Quarantraining and the double-edged sword it is:

The whole world is in lock down, countries are shutting down literally, toilet papers are running out from supermarkets and climbers are freaking out from having to stay too much indoors. Word on the street is that Covid-19 rules the world these days.

Even though corona virus’ scientific name sounds like a robot sent from the future to destroy human interaction, impose social distancing and isolation; life is Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, “I’ll be back”.

When it comes to climbers, most of them are either rediscovering their houses on a weekday afternoon, on a weekend or reconnecting with their family members they had ditched, things they missed ever since they got seriously hooked on climbing.

Most of all the climbers are dusting off their long-forgotten home set-ups they barely used before. These home set-ups include woodies, fingerboards, a wide array of climbing training gimmicks and in certain cases treadmills turned cloth hangers.

If you are on social media, namely Facebook or Instagram you have surely noticed these three trends:

1.       Climbers who are heading outdoors to get their dose of quarantine in nature. There are different opinions whether we as climbers should stay home or be in nature but judging from the rates of infections and weak healthcare coverage of remote areas we should also be isolating at home. Many countries like Spain, Italy and France have suspended all kind of outdoor activities including climbing.

2.       Climbers who have reached a level of home boredom so high, their trajectory ended in climbing anything including staircases, stone walls, dinner tables and kitchen closets.

3.       Climbers who have one or more training tool and looking to maximise their time using it to get their mind off from turning berserk due to isolation.

This article will not result in a recipe for how to use your home wall, or how to turn your weak fingers into Wolfgang Gullich on “Action Directe”, but it just wants to send a key message: train smart and do not get injured.Stemming from my own experience, I try to live by this motto: “try not to get injured while training to perform on rock”.

 While you can easily access so much information on training tips and videos, it is essential to stay grounded on this fact below.

“The lock down spectrum for climbers who train at their houses these upcoming week is the following: You either get strong and have higher chances to perform as you dream of, or you get overstocked stupidly enough to burn distances and end up over training and injuring yourself. Your call, train smart!”

Concluding with three essential tips for surviving the lock down and having a successful quarantraining:

·         Warm up gradually before each session, warm down at the end of it.

·         Ensure you stretch enough to avoid unexpected injuries.

·         Take rest days because not every day is a day to crank hard moves, every 2 to 3 days make sure you rest, recover, sleep well and be in shape for your next session.

Home wall 1, with different training tools.

Home wall 2, with a small campus board, a peg board and gymnastic rings. Photo: Jad Issa.

Home wall 3, using a symmetrical setting. Photo: Sam Eid.