more. Your muscles need to heal. I had to go through "overtraining," where I climbed WAY TOO MUCH and my body never recovered. Next thing you know you'll be getting weaker rather than stronger, and you wont be sending hard.
Rest is necessary... as much as you can get. I climb 2-3 days a week inside, and 1 day a week outside.
Here my advice to you: for every ONE day of climbing, get ONE day of rest. So if you climb on a tuesday, rest wednesday. But if you climb Tuesday AND wednesday, rest the NEXT two days. SO back to back days of climbing are OKAY, as long as you get the right amount of rest for them.
This is what someone told ME when I climbed too much. It helped alot - i fully recover and i send hard, which is a nice feeling.
I rest mondays, climb tuesdays, rest wednesdays, climb thursdays, rest friday and saturday, and climb outside on sunday. Its a great schedule. When I rest I am usually working at my local gym, so i am constantly around climbing... i suggest doing something like that.
Here's a tech tip that I wrote for one of the mags a while back.
Rest. How long, how much, how often – everyone has his or her own opinion. To a climber with a strict training background, where more than one day of rest was nearly unthinkable, three days of rest could seem ridiculous and counter-productive. In the end, though, is it lazy, or strategic?
Although often overlooked, rest is quite possibly the most important aspect of any training program. This is not to say that you shouldn’t train hard, or that training is unimportant. It is, in fact, quite the contrary. It’s absolutely beneficial to train as hard as you possibly can, but only if your training is countered by an adequate amount of quality recovery time.
After a period of rigorous training, your body is temporarily weakened. The body then reacts to this weakened state by preparing itself to do its designated task better the next time. This adaptive reaction to training is called supercompensation. The trick, though, is learning how much rest the body needs to reach supercompensation. If you climb again before you have fully recovered, then you will not be able to access all the benefits of your earlier training session. Repeating this mistake will then actually result in a loss of performance ability. If you climb again at the exact point of recovery from the last training session, then your performance will plateau. It is only when you go past that exact point of recovery and reach supercompensation that you will see improvements.
So how much rest is enough? That depends on the type and amount of training being done. Obviously there is no strict, cut-and-dry answer. For a reference, however, experts recommend anywhere from 24-72 hours. In his book, Training for Climbing, Eric J. Horst gives an example: “…it might take only one day to recover from a high volume of low-intensity activity like climbing a bunch of really easy routes, whereas it would probably take three or more days to recover completely from a high volume of high-intensity exercise, such as climbing a bunch of routes near your limit.”
Horst then goes on to list the three major recovery periods that the body goes through on its road to supercompensation. The first recovery period extends from ten seconds to thirty minutes after a workout. This would be, for example, the amount of time that you typically spend resting between routes during a day of cragging.
Next is the refuel recovery period – thirty minutes to twenty-four hours after exercise. The majority of your refueling during this period will take place in about sixteen hours. This means, then, that the average twelve-hour break in between consecutive climbing days will allow your body to recover to only about eighty percent of its capacity.
It is during the third recovery period, then, that gains in ability are actually being made. If you have ever been sorer on your second rest day than on your first, you know what I am talking about. This is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS. During strenuous exercise your muscle fibers are damaged microscopically. The amount of DOMS that you feel, then, will be equal to the amount of damage that your muscles have experienced. If the DOMS is only minor, it can fade within 48 hours. If you have much greater soreness, however, it is possible that will take four or more days for your muscle fibers to repair themselves.
While all this information is great, resting still comes down to a feeling. It is essential for a climber to learn how to listen to his or her body. Learn to pay attention, and to listen to, what your body is telling you. Like all other animals in nature, we have instincts, and our body knows instinctively what we need – so long as we don’t let our mind get in the way. The body knows better, and is more reliable, than any advice from a book, person, or tech tip.
Perhaps the best way to assess the state of your body was told to me by a friend who is a former professional cyclist. “You should always feel one step behind,” he said. In saying this, he meant that you should always be eager and energetic for the next workout. If you’re dragging feet, feeling lackluster, and finding that your performance is suffering, perhaps this is your body’s way of telling you that you aren’t allowing yourself adequate rest.
In addition, take extended periods of rest on occasion. Throughout the year break up your training for climbing with stretches of activity that promote recovery (i.e. running, skipping rope, swimming, biking). Don’t be afraid to take at least a week off, and to do this several times a year.
