trad calf burn

Hi All,

I just started into trad this year and one of the first things I noticed is how much and how quickly my calves burn while placing gear.
I know that with time I will get better at placing gear more quickly which will reduce the burn time in my legs but until then does anyone have any suggestions for building up calf endurance?
any simple exercises to beef up my calves or techniques while placing gear to reduce time?

thanks for all the input

For calf endurance you could run while wearing some minimalist shoes. In those, you'll feel your calves working in no time and you'll get and aerobic workout too!

drop your heels.

climbing friend,

Do not be so afraid and your calf may feel better. Also perhaps you may try the running type when you strike down on the ground ball of foot first, for make very strong calf, myah?

Mike Marmar wrote:drop your heels.

I heard that wearing high heels makes for stronger calves.

Climb lots of low angle ice!

while climbing, drop/lower your heels.

exercise - single leg calf raises on the edge of a step, with emphasis on a slow, controlled descent in which the heel goes lower than the toes.

If the hold is big enuff ... Turn yr foot sideways and rest on yr heel

;)

Per what Andrew says: exercise - single leg calf raises on the edge of a step, with emphasis on a slow, controlled descent in which the heel goes lower than the toes."

DO NOT OVER DUE IT OR YOU WILL HAVE SOME LONGTIME REGRETS. It's easy to pull the damned tendon right off your heel doing this. It's a great excersie and stretch but remember this, like Ice cream or sex, no scratch that, like Ice Cream, a little bit is good, but even a little too much can be wayyy too much.

Stiff shoes can help quite a bit with the calf burn. I find I can comfortably hang out and fiddle with gear a lot longer in my TC Pros vs a softer shoe like Nagos or Mythos.

I've done lots of calf raises - one leg and two - with weight added or not but the best thing I have found is bouncing on my toes on the wife's mini tramp until they burn like crazy. Get off and stretch your calves - repeat a few times.

Jump rope helps to build the calves.

Find an area with alot of slab (doesn't need to be climbing slab more 4th / 3rd class) and do laps on it.