Climb like an orangutan and improve your endurance is the most credited article of 2016 when it comes to feedback through emails and facebook (including follow up questions). Even some trainers have given thumbs up. Some people said that they could feel the change in their technique after just a few sessions, and that it spreads quickly among their friends. Here are some follow up thoughts and answers: The whole Orangutan climbing exercise idea aims to make you climb more relaxed, using your muscle fibers less, which eventually will improve your blood circulation and endurance. Many climbers have a problem with over-gripping, meaning that you use more strength than needed and also that you do not let go of the tension in your forearm muscles as the hand moves between different holds. If you start practicing climbing with just one hand at a time, you will learn to automatically relax and let go of tension in the moving forearm, which will allow it to rest for a few seconds before grabbing the next hold. It won't take too many hours training with the Orangutan technique before you notice that you automatically try to let go of the lower hand and reduce the used contact strength as much as possible. By always focusing on letting go, you will also have the benefit of getting a micro-shake while moving the hand to the next hold, which will save energy for executing harder moves. In fact, looking at the World Cup climbers, you can see that their style normally is to lock off and to do as controlled moves as possible, in order to get a micro-shake. Further more, this style has also the advantage that instead of grabbing the next hold semi-dynamically with an uncontrolled exaggerated landing power, you grab the next hold smoothly and statically.

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"Climb like an orangutan and improve your endurance", v slovenskej verzii "Lez ako orangutan a zlepši si tak vytrvalosť", je jedným z najhodnotnejších článkov za rok 2016 čo sa týka odozvy v komentároch, cez emaily, na Facebooku a dodatočných otázok. Dokonca sa na jeho adresu pozitívne vyjadrili aj niektorí tréneri. Zopár lezcov sa takisto vyjadrilo, že zmenu v technike pocítili už po niekoľkých tréningoch a tento štýl sa rýchlo ujal aj v ich okolí. Tu je niekoľko ďalších odpovedí a nápadov. Podstata celého cvičenia štýlom orangutana je, aby bol lezec pri lezení uvoľnenejší, tým pádom používal menšie percento svalových vlákien, čo postupne zlepšuje obeh krvi v tele a tým aj lezeckú vytrvalosť. Veľa lezcov má problém s preťažovaním chytov, čo znamená, že používajú viacej sily ako je potrebné na udržanie chytu. To zároveň spôsobuje, že svaly sa nestihnú dostatočne uvoľniť pri pohybu z chytu do chytu. Pri tréningu tejto techniky postupne len s jednou rukou sa človek automaticky naučí vypustiť a uvoľniť svaly v predlaktí pri nasledujúcom pohybe, keďže ruka bude chvíľku oddychovať pred dochytením ďalšieho chytu. Nezaberie veľa času než si pri tréningu človek uvedomí, že automaticky vypúšťa spodnú ruku hneď po dochytení alebo znižuje kontaktnú silu na minimum. Tým, že sa sústredíš na pustenie a uvoľnenie budeš mať zároveň výhodu mikro-sklepania pri nasledujúcom pohybe, pričom sa stále môže jednať o sériu ťažkých krokov. Zaujímavé je, že keď sa pozrieme na lezcov Svetového pohára, ich štýl je podobný - väčšinou zamknúť na chyte a spraviť pohyb tak kontrolovane, ako sa len dá, aby pri ňom mohli na malú chvíľku sklepať. Tento štýl má výhodu aj v tom, že namiesto polo-dynamického dochytenia chytu, pri ktorom je spotrebované veľké množstvo sily, je dochytenie nasledujúceho chytu plynulé a statické.

Alex Puccio has done her 15th 8B, Tierre De Sienne in Hueco Tanks. The day before she won her sixth comp in a row, Birmingham Alabama, since her spinal fusion five months ago. (c) Kim Puccio "Left Hueco to do a competition this weekend, won the comp, got back late last night and now today I got another gift! felt good to send! getting stronger!!! :)" In February, the runner-up in the World Championsship 2014, plans to do the US Nationals but she is not sure if she will do the World Cup 2016. Here are her thoughts regarding the Olympics. "The Olympics is good for our sport in a whole I believe. It will bring more money and attention to climbing and I think it will help even inspiring professional outdoor climbers as well. I guess we will see! I personally will probably try out, whatever that is, to be be selected. Even tho I don't really agree or like the purposed format for the Olympics it would be really cool to say you competed in it. Again, we will see!

UIAA vydalo celý sumár udalostí prvého Svetového pohára v ľadovom lezení 2016, ktorý sa konal v americkom Durangu. (c) Blake Ward/UIAA Výsledky: 1. Alexey Dengin (RUS) - Woonseon Shin (KOR) 2. Nikolai Kuzovlev (RUS) - Angelika Rainer (ITA) 3. Maxim Tomilov (RUS) - Eimir McSwiggan (IRE)

Stefano Ghisolfi has done the FA of Ultimatum in Arco, which is the connection of three already hard routes in Massone. Stefano, with three 9a+'s done during the last year, is second in the 8a.nu route ranking game. "Last connection in Massone, connects The first boulder of Underground, Reini's Vibes, downclimb some moves of Pietra Murata, the crack boulder of L'ultima Pietra with a crazy finger lock, and the last tiny crimps of Stonehenge. More than 100 moves. Not a hard 9a+ due to good rests between the hard sections".

Laura Rogora has onsighted her fourth 8b, Bella Lu in Collepardo. On the same day she also made the FA of Super crack 8c. The 15-year-old is #1 in the 8a female ranking game and when it comes to onsights, she is #7 among the guys. What goes through your mind while onsighting? I do not know. When I feel tired I try to climb speedly without thinking about what I am doing because I only want to reach the next hold. In the last two years, she has won the Italian Championship in both Bouldering and Lead categories and the amazing thing is that she trains in a not so big bouldering gym.

Andrej Capko is our new editor for Slovakia meaning that we now have country specific editors and translators for six countries, which is a record high: Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Poland and Slovakia. Most visitors come from USA and Germany and if you would like to be able to report local news or translate to any language just send an email to [email protected] and we will upgrade your account.

karoline sinnhuber has done the FA of Schluck du Bruder sit 8A+ in Felbertal. In total she has now done 50 Boulders graded 8A and harder. "Props to Norbert Grugger for spotting this line during our last session. Also a big shoutout to my dad (8a note: also an 8A boulderer) who drove to the bloc 2 days ago for brushing the snow away <3. Perfect conditions today, first go after the warmup." There is just a handful female who have done an 8A+ FA. The 21-year-old Austrian is also a successful competition climber and in the 8A ranking game, she is #3.

Andrej Capko je náš nový editor pre slovenskú verziu 8a.nu (čaute!). Zatiaľ teda máme editorov a prekladateľov zo šiestich krajín: Španielsko, Taliansko, Francúzsko, Švédsko, Poľsko a Slovensko. To je v doterajšej histórii 8a.nu najviac! Najväčší počet návštevníkov ja však z USA a Nemecka. Ak by si mal záujem reportovať o lokálnych novinkách a prekladať doterajšie do svojho jazyka, stačí poslať mail na [email protected] a môžeme ti upgradenúť účet.