So you’re on the road, living out of your car, climbing too much, and after reading this you decide you need to take three or four days off. What do you do on a rest day? Well, it has been recommended to drink, sleep and eat….but not diet coke and twinkies. The quality of rest that you get is just as important as the quantity. Remember that it is actually during rest that improvements are made, not during your training sessions. Your rest is just as, if not more, important than the act of climbing itself. If you take care of yourself while resting – eat healthy, drink water, get plenty of sleep, and relax – then it will take less time to recover, and in turn enable you to train better and sooner than otherwise.
your a mad man dude! I occasionally get sucked into wanting to climb 3,4,5 days in a row but I always regret it. The only reason to do this is if your on a climbing trip for a short period of time. I just got back from Hueco and we climbed 6 days with a forced rest day in the middle. knowing we only had a week and it would be a while before I could visit again I wanted to take advantage of my time there. this didn't mean I would ignore serious pain or injury and keep climbing. but I would push myself a little more just because I knew it was only a week and then I could take 4 or 5 days off when I got home. plus it was obviously climbing for performance, not training. at the gym I rarely climb more than 3 days in a row, and when I do it usually takes longer anyways to recover. my body is doing a good job of teaching me this concept. sometimes I just have a hard time listening to it. hope this helps.
yeah that's the way it goes on week trips like that. you've done your thing. now's the time to rest for a solid 4 or 5 days depending on how you feel. or you can go to your gym and climb after a day or two of rest and just climb really easy or traverse around just to keep yourself busy. how was bishop by the way? I wanted to go there around february but didn't work out. maybe this winter.
it sounds like a lot of you folk are on the east. I'm feelin' a little lonely over here. sounds like you guys got plenty of sick climbing to keep you guys busy.
right on. the only sandstone i've been on so far was at red rocks when a group of us went there thanksgiving week. thanksgiving dinner at the seafood buffet at the mgm doesn't get much better than that. the rock there was really cool though. I liked it cause you can smear really well on it and your hands just stick.
i like the features in sand stone but i also like the lava like texture of volcanic and the pockets it Thuff rock and the egg shaped in quarts monzonite
nothing says Thanksgiving dinner better than a Vegas buffet. I will dearly miss my favorite 2AM steak and eggs at the Stardust, now that they've imploded it. Red Rocks by day, Vegas at night; can't get any better than this for a thankful holiday now can it.?
Spudz says:
********in a week********
badash says:
more. Your muscles need to heal. I had to go through "overtraining," where I climbed WAY TOO MUCH and my body never recovered. Next thing you know you'll be getting weaker rather than stronger, and you wont be sending hard.
Rest is necessary... as much as you can get. I climb 2-3 days a week inside, and 1 day a week outside.
Here my advice to you: for every ONE day of climbing, get ONE day of rest. So if you climb on a tuesday, rest wednesday. But if you climb Tuesday AND wednesday, rest the NEXT two days. SO back to back days of climbing are OKAY, as long as you get the right amount of rest for them.
This is what someone told ME when I climbed too much. It helped alot - i fully recover and i send hard, which is a nice feeling.
I rest mondays, climb tuesdays, rest wednesdays, climb thursdays, rest friday and saturday, and climb outside on sunday. Its a great schedule. When I rest I am usually working at my local gym, so i am constantly around climbing... i suggest doing something like that.
Hope that helps.
katie says:
Here's a tech tip that I wrote for one of the mags a while back.
Rest. How long, how much, how often – everyone has his or her own opinion. To a climber with a strict training background, where more than one day of rest was nearly unthinkable, three days of rest could seem ridiculous and counter-productive. In the end, though, is it lazy, or strategic?
Although often overlooked, rest is quite possibly the most important aspect of any training program. This is not to say that you shouldn’t train hard, or that training is unimportant. It is, in fact, quite the contrary. It’s absolutely beneficial to train as hard as you possibly can, but only if your training is countered by an adequate amount of quality recovery time.
After a period of rigorous training, your body is temporarily weakened. The body then reacts to this weakened state by preparing itself to do its designated task better the next time. This adaptive reaction to training is called supercompensation. The trick, though, is learning how much rest the body needs to reach supercompensation. If you climb again before you have fully recovered, then you will not be able to access all the benefits of your earlier training session. Repeating this mistake will then actually result in a loss of performance ability. If you climb again at the exact point of recovery from the last training session, then your performance will plateau. It is only when you go past that exact point of recovery and reach supercompensation that you will see improvements.
So how much rest is enough? That depends on the type and amount of training being done. Obviously there is no strict, cut-and-dry answer. For a reference, however, experts recommend anywhere from 24-72 hours. In his book, Training for Climbing, Eric J. Horst gives an example: “…it might take only one day to recover from a high volume of low-intensity activity like climbing a bunch of really easy routes, whereas it would probably take three or more days to recover completely from a high volume of high-intensity exercise, such as climbing a bunch of routes near your limit.”
Horst then goes on to list the three major recovery periods that the body goes through on its road to supercompensation. The first recovery period extends from ten seconds to thirty minutes after a workout. This would be, for example, the amount of time that you typically spend resting between routes during a day of cragging.
