Trouble with Toe Ons and Toe Ins (Footwork) - Any suggestions?
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I have a bit of a roadblock with respect to footwork, which is that I have tremendous difficulty putting any weight on my great toes while climbing (even when distributing my weight evenly between both great toes, and using my arms WAY too much to support my weight). When I try, there's no pain involved, but there is a very strong feeling of discomfort; my body basically screaming "you must stop this at once", leaving me unable to really focus on anything else that's remotely difficult until I take my toe off and return the weight to the right or left ball of my foot. |
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I think you have gout or arthritis. I recommend accu puncture Eastern style. |
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Climbing is discomfort. Accept it. Your feet will adapt... Or they won't and you should just climb in approach shoes. |
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My feet are very flat and my big toes or the surrounding parts of my feet often hurt after climbing. I'm a relatively new climber though (also in the .11 range), so it might just be the process of strengthening things that weren't used that much before. Maybe it's exacerbated by the flat feet, I don't know. |
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Your shoes might fit you but that doesn't mean a different pair wouldn't help you out. Every shoe has a different camber and stiffness to it, a stiffer shoe might alleviate a little bit of that pressure from your big toes. |
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Go to the gym and just stand on the small footholds, hanging from a jug. Try to get as much weight on your toes as possible. Then climb some super easy gym routes and use small footholds exclusively. It's a technique issue, IMO. Practice is the solution. Start in low stress situations and gradually increase the intensity and distractions. |
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My guess is you are missing range of motion in your lower limbs. I would do a combination of on- and off-wall mobility. Here are suggestions for off-wall mobility mobilitywod.com/?s=ankles. For on-wall mobility, I climb the steepest wall where I can put 100% weight on my feet and gradually decrease the size of foot holds and increase the steepest of the wall. |
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Some good suggestions in this thread. Another option would be trying to wear toe spreaders when you are hanging out at home. You mentioned you don't have foot problems, so I'm guessing you don't have bunions, but it might be worth a shot. Also, take a look at your street shoes. Do they fit too tight? Too narrow in the toe box? Alot of people could benefit from having a street shoe that allows their toes to fully splay in both width and length. |