Rock climbing can be dangerous, as you probably already know. The risk of injury, death, and falling off a cliff is always present. You might not realize, however, that you’re at an increased risk if you’re carrying an extra 20 or 30 lbs.
Weighing more than 10% of your body weight increases the risk of falling off the rock face and can affect your ability to climb safely and increase your chances of injury. In some cases, a 30-pound overweight climber may die from his extra weight.
Can You Climb for Too Long?
Experienced climbers can climb for three or four hours at a stretch. But, if you’re carrying more than an extra 20 pounds, That will limit your climbing time to about two hours. Your heart and lungs can’t keep up with all that extra weight hanging around your waist. They need to use Fitbit to monitor your progress.
Getting out of shape
The human body is designed for climbing. When we first started climbing, we were designed to be half the weight of our grandchildren. The aging process naturally makes us heavier, but even so, most climbers can still climb at least three hours at a time without getting tired.
The problem comes when you start adding more weight than your body can handle. Even a 10% increase in weight can make you slower and less efficient. Plus, the extra weight makes it harder to move your hands and feet, which is what makes climbing so much fun.
This extra weight is also dangerous if you’re not used to it. You’ll have a more challenging time controlling your body when you’re suddenly carrying a 20-pound pack of lead.
What can I do if I’m too heavy?
You can still climb, but you’ve got to be careful. Every time you head out to the local climbing gym or crag, you need to check your weight first. You might only need to cut back on the junk food and lose a few pounds before you start climbing again. Or, it could be time for a diet and exercise program.
Climbing is a great way to keep in shape as long as it doesn’t get in the way of your life. Just go easy on yourself if you are a little out of shape. You don’t have to take on the most demanding climbs right away, and you’ll probably be surprised at how much easier climbing is when you’re in good shape.
Preventing injuries
Injuries from rock climbing come in all shapes and sizes. They can be as simple as a cut or sprain, or they can put you out of action for weeks or months.
Not all injuries are preventable, but a little prevention can keep you from future pain. Start by taking off some of the extra weight and working your way up to the challenging climbs. Then, once you’re in shape, you can start trying some of those more complex routes.
There are also different ways to work on your problem areas. For example, climbers use their hands as they scale the rock. You might need to develop a firmer grip or increase flexibility through more advanced exercises like Pilates and yoga.
Also, take a look at your gear. Many injuries occur because of poorly chosen gear. You’re less likely to get hurt if you use the right equipment and learn how to use it properly. For instance, there’s a knee brace out there that will give you the jump you need to reach the next level and make your way to the top of your sport.
How do you check the weight limit?
To see if you weigh too much for rock climbing, divide your body weight in half. If you weigh 200 lbs, your weight limit is 100 lbs. Anything over that makes the climb more difficult. If you’re the typical 125-135 pound female, your weight limit is about 105-115 pounds.
Rock climbers use this method to determine if they are too heavy for a rock climbing route. It is advantageous to attempt a route where each pitch takes more than 15 minutes or leads multiple pitches. The most important test to check on this scale is the last one, which includes the number of routes that require two ropes and two belaying devices.
Controlling Your Weight
Your goal is to lose the extra weight that keeps you from climbing with your friends, not avoid food altogether. Furthermore, not all weight loss results in fat loss! Depending on where you gain weight, fat loss might be more important than losing muscle mass. To lose weight while climbing as much as possible, you should try these tips.
- Start slowly: If you’re starting to exercise, start with a low-intensity activity such as walking or swimming. Then, slowly work your way into more intense activities.
- Train at the right intensity: Intensity can be thought of as how hard your body is working while exercising. You want to train at an optimal intensity that lets you avoid injury and burn the most calories possible in a given period.
- Find your endurance zone: The zone is the heart rate range that you can sustain for extended periods. You want to find your endurance zone to maximize caloric expenditure. An excellent way to do this is to talk while exercising; how does your conversation become difficult? It means that if you can easily maintain a conversation, you are not working hard enough and should increase the intensity.
- Correct exercise form: You want to progress your fitness to be more fit and stay that way safely. Improper exercise form is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Furthermore, when you are in good form, you will burn even more calories!
- Focus on nutrition: Too many climbers forget that nutrition is also an essential part of getting fit for climbing. A poor diet will hinder not only your climbing performance but also your endurance training. If you’re serious about getting fit for climbing, you need to focus on both exercise and nutrition.
- Be consistent: Consistency is vital for achieving fitness success. Unfortunately, too many people quit their programs because they get bored too quickly or are easily discouraged. So if you want to be the best climber you can be, then be consistent with your climbing and training regime.
- Don’t slack: Slacking will only hinder your progress. Even just a few days of not doing any climbing or exercise can hurt your fitness level. If you want to get fit for climbing, then no slacking!
- Be safe: When it comes to training, safe is always better than sorry. If you feel that you’re otherwise not safe, then it’s a good idea to seek medical advice before you train.
- Beware of overtraining: Caution when training and climbing is always the better approach. While everyone wants to climb and be successful, overtraining can compromise your fitness and climb in the long run.
