It can be tempt to do climbing as often as possible since climbing is a great activity. You should be aware that daily climbing poses certain risks; we asked an expert for more information.
A week or a month of climbing almost every day is fine (so long as you are not climbing to your max every day). However, if you do it consistently, you’re more likely to get injured and your overall strength can decrease.
It is possible to climb every day in certain circumstances, despite what some people may say. The fact remains, the schedule above isn’t sustainable; over time, your body will begin to strain. You can learn more about the risks of climbing every day by reading on.
Climbing Every Day: Good or Bad?
A certified personal trainer with a kinesiology degree, Joe Woods, advised us. According to him, the answer as to whether you can climb every day depends on the time you have.
You can climb every day if you want for a week or a couple of weeks, as long as you are careful about it. You won’t suffer any adverse effects from it in the short term.
Nevertheless, you should note that you have to be careful. As a rule of thumb, you can’t push your body to its maximum capacity every single day. Mixing up your climbing style and intensity will make repetitive climbing days both safer and more enjoyable.
A daily climbing schedule, however, is not feasible as a long-term training schedule. Because climbing every day strains specific areas of your body repeatedly, you get sore. As a result, you are repeatedly creating micro tears in your fingers and forearms, which do not heal properly. This can lead to fatigue and injury over time.
A workout causes your muscles to tear very little on a biological level. The body then repairs these tears and builds up a little extra muscle so that it won’t tear again. These little pieces of muscle add up over time, and you get stronger. The same thing happens to rock climbers as it does to all other athletes.
When you climb every day, you don’t give your body a chance to heal these microtears, and you may even cause new tears. Your muscles will become worn down over time, putting you at risk of serious injury.
Taking proper rest days allows your body to replace the lost muscle, strengthening your fingers and forearms, making you stronger than if you just went climbing all the time
How Does Climbing Every Day Affect Your Body?
Biological explanations are also good, but sometimes they seem vague. This is a more detailed explanation of what you might experience if you climbed every day.
You can get pulley injuries, torn muscles, finger and shoulder tendonitis, and general fatigue by climbing every day. If you climb every day, you are likely to injure something unless you follow a careful workout regimen.
Fingers, shoulders, and back/arms are the most vulnerable parts of a rock climber’s body. Climbing every day might cause you to suffer an injury such as:
- Pulley injuries: tearing a tendon in your finger, this is the ultimate fear of rock climbers. An injury to your pulleys can put you out of commission for up to a year.
- Muscles torn: Mikael Mawem’s gruesome Olympic injury in which he tore his bicep exemplifies the danger of climbing too much in a short period of time.
- Tendonitis: A lack of healing time leads to tendonitis when repeated overuse leads to the condition. The fingers and shoulders are particularly susceptible to this injury in rock climbers.
- General fatigue: If you climb every day, you might notice that you’re not as strong as you usually are and as a result, your muscles are being weakened by repeated use without being given time to heal.
If you climb, how often should you do it?
Therefore, how often should you actually climb if it isn’t every day?
A minimum of three to five climbs per week is ideal. It is possible to achieve better strength while still minimizing injury risks. On days where you climb back-to-back, you should make sure to vary the type of climbing you do.
For beginners, we would recommend climbing three to four times a week. By taking a full day off between climbing sessions, you will allow your muscles to recover and build strength.
You can start climbing four or five days a week as you get stronger, but this is also when you need to start being careful. If you want to prevent overstretching any one part of your body, we would recommend rotating your schedule.
Here are some examples of such a schedule:
- On the first day, strength training was combined with bouldering. Put all of your strength into pushing your finger strength to the limit on the boulder wall. Strengthen the muscles at the end of the session.
- Day two is dedicated to freestyle and technique. You can use this day to enjoy yourself and practice your technique without putting too much pressure on grades at any one time. Try a new style of climbing, socialize more, and space out your climbs to give your muscles a break.
- On Day 3, there is no training but only endurance. Don’t push the grade too hard, but focus on longer routes, whether top roped or lead. During this exercise, you should focus on building forearm strength without overstretching your fingers.
- The fourth day is a rest day. Keeping active can be as simple as taking a walk, doing some yoga, or doing some cardio.
- Day five is a volume day with no training. It’s a type of power-endurance training in which you start at V0, climb every V0 in your gym, and then climb every route of every successive grade until you can no longer climb any more. As soon as you can’t go any higher (say, you can only climb half the V5’s in the gym), do the entire thing in reverse, so you end on the V0’s.
- The sixth day will be a hard endurance day with strength training. Climb top rope or lead until you fall and exhaust yourself on each route. It is okay to finish the session with some maximum finger strength training; it has been a few days since your fingers were worked hard.
- Day seven is a day of rest. This is a time when you should take a full day of rest. Stretch or do light yoga, as well as applying heat or cold to sore areas, but avoid strenuous activity.
Although this isn’t a set schedule, it does resemble what I try to do in my climbing training. By spacing out the training sessions, we are able to train multiple techniques without overstretching certain muscles. To know if an overweight can climb or not, read this article.
Is it possible to climb twice in one day?
It’s also a very common question to ask, whether or not it is OK to climb twice in one day.
As long as you warm up and cool down before each climb, it’s fine to climb twice in one day. In a second session, you should always climb lighter or focus on a different aspect of climbing than in a first session.
It’s a good idea to climb twice in one day if you’re in the mood for strength training. Nevertheless, there are ways you can maximize your gains and minimize your energy costs.
Two key rules need to be followed, as mentioned above:
- The second session you do should always be more relaxed than the first.
- In your second session, you should climb in a different way than in your first.
Thus, your morning bouldering session might be followed by an evening endurance session. Similarly, if you’ve been climbing hard leads in the morning, it’s fine to return to relax and boulder in the afternoon.
Evidently, there is no hard-and-fast rule here. You can boulder twice in one day or do two hard sessions, or whatever; as long as you only do it once, you can get away with almost anything. Consistently doing so is risky, however, for all of the reasons already discussed in this article.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Is climbing bad for your body?
You can get a great workout from rock climbing, but it can be hard on your body if it isn’t ready for it. Several medical conditions can be improved by losing weight, and rock climbing is an excellent way to lose a few pounds. Those who have diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol should consult their physician before starting any exercise program.
How many days can you climb in a row?
If you are climbing hard for a long period of time, three days a week is appropriate if you are climbing hard. Climbing more than three times a week requires you to reduce your intensity and reduce your session time so your muscles don’t need as much time to recover.
How often should you rest from climbing?
Beginners should not climb more than three times per week, unless they are very cautious and make sure that their second day is always a very light, endurance-based day.
Does climbing get you ripped?
You will not bulk up as much while rock climbing as opposed to lifting weights at the gym, but rock climbing will definitely tone your entire body. The most obvious changes will be in your upper back and biceps, but smaller, more targeted changes will be in your forearms and calves.
