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Peak performance: How to accelerate your recovery after climbing

Rock climbing and bouldering can really take a toll on your body, especially if you are just starting out in our favorite sport. Hitting the gym or local crag day after day without rest is most certainly going to give you not only the swole of a lifetime but also some soreness in your forearms. Not to talk about your back, core, and whoever knows what else?

About that, did you know that some gym rats started bringing their laptops and working between sessions? That’s simply mental! And let’s be honest, as Jack Torrance said in The Shining, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.

Peak performance: How to accelerate your recovery after climbing

What I’m trying to say is that hitting the gym every single minute of your life can have a negative impact on your climbing rather than improving your skills.

Before getting into the real deal and seeing how proper climbing recovery can improve your game, I should start by telling you that rest is best – this should be a motto. Rest days have a great positive impact on your climbing and will help you, ironically, get better at climbing compared to grinding your forearms daily.

The power of the massage

Spending time at the gym 24/7 will contribute to swelling, cramping, and, of course, tight muscles. Having a good break and a good massage will most definitely increase your performance and, first and foremost, will prevent you from injury because, that’s right, overtraining is a real thing and it’s affecting millions of families every day.

The buildup of lactic acid in your muscles will give you that unmistakable soreness, and if you want to get back on the sending train, certain measures must be taken!

Now, there are a few ways you can benefit from a good massage and crush again at the gym:

Get help from a professional sports therapist

Most definitely the best way. Having a sports therapist who knows your sweet spots and can help you get rid of all that tightness and soreness is a God-given blessing. Not only will they scratch you where you itch, but they can also teach you certain techniques that you can apply at home or at the gym.

Try administering yourself a good rub before and after a workout

Easy and always available! Applying pressure to the places where you find out that “pain feels so good” is a good indicator that you’re on the right path and that you are relaxing your body.

You can do this at home, at the gym, or on your lunch break at the office (if you don’t work at the gym). Keeping yourself loose will increase your strength and mobility and will help you have an overall decent session.

Some lotions are more complex than others, like the massage cream from Rhino Recover, which is meant not only to relax your body and stimulate blood flow but also to alleviate pain and help with a faster recovery. Now, whether you use a special cream from the gym shop or another natural cream or oil, that massage will most definitely help you feel a lot better.

Use your favorite massage tool

Peak performance: How to accelerate your recovery after climbing

This can range from a stress ball to a rock or a massage gun. Some people can swear on their lives that the massage gun is a game changer, and you simply cannot train in this century without having one.

Now, some of us won’t carry it to the crag or at work, so using a simple round object (a can, water bottle, or beer) to massage your forearms and whatever part of your body feels tight is always welcome. The plus compared to your bare hands is that a tool (whichever it is) will apply even pressure on your muscles and will facilitate a more effective release of the lactic acid buildup between your fibers.

Easing your circulatory system, relaxing your muscles, and keeping yourself loose are essential if you want to have a long life at the gym. Take it from the guy who spent two months in a row at the bouldering gym and then could not extend his arms for a couple of weeks because I didn’t do anything to relax my beat-up body.

Climbing Forearm Flash Pump And Recovery

Flash Pump

Ah, the flash pump — every climber’s nightmare. Do you remember when going to your favourite boulder problem, your forearms tripled in size? Well, that’s the result of your muscles not being irrigated accordingly. When talking about irrigation, I mostly mean facilitating good blood flow to your muscles and, of course, maintaining a good oxygen level in your blood.

As soon as your muscles start swelling, the blood vessels are squeezed between the muscle fibers, and the amount of blood traveling through your veins drastically decreases.

It’s a vicious circle, you start swelling, your blood struggles to get to your muscles, and because of the improper irrigation, you start experiencing more swelling, or what we usually call a flash pump.

