I still have acne, it's not bad enough warrant the use of Accutane. I was skeptical of other treatments until Adam gave me a 3 month supply of BenzaClin. In two weeks time, I had beautiful skin! Amazing! And the nice thing about BenzaClin is that docs are much more likely to prescribe it to you than Accutane for normal acne vulgaris.

The downside to BenzaClin is that it bleaches everything it touches. Really badly. You can look in my closet and see all the shirts that it ruined or see all the discolored towels in my linen closet. See BenzaClin consists of two medications: benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin (an antibiotic). The former is what causes the bleaching.

So I finally make it to a dermatologist and tell him that I like BenzaClin, but hate the bleaching. No problem he says! He can prescribe the two active ingredients of BenzaClin as separate treatments: the benzoyl peroxide (the bleaching agent) as a shower wash, and clindamycin as a topical cream. So all I have to do is be sure to rinse off all the benzoyl peroxide before getting out of the shower and I'm golden!

He actually wrote me two prescriptions: benzoyl peroxide shower wash and something called Ziana. Ziana has the clindamycin, but also has tretinoin (aka Retin-A, another acne treatment). So in essence, my current acne treatment is just like using BenzaClin, but with added Retin-A.