Kaizen

It has been recommend to me (quite frequently actually) that I take a length of time off for my body to rest and recover from whatever physical stress I’d been applying to it, normally for several months on end. This usually was then forced on me by some injury I would receive via overtraining. However, this holiday season, my training may take a forced hiatus due to the amount of working I’m doing.

While this does mean money coming in and a lack of time to make excuses to burn through it. I will unfortunately be struggling to train like I would otherwise until the beginning of the new year.

But who knows. Maybe backing down and not climbing will get me primed and ready to hit the ground running… er, um vertically… to improve.

The beauty is, knocking out a couple fingerboard workouts a week only requires I go to the other side of the room… not across town.

I did get some climbing done though. Pulled down that elusive V7 that has been shutting me down for the better part of 2 months. No crowd cheered. No video caught it. I simply slapped the top out and pulled my exhausted and pumped out body the last bit of the way up. It was a peaceful moment.

The hardest part wasn’t the crux, it was getting my brain to be quiet. Some climbers say hyperventilate before you do a route. Others scream and try to act like weightlifters before a big lift (Why?! I don’t understand this…). Me, I just keep yelling positive thoughts to myself inside my head.

But that’s not what I wanted. I wanted nothing. No need for an outcome, just the chance to move. And so I simply “shh’d” to myself. Weird? Not compared to some stuff that I’ve tried. (That… sounds worse than I mean.)

It came through in my breathing. Slow and controlled. And when I hit that big move in the crux, the one that dropped me so many times before, I moved through like a coiled spring. I had just enough gas in the tank to hit it and not barn door my way into another attempt. It just all came together.

I want to discuss the idea of Kaizen. A Japanese term normally used in business practices. However, I want to take it a different way. The idea is to always look for ways to improve.

I feel I strive for this. Not just in climbing, but in every facet of my life. Today that meant striving to not get in my own way. Tomorrow it means a long day of work and then opting to rest instead of training.

To me, Kaizen is; the desire to never stop learning. To say no, only if you absolutely have too (or if it’s regarding drugs. D.A.R.E. taught me that.) To listen, a lot. And to never settle or be satisfied. To not let others limit my potential.

P.S. I totally jacked the concept of Kaizen from my boss, Michael. He introduced me to it. But he meant it towards business. So… There you go. I made it my own.