Controlling your weight affects the way you climb. Likewise, how much you carry will play into how you want to move and how strong and coordinated you can be. It’s a complex human-machine interaction system, as much about how your body functions as it is about how your body moves.
We all know that gaining more power can make us stronger, faster, and better at moving through a climbing route. We also know that when we gain experience on the rock, we can climb more challenging routes with less effort. But, all of these will eventually stop improving if we ignore our body’s needs for maintenance.
It’s not just about fitting into your harness anymore. It’s about staying fit enough to keep climbing and enjoying yourself for a long time to come.
Bodyweight: How Can This Help with Rock Climbing?
Reducing your body weight by even 10% can reduce your risk of injury and increase your safety in rock climbing. So, you’ll be able to climb longer and have more fun. A lighter body also increases your efficiency. You will burn calories faster and have more stamina.
Bodyweight includes lots of minerals like calcium, potassium, and phosphorus, essential for many metabolic processes. Minerals are vital to your body’s function and are involved in all kinds of body processes, including your muscles, bones, blood vessels, nervous system, and immune system. When you lose weight with a particular sport (or exercise program), the minerals are also lost. So when you gain weight with a sport (or program), it means you can get more minerals than before.
Fat burning vs. Muscle loss:
Once you start losing weight, you can start working on climbing more challenging routes with less effort. When you lose fat, you will be shredding the pounds like a lean, mean rock-climbing machine. It is an improvement in your climbing performance and is why it’s crucial to focus on fat loss rather than muscle loss.
Your weight on the rock climbs part of your climbing experience. To climb better and have more fun, you need to make sure your weight isn’t holding you back and get ripped from rock climbing.
So You Want to Do a Vertical Kilometer?
The first step is to learn how to rock climb with a harness and ropes. But if that’s not what you’re looking for, here are some other endurance climbing challenges.
Endurance climbing
Endurance climbing is about conditioning yourself for the mountains. The goal is to finish an endurance route without stopping or resting, often with other climbers. Some endurance routes last longer than a day, but most can be completed in less than 12 hours. Endurance climbing is also called speed climbing because it’s about pushing your body as hard as it can go.
Endurance routes are not for beginners and may require you to go beyond what you would do on a daily route or traditional rock climb. You need skills on how to climb the route correctly, as well as a strong body.
Aid climbing
Aid climbing is any technique that relies on artificial help to reach the summit, such as placing fixed manufactured gear or using natural features like pitons bolted into the rock.
The goal of aid climbing is to climb up to the following natural protection. You can do regular climbing without special equipment, but aid climbing needs specialized equipment for protection and aid placement.
A guide leads a route on a day hike or walk-up or may complete an independent climb on a single day. Unlike trad climbing, which is often undertaken with minimal gear and rest stops, climbs completed with an experienced guide are considered “true speed” courses because they require little extra time to ascend.
Free climbing
It’s the most popular way to climb a route. You ascend the rock by only using your hands and feet, with no artificial help from equipment. Free climbing is more physically demanding than aid or sport climbing but less intensive than trad climbing.
Free climbing can also cause injuries, and you should always use a rope for protection.
Bouldering
You’ll need a minimum of a rope and harness to boulder because you’re usually climbing some distance below the ground. Nevertheless, it’s a great way to learn basic climbing skills without being exposed to potentially dangerous falls.
It’s an excellent way for beginners to climbing and can be done with only a few friends. It’s also a good way for experienced climbers to work on their technique.
Bouldering is usually done on shorter routes (under 40 feet) with smaller holds. It doesn’t require special skills or ropes, but you’ll need a sturdy bouldering mat to stop hitting the ground when you fall or slip off the rock face.
Cave climbing
You can often have the best rock climbing experience on your own in a cave or cliffside. However, it would be best to have equipment like helmets and headlamps to light the way in the dark.
Cave climbing is an excellent way to practice climbing skills and techniques away from a busy rock face. There are also many different routes to choose from with varying degrees of difficulty or danger. Cave climbing can be hazardous because there may be poor weather conditions, water, and slippery rocks inside a cave. It’s a lot safer to do cave climbing with experts because they know where each route is located and which routes are safe.
Sport climbing
Sport climbing is a specific type of route usually at the same level as your average gym climber. You may choose to climb without a rope, but most climbers use one for safety. Sport climbing is more physically demanding than other forms of rock climbing, but you can use less energy for the same effort.
Nowadays, many people compete for national and international records in sport climbing accompanied by sponsors and media coverage. Some of the best climbers in the world specialize in sport climbing and bouldering.
Conclusion
The point of rock climbing is to get better at climbing. So if you are a climber trying to lose weight to improve your performance, it’s about making sure that your weight will not hold you back.
However, if you have been a climber for years and have always weighed the same or similar as when you began climbing, it’s still relevant to evaluate your body and performance changes. In this case, focus on the steps that will keep you healthy, active, and safe while contributing to your climbing.
Evaluate if the changes you are making for climbing lead to decreased performance or increased energy and stamina. Similarly, if your weight keeps you from reaching your goals, stop using it as an excuse. Instead, make changes and turn your weight into a tool for better climbing. You can move more efficiently, climb better routes with less effort, and put more energy into the routes that challenge you the most.