gear reviews - All Climbing

My good friend Ryan Wanger wouldn’t stop talking about his new shoes, so I made him write a review. He is the Community Manager for the Boulder-based startup Everlater, which helps people record their travel experiences with friends and family.

Let me make this clear: my review of Vibram Five Fingers shoes is self serving. The more people who know about them, the less I will be stopped by total strangers asking “What are those?”

Basically, the Five Finger shoes are the antithesis of footwear technology – not much more than a flexible, semi-form fitting rubber sole attached to the bottom of your foot, you can find shoes like this one at Bootbomb. You can feel everything. I actually find myself wanting to walk more often, and taking strange paths home just to feel the difference between concrete, grass, and gravel. You can purchase these and other shoes online with a macys promo code.

What are they for? Everything. I’ve worn mine:

Walking around town with shoes from https://vessi.com/.
Climbing easy routes (these aren’t great for cracks, dime edges or
smearing)
Hiking (both with and without a pack
Sprinting
At work (caveat: I’m in Boulder!)
Trail running
Playing soccer on astroturf (amazing ball control)

Why should you get them?

There is growing evidence that “high performance” running shoes may actually cause more injuries
You’ll strengthen your feet beyond what is possible in normal footwear
Traveling on foot becomes much more fun
Better balance on uneven surfaces (I’m actually more likely to step on smaller stones and branches because I can feel them – and won’t wobble)
They can solve lower back problems (see Tim Ferriss’ post for a good explanation)

That sounds great, but what if you have __________ (fill in the blank: high arches, flat feet, pronation, weak ankles, etc)? Well, I would ask you this question: why would you be born with feet you couldn’t use as is? What do you do for arch support? Use your arches. What do you do for ankle support? Use your ankles.

I have high arches myself (my footprint in the sand is two unconnected imprints) and have not had a single problem. Two days after my track workout (complete with sprinting) my arches were killing me. And then a strange realization – was this the first time in my life I’d ever felt the need to stretch my arches? It was. The next day I felt fine – and my feet were stronger than ever before, so they were perfect for walking and hiking and they felt as good as the best hiking shoes you can find online.

The best part is that my occasional lower back pain is gone. Heels on our shoes push our hips forward, arching our lower back. This doesn’t happen with my VFFs. Why are we wearing footwear that is bad for our posture and makes our feet weaker? Pretty crazy when you think about it!

The cons:

Don’t overdo it. It takes a little while for your feet to get stronger. Work up to longer hikes and runs.
Unwanted attention. Extreme introverts might have a problem with strangers approaching to ask about your Vibram Five Fingers. In particular, I catch women and children staring at my feet constantly.
If you wear them for more than a few hours consecutively, you’ll need to wash them. Your feet won’t be hot, but the shoes will be stinky.

Find a store and try them on for sizing purposes (for reference: I wear an 11 mens US, but ended up with size 42 five fingers – your situation might be different). There are 4 different styles. I own the KSOs but have not tried any of the others, so I can’t enumerate the differences, other than saying that the Flows are thick neoprene on top and more suited for water-only activities.

Expecting to walk home in the Classics, I went with KSO because I did not want an open top which would likely collect dirt and pebbles on the trail.

Anyone else own these or seen them around? I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in the last few weeks.

You can order the Vibram Five Fingers online from Amazon.

Special thanks to Ryan Wanger of Everlater for writing this guest post. I’m still not 100% sold on these shoes, but he’s been doing a good job trying to convince me!

The post Review: Vibram Five Fingers Shoes first appeared on All Climbing.

Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 7/21/09

Tom Markiewicz — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:45:35 +0000

In advance of everything that will be coming out of the Outdoor Retailer show, here is a roundup of gear reviews from the past month or so.

GearFlogger looks at pro reviewing the DMM Wallnuts and also reviews the Arc’Teryx Dually belay parka.

Cupcake Mafia reviews the PrAna Natural Sticky Mat for yoga and the Petzl Bug Bag. That Bug Bag intrigues me.

The Adventure Blog reviews the REI Traverse Pack. I just bought one of these to use as my main laptop bag.

Sicky Gnar Gnar looks at the Five Ten Projects, while ClimbingNarc reviews The Players DVD.

