nyxed started this discussion ·
The top of my right foot is bashed up really bad from climbing practice. Is this normal, or am I relying too much on my foot when I climb? Will shoes help? T__T For some reason the left one isn't nearly as bad, even though I try to train both sides equally.
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I think brusing is normal, but mine has varied over the past few months of learning to pole. They were worse when I changed from a chrome 45 to a chrome 40 pole. I have since sold those and bought a brass 45 pole and the brusing is much less. I don't know if this has to do with my skin gripping better on the brass or if it is just my skin getting used to pole. I still get mystery bruises and if I am off the pole for too long (I hurt my shoulder so I am waiting and waiting for that to heal doing pole only a couple of days per week).
The clear plastic topped shoes do help.
If you really wanna improve on NOT using the foot try working on climbs with low cut socks. This will force you to really use between the knees and back of the calf! Oh and it's normal!
Yep...totally normal. Check out the climbing lesson on here. It took me many times watching it and many months before I was able to climb without putting a lot of pressure on my foot. I used to get friction burns on my climbing foot so bad they would bleed so I got the Mighty Grip Ankle Protectors when I was first learning how to climb: https://www.thepoledancingshop.com/ankle-protector-with-tack-strips/ They're awesome, and great to use if you want to take some of the pressure off of that bruise while it heals, but I would caution against using them too much. I got reliant on them, and I had to really work on conditioning the skin on my feet when I had to stop wearing them.
