Recovery in Climbing (Part I) - 5 Causes of Fatigue
Any serious athlete knows that recovery is just as important as the training itself. If you want to optimize your climbing performance, knowing how to limit fatigue and speed up recovery is as important as knowing how to perform a knee-bar, a finger jam, or drop-knee. Unless you are playing an active role in ensuring proper rest and recovery, you are likely not training or climbing at your full potential. Your ability to recover after a hard training session or working on a climbing project depends on numerous factors including age, genetics, and fitness level, but regardless of these factors, there are various tips and strategies that you can use to help enhance the recovery process!
What’s Causing Fatigue?
Many things contribute to the fatigue you experience when climbing and training such as depletion of muscle fuels, the accumulation of metabolic by-products, low blood glucose, muscle tissue microtraumas, as well as central fatigue – each of which is further explained below.
1. Depletion of muscle fuels:
Your muscle cells store energy-rich compounds which are used as energy to power muscle contraction. Short bursts of maximal intensity activity such as a hard boulder problem are fueled by adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and creatine phosphate (CP). The two phosphate-based fuels are stored in small amounts within muscle cells and can generally only sustain high-intensity activity for 5-12 seconds. ATP and CP are continuously synthesized within the muscles and their stores can be completely replenished within 3-5 minutes of rest. The next time you are projecting a hard boulder problem or engaging in high-intensity strength training, ensure you are resting at least 3-5 minutes between attempts so that the ATP and CP within your muscles have time to replenish!
Steady, long-term exercise requires a longer-lasting source of energy than ATP and CP. For more sustained activity, your muscles utilize glycogen. Glycogen stores typically deplete within 90-120 minutes of sustained exercise. Since climbing is more of an intermittent activity rather than sustained (i.e. marathon running), your glycogen stores can be stretched out to last most of the day. In addition, eating carbohydrate-rich foods can also help to extend your glycogen supply.
2. Accumulation of metabolic by-products:
When your body converts glycogen into a form of energy that can be used by muscle cells it results in the production of metabolic by-products. These by-products (mainly hydrogen ions) are what cause muscle fatigue, muscle soreness, and eventually muscle failure. Engaging in strength and power endurance training can help to build up your tolerance to these by-products. Additionally, anything you can do to help enhance blood flow to working muscles such as a proper warm-up and cool-down will help disperse these by-products to lesser worked muscles.
3. Low blood glucose:
While glucose (sugar) is one of many sources of fuel for the muscles, it is the only fuel source that can be used by the brain and nervous system. As glycogen stores become depleted during longer-duration exercise, the muscles become increasingly reliant on glucose for energy. This causes blood sugar levels to drop leading to both physical and mental fatigue. Consuming carbohydrate-rich snacks can help delay this fatigue by maintaining appropriate glucose levels in the blood.
4. Muscle tissue microtrauma:
Muscle cramps and microtrauma contribute to the sense of muscular fatigue. Cramps typically happen towards the end of a long and difficult session. For example, when some of the working muscles in your arm or back feel as though they are locking or tensing up at the end of a challenging section of a sport climb. Muscle cramping can usually be eased by rest, rehydration, and gentle stretching or massage.
Microtrauma describes the tiny tears in muscle tissue that occurs when a muscle is being worked or stressed. It is a normal process that occurs when we exercise and with proper rest and recovery, the muscle can rebuild and get stronger. These microtraumas are also what causes delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which is why you feel achy and sore within a day or two of hard workouts or climbing adventure. The degree of DOMS experienced is proportional to the amount of microtrauma your muscles experience.
5. Central fatigue:
Muscular fatigue is considered peripheral fatigue. Central fatigue, on the other hand, is brain-based. Central fatigue is the brain’s way of limiting the amount of stress and damage you can cause to your body during activity. Central fatigue reduces muscle recruitment, impairs coordination, decreases focus and concentration, and reduces the body’s ability to perform complex movements. Central fatigue typically takes longer to recover from than peripheral fatigue (2-10 days compared to 2-5 days), but it is important to recognize the signs of central fatigue and take the rest your brain requires in order to reduce the risk of injury and enhance performance!
The Process of Recovery:
The recovery process is not linear, it's exponential with the initial phases of recovery occurring very quickly and the later stages being much slower. Our Vancouver physiotherapists support many athletes through recovery from injury or fatigue. The recovery process can be divided into three phases: immediate recovery which begins right after your muscles stop working and continues for approximately an hour, medium-term recovery which occurs from 1 hour to 1-day post-activity, and long-term recovery which occurs from 1-4 days following exercise and involves processes of muscular growth and neuromuscular adaptation.
In part II of this blog post, specific recovery strategies for each of these three phases will be discussed so that you can enhance your climbing performance, optimize your training, and reduce your risk of injury!
Original Post by Rachel Rubin-Sarganis
Photo by Amir Riazipour