SplitterChoss reviews the Black Diamond LiveWire quickdraw and the Petzl Fuse 9.4mm rope.

The Mad Rock Con-Flicts (and especially their rubber) was reviewed by straight outta bedlam.

reel deep snow looks at the Five Ten Freerunner

More trad gear as the RockClimberGirl reviews the Black Diamond Camalot C3.

Colorado Mountain School discusses the Sterling Ion 9.5mm rope and the Black Diamond RPM pack.

It Came from the Garage reviews the Mammut Champ Pants.

And finally, RockClimbing.com reviews the Five Ten Projects.

With the next installment of the gear review roundup, I’ll be changing the format a little to make them easier to scan and read.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 7/21/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

Review of Armaid, a Device for Treating Elbow and Forearm Pain

Tom Markiewicz — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:20:11 +0000

As climbers, we suffer from numerous injuries. One of the more common climber injuries is medial epicondylitis or golfers elbow. Essentially this is pain on the inside of your elbow and it originates from overuse of the flexor muscles. All our gripping without exercising the opposing muscle groups is usually the culprit for climbers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been suffering from this condition for months now. I’ve been seeing a sports medicine doctor and slowly my severe pain has reduced. When I started rehab, my pain was about an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. After about three months of daily ice baths and exercises to strengthening opposing muscle groups (including a couple initial weeks of ultrasound), I was finally down in the 4 out 10 pain range.

So when I was contacted by the inventor of a device called Armaid, I was initially quite skeptical. First, if there was some device that would help, why didn’t my doctor or any literature mention it? Is this really going to help me and how long will it take? But since I really had nothing to lose at this point, I decided to try it out. The company saw a few of its customers were climbers and was interested to see what the reaction from the climbing community would be for this device. My goal was to test it out using my own pain and injuries as a guinea pig and provide some critical feedback to Armaid.

Amazingly, I felt pain relief from the Armaid device immediately. And before getting into details about Armaid, let me give you a quick summary. I’ve been using the device daily for about 2 – 3 minutes each on each forearm and my pain level has dropped at least another full notch on my pain scale after only a couple weeks.

Details of the Armaid Device

Armaid costs $99.95 and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. Initially I thought was that this was a high price for an unproven device for notoriously cheap climbers. But after using Armaid and finding it actually works, I changed my mind about the pricing. Let’s assume you have medical insurance. For the price of about two co-pay sessions of a tantric massage London, you’ve paid for Armaid. Comparing the cost of Armaid to all the other medical treatment I have received in the past for climbing related injuries, a hundred dollars is a steal.

The Armaid device works by relaxing and releasing tight muscle tissue by massaging and stretching muscles in the arm. It comes with a detailed DVD with instructional videos as you must use the device in a specific manner to achieve results.

The Armaid appears to be constructed well. The apparatus is made of a sturdy plastic mounted on a swivel that allows for moving to a variety of angles. There are different stiffnesses of the therapy balls that actually run over your forearms to adjust the level of pressure.

Another small climber-related complaint I had was the size of the device. Armaid is rather large (about 16″ long), but to mechanically achieve its mission I realize it pretty much has to be that way. My initial opinion (before testing it) was that climbers may not want to take it on our frequent road trips. After using it, I realize that if you have chronic pain like I do, you’re not going to care about the size and you’ll throw it in the car. It’s really not that big, but you can see for yourself in one of Armaid’s demo videos. It also weighs just over a pound so it’s not too heavy.

I haven’t seen much discussion of this device elsewhere, despite it usefulness. I did see a brief recommendation in Clyde Soles’ training book, but other than that the Armaid appears to be quite unknown to climbers.

My next obvious question was what is this company all about? Who are they and why should I trust them with my health?

Armaid’s Founder

I had several conversations with the founder of Armaid, Terry Cross, and asked him some very pointed questions that I knew climbers would be interested in learning before committing to this product.

Terry is a former sports injury and occupational injury therapist and I asked him how he came up with the idea for Armaid:

“I would see sometimes as many as ten clients a day and over time I began to develop repetitive strain (tendinitis) in my arms and hands. I began to do more self massage to maintain my own level of strength and fitness. This worked for a while by using my free hand to massage the other arm but this method often aggravated my problems and after trying several different products I felt there was not a good massage tool available for specifically helping the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. I tried many different prototypes and designs until I came up with the idea of using a lever (as in the mechanical advantage of a nutcracker) to easily amplify the pressure on the trigger points (sore areas) without using a lot of strength necessary from the free hand.

