Hooper’s Beta Ep. 122

Introduction

Unlike bodybuilding or cycling, climbing is just a fledgling sport with relatively little science or history for us to learn best practices. What should be fundamental principles of training and rehab are instead often obscured by speculation and/or lack of data. Combine that with social media and online forums, and we get myths running rampant. That’s a problem because at best these myths will slow your progress and at worst they’ll get you injured. So with a little knowledge of anatomy, some general exercise science, and a sprinkle of common sense, let’s go through five climbing myths I hear all the time and put them to bed once and for all.

#5 Climbing Dynamically is Bad/Dangerous

I think this one stems from the flawed but understandable comparison climbers tend to make between dynamic climbing and sloppy climbing. We imagine cutting feet on every move, ugly jerky movement, and generally forgoing technique in favor of dynoing. The big misconception is that dynamic climbing has to be sloppy and therefore must be less efficient and less safe than static climbing.

On the contrary, when done well, dynamic climbing can be more efficient than static climbing without increasing injury risk. A great example is the “deadpoint.” When you sag down, you’re in a prime position to generate upward momentum with your arms and legs. You then generate just enough momentum to float your body to the next hold, catching it during that brief window just before gravity starts to pull you back down. Sag, launch, float, catch, sag, launch, float, catch. In contrast, accomplishing the same moves statically involves intense muscle contraction for the entire duration of the move, which gets really hard as you get into more and more disadvantaged joint positions.

So, rather than thinking of dynamic climbing as sloppy climbing, think of it as simply using momentum to your advantage to avoid wasting energy in disadvantaged positions. Don’t shy away from practicing dynamic moves and improving your power and precision on the wall. Just remember that you need to build strength in your muscles and joints and awareness of your body to perform large, powerful moves safely. If you’re new to dynamic climbing, don’t expect to just magically be able to do huge moves all of a sudden. Start with smaller movements on the wall to hone your coordination and joint stability, then progress to bigger moves over time.

#4 Dehydration = Sends

This is a funny one because I don’t think anyone actually thinks dehydration is good. And yet, climbers will sometimes severely limit the amount of food and water they drink on long climbing days. Sometimes this is accidental -- exercise is a strong hunger suppressant, plus sometimes we just don’t realize how hard our bodies are working. Conversely, some climbers do it because they’re worried food and water will increase their weight and hurt their performance. It just goes to show how powerful our minds can be at overriding basic signals from our bodies. However, it’s well documented that carbs, water, and electrolytes are essential for maintaining physical performance during extended, strenuous activity, not to mention their role in recovery. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about an hour-long gym session here; where extra fuel and hydration really matter is those long sessions when you’re climbing and hiking out in the elements all day long. A research review article from Judelson in 2007 concludes that, based on current evidence, “...hypohydration [aka dehydration] appears to consistently attenuate strength (by approximately 2%), power (by approximately 3%) and high-intensity endurance (by approximately 10%)...” 

So to combat dehydration and performance issues, most people will grab a Gatorade, but I’m personally not a huge fan of that because I like getting my extra climbing-day carbs from tasty things that make me happy, like gummy bears. But, I still need to make sure I get plenty of water and electrolytes.

#3 You Should Only Climb to Get Better at Climbing

Early in your climbing career, I would certainly advocate for “getting your mileage in” to improve at climbing rather than worrying about advanced strength training. There is so much technique and coordination to learn in climbing that only climbing itself can teach you, which is where the statement “just climb to get better at climbing” generally comes from. The problem is, after you reach a certain level of proficiency in climbing, that advice tends to be too simplistic to produce consistent progress. Telling someone to “just climb” to get better at climbing is like telling someone to “just drive” to become a Formula 1 driver. Most of us have hundreds of hours of experience driving a car, yet we’re no closer to being a Formula 1 driver than a teenager who just got their license. Why? Because “just drive” is far too simple and passive to consistently increase your driving skills to higher and higher levels. The same thing happens in climbing, where most climbers that “just climb” find themselves plateauing even though they climb frequently.

Don’t get me wrong: if “just climbing” works for you and makes you happy, by all means continue! I’m certainly not saying it doesn’t work for anybody, but I’d argue most climbers will be left needing a slightly different approach.

At a certain point your normal climbing will cease to be enough stimulus to your body to force adaptation and thus improvement. Your body will not continue to get stronger just because you pull on some holds a few times a week; strength adaptations take specific, concerted effort to accomplish consistently. If your climbing sessions are always quite casual or haphazard or involve only a few tries on climbs way above your skill level or just a couple climbs you can easily send, you will eventually not meet the parameters to promote adaptation. In that case, you need a more intentional approach to training to regain the needed intensity. This can sometimes be done on the wall by structuring your sessions to suit your goals, like Adam Ondra does with interval training. So your training still ends up being climbing, but now it’s more intentional and effective. Alternatively, off the wall training tends to be superior for many purposes. It’s easier to achieve progressive overload and track your progress. In general, I recommend choosing exercises that are functional for climbing and that you can progress in difficulty over time to achieve measurable gains.

#2 Resistance Training Will Make You Too Big and Heavy

I can’t help but chuckle a little when someone comments saying they want to start lifting weights but are afraid they’ll get “too big” for climbing, though I can totally see why people might think that. We’re bombarded by fitness influencers telling us we’ll look like we came straight from Mount Olympus if we follow their simple program and buy their supplements.