Next is the refuel recovery period – thirty minutes to twenty-four hours after exercise. The majority of your refueling during this period will take place in about sixteen hours. This means, then, that the average twelve-hour break in between consecutive climbing days will allow your body to recover to only about eighty percent of its capacity.
It is during the third recovery period, then, that gains in ability are actually being made. If you have ever been sorer on your second rest day than on your first, you know what I am talking about. This is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS. During strenuous exercise your muscle fibers are damaged microscopically. The amount of DOMS that you feel, then, will be equal to the amount of damage that your muscles have experienced. If the DOMS is only minor, it can fade within 48 hours. If you have much greater soreness, however, it is possible that will take four or more days for your muscle fibers to repair themselves.
While all this information is great, resting still comes down to a feeling. It is essential for a climber to learn how to listen to his or her body. Learn to pay attention, and to listen to, what your body is telling you. Like all other animals in nature, we have instincts, and our body knows instinctively what we need – so long as we don’t let our mind get in the way. The body knows better, and is more reliable, than any advice from a book, person, or tech tip.
Perhaps the best way to assess the state of your body was told to me by a friend who is a former professional cyclist. “You should always feel one step behind,” he said. In saying this, he meant that you should always be eager and energetic for the next workout. If you’re dragging feet, feeling lackluster, and finding that your performance is suffering, perhaps this is your body’s way of telling you that you aren’t allowing yourself adequate rest.
In addition, take extended periods of rest on occasion. Throughout the year break up your training for climbing with stretches of activity that promote recovery (i.e. running, skipping rope, swimming, biking). Don’t be afraid to take at least a week off, and to do this several times a year.
So you’re on the road, living out of your car, climbing too much, and after reading this you decide you need to take three or four days off. What do you do on a rest day? Well, it has been recommended to drink, sleep and eat….but not diet coke and twinkies. The quality of rest that you get is just as important as the quantity. Remember that it is actually during rest that improvements are made, not during your training sessions. Your rest is just as, if not more, important than the act of climbing itself. If you take care of yourself while resting – eat healthy, drink water, get plenty of sleep, and relax – then it will take less time to recover, and in turn enable you to train better and sooner than otherwise.
badash says:
dang katie! always fast to respond with ridiculousy long yet ridiculously helpful information.
Spudz says:
wow i climb 5 times a week outside and go to LRC saterday and rest sunday
thanks for the fact /tip
thestidham says:
your a mad man dude! I occasionally get sucked into wanting to climb 3,4,5 days in a row but I always regret it. The only reason to do this is if your on a climbing trip for a short period of time. I just got back from Hueco and we climbed 6 days with a forced rest day in the middle. knowing we only had a week and it would be a while before I could visit again I wanted to take advantage of my time there. this didn't mean I would ignore serious pain or injury and keep climbing. but I would push myself a little more just because I knew it was only a week and then I could take 4 or 5 days off when I got home. plus it was obviously climbing for performance, not training. at the gym I rarely climb more than 3 days in a row, and when I do it usually takes longer anyways to recover. my body is doing a good job of teaching me this concept. sometimes I just have a hard time listening to it. hope this helps.
Spudz says:
i just got back from a bishop trip for a week and climbed every day
didnt regret it till i got home
thestidham says:
yeah that's the way it goes on week trips like that. you've done your thing. now's the time to rest for a solid 4 or 5 days depending on how you feel. or you can go to your gym and climb after a day or two of rest and just climb really easy or traverse around just to keep yourself busy. how was bishop by the way? I wanted to go there around february but didn't work out. maybe this winter.
Spudz says:
i went to 5 different places to climb in bishop with 5 different types of rock
it was awesome
thestidham says:
that sounds super fun! maybe I can get down there this winter or something. where do live spudz? are you close to bishop?
Spudz says:
no i live in chatt. TN
thestidham says:
it sounds like a lot of you folk are on the east. I'm feelin' a little lonely over here. sounds like you guys got plenty of sick climbing to keep you guys busy.
Spudz says:
yea mainly sandstone
thestidham says:
right on. the only sandstone i've been on so far was at red rocks when a group of us went there thanksgiving week. thanksgiving dinner at the seafood buffet at the mgm doesn't get much better than that. the rock there was really cool though. I liked it cause you can smear really well on it and your hands just stick.
Spudz says:
i like the features in sand stone but i also like the lava like texture of volcanic and the pockets it Thuff rock and the egg shaped in quarts monzonite
woodchuck07 says:
nothing says Thanksgiving dinner better than a Vegas buffet. I will dearly miss my favorite 2AM steak and eggs at the Stardust, now that they've imploded it. Red Rocks by day, Vegas at night; can't get any better than this for a thankful holiday now can it.?
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