This climber’s forearm pump is due to a few reasons such as:

  • Overgripping
  • Improper position on the wall
  • Not using your legs
  • Being dehydrated
  • Not enough warm-up

How to recover

But now that you have it, let’s see which are the most popular methods for recovering after such a blow to the forearms.

If you’re working on a project that offers you a good standing position, you can start massaging your forearms on the wall without fighting to get back in that position. Usually, a short massage will facilitate better blood flow, just enough so you can reach the top.

Give yourself a good shake. Shaking your arms will reduce tension and keep you going for another route or two.

If you find yourself going home with T-Rex arms, the best ways to help you recuperate are to dip your hands in ice-cold water and hydrate yourself as well as you can. Remember what I said earlier about the massage? A good massage will help you relieve the pain much faster.

Remember that you are experiencing this because of poor technique, improper warm-up, and a couple of other reasons, such as low magnesium levels. Magnesium is crucial for muscle function, and keeping your levels up is really important if you want to be in tip-top shape.

Of course, last but not least, what could be better for recovery than a good rest day? Here’s where I try to promote my new motto – rest is best!

Climbing Skin Recovery

Peak performance: How to accelerate your recovery after climbing

Cracks, splits, sweaty palms, raw fingers—they’re all part of the job description when joining a boulder gym or starting climbing. Your skin is the first in line when you climb, and you’d better take good care of it because it’s damn important.

After a couple of boulder sessions, you’ll start to notice that your skin is beginning to change. Even after your first visit to the bouldering gym, you’ll feel your fingertips tender because those plastic holds are really abrasive.

Well, now that your skin is pretty beat up, you should find some proper ways to take care of it. How it became like this and what can you do to prevent skin damage, you can read all about that and more in our article dedicated to skincare.

The name of the game in recovering your skin after climbing is HYDRATE and there are a few steps to follow to get a really hydrated skin:

Wash your hands

Getting rid of all that chalk meant to keep your skin dry and grippy.

Moisturise

Moisturisers won’t make your skin softer and more susceptible to ripping or damage. A good moisturiser will make it more elastic, help it heal faster, and even make it more resistant to further wear and tear.

Avoid hot water

Maybe you washed your hands with some hot water after a session. It’s a bad feeling, and it hurts as hell. The thing is hot water contributes to further dehydration, and even a hot shower that makes your fingers prune will affect your skin elasticity and increase your recovery time.

Rest is best

I want to say it again – rest is best. When sending Burden of Dreams (9A), Simon Lorenzi took days to recover his skin between sessions, and this is only an example. All climbers need days dedicated to recovering every part of their bodies.

Rest is best

The dreaded day off, the longest of all days. Even if overseen by many rock climbers and boulderers, rest days have a crucial role in your performance. A body that trains without resting will eventually collapse and usually, that happens with an injury or inability to climb harder eventually decreasing your grades.

Now you’ll ask, how much rest should I take? Well, you should take as much as you need until you feel in tip-top shape again. If you’re not really sure about that, I should tell you that some pro climbers take around two or three rest days/week but that depends on how much effort you are putting into your training. As far as I read from specialists, they usually recommend somewhere between one and three days to fully recover after sustained effort.

Take advantage of this time to take care of your body, your temple. Take some naps, eat some good and nurturing food, forget the crag snacks, and put some real food into your body. Maybe have a hot bath; it won’t ruin your skin because you keep it hydrated with your moisturisers and balms.

This is your opportunity to drink water, tea, and other hydrating beverages because I know and you know that we should all hydrate ourselves better.

Mind your beers. It sounds tempting, but the first step in recovering from effort is keeping your alcohol intake at a minimum. Post-session beers sound like a must, but keep it to a couple of them and remember to drink plenty of water afterward.

Practice some meditation, maybe work on your other projects or hobbies, have a pleasant walk in the park. Enjoy it; it’s your recovery day.

Oh, and I almost forgot, let’s make this a thing – REST IS BEST!

Peak performance: How to accelerate your recovery after climbing

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