In reality, increasing muscle mass that much takes not days, not weeks, but years. Years of concerted, mass-building effort, all while maintaining an insane caloric intake. Does that sound like a climber to you?

If your goal is to simply increase strength for climbing with resistance training, you will not put on weight nearly as quickly as you would think. The exercises you perform for climbing gains will usually be focused on strength more than hypertrophy, so you won’t be optimizing your training for increasing size. Plus, unless you’re eating a huge calorie surplus every day, your body simply won’t have the resources to build that much muscle mass.

On top of all that, the strength gains you achieve from strategic resistance training will easily make up for any added muscle weight. The muscles and tendons themselves will become more resistant to high loads, allowing you to climb harder with less risk of injury. Your joints will become more stable with all the added muscular strength, allowing you to hold positions and do moves you never thought possible. Many, if not all pro climbers incorporate resistance training into their routines, so don’t shy away.

#1 Crimping is Bad/Dangerous

Ooooh boy is this one gonna trigger some people! Any time we even mention crimping we get a slew of comments telling us that crimping is dangerous, you should never crimp, and that we’re setting people up for immediate pulley injuries. Which is ironic considering our entire channel is literally devoted to… the exact opposite. There is an avalanche of misinformation on the internet vilifying crimping, and especially full crimping, as completely unnecessary and dangerous, whether due to misinterpretation of research or their own subjective experiences. But I’m here to say that crimping is not just useful for climbers, it’s a necessity for climbing at higher grades on small holds and can be performed without injury. Let me explain, with two scenarios.

First, imagine me, sitting at the PT clinic with my favorite patient, suddenly deciding I want to go for a run. My first run in years! But instead of going for a short run in my neighborhood, I figure “I’m very good at walking, so running should be fine. I’m going to enter a marathon.” I start the race running at full speed with a major overstride, poor cadence, and knee valgus that would make any PT cringe. But, I continue to push myself as hard as I can for a couple of hours, ignoring the pain building in the front and side of my knees, until I ultimately end up puking in a ditch and calling for a stretcher because I can’t take a single step without crippling pain. Yikes! 

Now imagine a different scenario. In this one, I’ve run multiple marathons in the past, so I know I’m in good enough shape and have the technique dialed. But I get a little too stoked, and start running a marathon distance every other day! Midway through the second marathon, I start getting a nagging pain on the outside of my knee, but I ignore it and finish strong. That’s what ice is for right?? No pain no gain! Well, the pain continues, but even worse in the third marathon, plus I feel pretty run down. By the fourth, the pain is really becoming a problem, I’m in an atrocious mood and I’ve completely dropped off the pace. I keep pushing but end up having to stop at mile three because my knee has seized up and I can’t even walk.

In either of these scenarios, I could of course conclude that “running is dangerous and you should never do it.” But that’s not very accurate, so let’s take a more nuanced approach.

Obviously, the problem here is not with running itself, but with how I approached it. If I had started with small runs around my neighborhood, slowly increased my distance and speed over time (being conscious of getting proper rest and nutrition), and worked to improve my running technique, I would eventually get to the point where I could run for miles with relative ease and not an injury to speak of. Then I could keep increasing my capacity even more, to where I could even run marathons! Eventually I would still hit a performance ceiling where my body would stop being able to recover fast enough to not get injured, but overall I would have successfully trained my body to cope with the demand of marathon running so that it no longer posed an acute risk.

The exact same thing is true with crimping. Crimping does indeed place higher stress on some connective tissues in your fingers compared to open handed grips just like running places higher demand on your body than walking, so you need to prepare for it. Your body can and will readily adapt to the demands of crimping if you give it enough load, rest, and nutrition to do so. And yes, this includes full crimping! Research has shown A2 pulleys in climbers up to 50% thicker than non-climbers AND the middle phalanx bone around 100-150% thicker! Super-human fingers!

In practice, this means understanding how to consistently expose your fingers to high forces to increase their strength, while also knowing when to stop, rest, and recover. If the only stopping point you know is pain or major fatigue, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. Instead, educate yourself on how to manage training load and/or get professional help from a coach. If you attempt to crimp everything all the time while ignoring the most fundamental aspects of technique, biology, and training, then yes you will probably get injured, just like in the marathon. But in those cases, it’s your approach that's dangerous. And taking that approach with just about anything is dangerous. Maybe we should just stop climbing altogether 🤔 -- my local crag is two hours away and I’ve heard driving is dangerous.

Outro

A brief moment to thank the HB members, some of you that have been members for more than 12 months now! Becoming a member is a great way to support the channel, as well as buying a shirt or gear from the affiliate links in the description.

Until next time: train, climb, send, investigate myths with a skeptical eye, and repeat!

CITATIONS

1. Judelson DA, Maresh CM, Anderson JM, et al. Hydration and muscular performance: does fluid balance affect strength, power and high-intensity endurance?. Sports Med. 2007;37(10):907-921. doi:10.2165/00007256-200737100-00006

DISCLAIMER

As always, exercises are to be performed assuming your own risk and should not be done if you feel you are at risk for injury. See a medical professional if you have concerns before starting new exercises.

Written and Presented by Jason Hooper, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, CAFS

IG: @hoopersbetaofficial

Filming and Editing by Emile Modesitt

www.emilemodesitt.com

IG: @emile166