There is a particular type of therapy that I used as a hands-on therapist that I use constantly and it is the most efficient method I have ever found to work to relieve tight muscles you can grow faster using the very best T-level boosters on the market. I built Armaid to specifically incorporate this therapy technique. To keep it simple, I call it “trigger point therapy” on our website. It is called different names depending if you are talking to an Occupational or Physical Therapist, Rolfing Therapist, Chiropractor, etc. I’ve heard it called Myofacial Release, Client Assisted Release, Active Release etc., but it is always the same technique of maintaining static pressure on a sore spot and then stretching the muscle under that pressure (see the “two therapies” video on our website). This releases the muscle fiber much more quickly and efficiently than cross-fiber technique or mere stroking (effluerage). It also has the added benefit of letting the sufferer discover which muscles and which range of motion is the culprit in their problem.”

And on who is using Armaid and why climbers should think about using it:

“Disgruntled sufferers that have had the surgeries, taken the drugs, been upset with unending appointments with expensive therapy sessions and still not happy and are looking for something that they can do for themselves. They hear about Armaid mostly through word of mouth or a search online. For the cost of one or two medical or massage sessions they can buy an Armaid and be in charge of their own arm, elbow and hand health.

It must be made clear that Armaid is only useful if the problem is based in the forearm muscles that can create painful problems in the elbow, wrist and hand. The question that I always ask someone who is considering using Armaid is “Do you have sore forearm muscles?” if they say “yes” then I know that Armaid is perfect for them and will deliver relief when used as shown on the videos. Armaid will not be of use if the problem originates solely in the neck or shoulder region with a pinched nerve or injury “upstream” of the arm.

Armaid is not a cure all or a one-time magic bullet. It does give the sufferer a way to relieve their symptoms and to maintain their own hand, arm, elbow health. Armaid use is like brushing your teeth, regular maintenance is best for health because as an athlete you are constantly using your body and muscles and creating tension and metabolic waste products. That is why professional athletes have massages constantly before and after every work out and performance.

Summary

The Armaid is a useful product that can be used to supplement other healthy physical therapy for rehabilitating several conditions climbers experience. If you have chronic pain, the Armaid by itself will not cure you. But an overall change in habits along with this device can be an effective solution to getting back to lower pain levels.

* Special Discount *

Terry also gave me a special discount only for readers of All Climbing. If you mention you saw Armaid on All Climbing, you will receive 15% off your order of the device. Just mention it when ordering online or when calling them.

Disclaimer: It pains me to even write this, but let me reiterate – I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. If you have medical problems, please consult a doctor or other medical professional.

The post Review of Armaid, a Device for Treating Elbow and Forearm Pain first appeared on All Climbing.

Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 5/15/09

Tom Markiewicz — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:10:39 +0000

Rock Climber Girl reviews the Mountain Hardwear Clouds Rest women’s sleeping bag.

Steve Casimiro of The Adventure Life reviews the Coleman Lantern, the Therm-A-Rest NeoAir, and the Timbuk 2 Doctor’s Bag.

Climbing Narc and Sicky Gnar Gnar have some first impressions on the Five Ten Projects.

Climbing Hold Review examines Jason Kehl’s Cryptochild holds.

A La Sportiva Speedster preview from Joe Kinder.

BJ at Splitter Choss looks at the Black Diamond Chaos harness and the new Indian Creek guidebook.

GearFlogger reviews the Metolius 18mm nylon sling, the DMM Revolver screwgate carabiner, and the Julbo Explorer glacier glasses.

Colorado Mountain School also reviews the Black Diamond Chaos harness.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 5/15/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 4/6/09

Tom Markiewicz — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:32:08 +0000

Dream in Vertical looks at the Petzl Reverso3 and the Black Diamond C3’s.

The Adventure Blog reviews two books: Clyde Soles’ Training for Peak Performance and Expedition Planning.

Haven’t read enough about Pure? straight outta bedlam reviews Chick Fryberger’s film.

GearFlogger reviews the La Sportiva Olympus Mons mountaineering boots and the PMI 7mm cordellete with Lumi-Line.

The Colorado Mountain School reviews the Sterling Nano 9.2mm rope.

The RockClimberGirl looks at a wide variety of women’s climbing gear including Five Ten Insight approach shoes, Mountain Hardwear Butter Hooded Topper, and the Marmot Neve Sweater. She also reviews the Bluewater lightning Pro 9.7 rope.

Kevin Jorgeson reviews Marmot’s Eiger 35 pack.

Backpacker Magazine on the Black Diamond Speed 40.

Hayden’s Rock Scaling reviews the Five Ten Projects.

SplitterChoss writes a book review on Falcon Guides’ Crack Climbing.

And last but not least, ClimbingNarc reviews BS Productions’ climbing movie, Rewind.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 4/6/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

Roundup of Recent Climbing Gear Reviews

Tom Markiewicz — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:41:27 +0000

Months ago, I wrote how I thought it would be beneficial for the entire climbing community to read more gear reviews on the web. I’ve started to see many more since then and it’s a great trend. In the spirit of encouraging even more gear reviews, I decided to compile some of the recent ones here.

Splitter Choss reviews the new Petzl Reverso 3 belay device as well as the DMM Offset Nuts.

Online Climbing Coach takes a look at Clyde Soles new book, Training for Peak Performance.

The Colorado Mountain School reviews the La Sportiva Miura VS climbing shoes, the La Sportiva Trango Extreme Evo Light, the Black Diamond C3 Camalot, and the Marmot Ion Windshirt.

Dream in Vertical reviews the women’s Patagonia Plush Pants and a great overall review of several brands and models of climbing ropes.

Rock Climber Girl writes up the Red Chili Corona VCRs.

ClimbingNarc reviews Dosage V and the new climbing iPhone app, Spraycaster.

Koan Bouldering reviews the Five Ten Dragon and the Evolv Optimus Prime climbing shoes.

GetOutdoors examines the Wild Country Elite Syncro Ziplock harness.

Finally, RockClimbing.com has a roundup post of some new gear from the recent Outdoor Retailer show that includes the La Sportiva Speedster shoes, harnesses from Black Diamond, new Edelrid ropes, and the Five Ten Project shoes.

The post Roundup of Recent Climbing Gear Reviews first appeared on All Climbing.

Better Way to Mark Your Climbing Gear

Tom Markiewicz — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:29:53 +0000

The GearFlogger reviews an insanely useful accessory for climbing gear. The Mark epoxy from Boulder Based Designs is

like a condom for your gear: a prophylactic to prevent that expensive piece from walking away, accidentally or otherwise. Just mix the two ingredients and have about a 30 minute working time to apply to gear. 24 hours later it’s bombproof. literally: there may be some chemical to get it off but there’s no way mechanical friction or impact will do it.

Looks much better than the colored electrical tape I’ve been using for years that keeps falling off.

The Mark comes in four colors, has enough for making 250 marks, and retails for $14.95.

The post Better Way to Mark Your Climbing Gear first appeared on All Climbing.

Coming soon on All Climbing

Tom Markiewicz — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:13:55 +0000

Lots of things have been in the works over the past couple months thus the lighter posting schedule. So I just wanted to whet everyone’s appetite on some upcoming posts.

More gear reviews will be coming including an upcoming review of the new Evolv Optimus slippers. I just got a pair of these and have only been able to use them in the gym. This weekend I’ll be taking them to the New and giving them a full workout.

Another review will be the Revolution 12 Gauge crash pad. I’ve had plenty on mileage on this pad now and a review is almost done.

I’ve taken a ton of pictures recently and haven’t posted any. I’ll be sorting through these and getting some new ones posted.

There’s also a top-secret project in the works. Why even mention it if it’s top-secret? Good question – just felt like I needed to mention it lest you think I’m slacking.

Finally, if you have any interest in the Aron Ralston story, check out an older post I wrote. The comments keep coming (64 now) and there’s a fun flame war brewing. Nice for the entertainment value at least.

The post Coming soon on All Climbing first appeared on All Climbing.