UKC

Hi, 

I am new here and still new to bouldering. I have been climbing since the start of March 2018 and can manage quite a few V2's and the odd V3. 

When it comes to diet and nutrition I'm not the best and healthiest but have been wondering is there is anything I need to focus on for bouldering? 

I have been told protein is important since I'll be "breaking" and gaining more muscle. Maybe I'm missing other micro nutrients, perhaps for bone health or ligaments?

I have also seen information about a nutrition drink called Huel which seems to cover everything. Has anyone had any experience with this? 

Thank you in advance. 

Cake and mocha pot coffee!

I would suggest you try to eat well by changing your diet rather than becoming reliant on pills and powders.

I switched up my lunches to include puy lentils, mixed quinoa and a bit of cous cous, with chicken breast. Having a good solid lunch and dinner helped me train in the evenings (I trained late at night).

The other few things that helped was caffeine with performance and BCAA’s for recovery.

Other than that make sure you get enough food. Calculate your BMR (link below) which is how many calories your would expend if you simply lay in bed doing nothing. Then using various fitness app’s calculate how much you would spend during your day and at the wall.

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

I tried Huel for a while.  I wouldn't call it sports nutrition, more a form of reasonably healthy very low-effort food.  The downsides are it is expensive and tastes like chalk because its mostly pea protein and oats.    If you don't eat enough vegetables then you will quite likely feel healthier if you swap one meal a day for Huel.    They have flavour pouches but I preferred to add some vinegar to making it sweet.

Probably the single best thing for bouldering if you are at all overweight is to lose weight.  The lighter you are the more practical it is to put enough force through poor holds to move your body.

Coffee is life!

For any strenuous physical activity, you need to make sure you're getting enough protein so your body can recover properly and build muscle, it's true.

If you're bouldering several times a week, that could mean aiming for at least 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of your bodyweight per day:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23107527

But that might already be covered by what you eat.

If you want to geek out about this, it can be useful to log your food intake over a few typical days and put it into one of the numerous online nutrition calculators, just to get a sense of how your current eating stacks up.

If you're not getting enough protein, you might want to make a conscious effort to get more decent-quality protein sources in your diet (whether that's meat or fish or eggs or cheese or beans/grains or tofu or whatever).

Some people find that a protein shake or bar whatever can be useful as a top-up if they have high protein needs, but focus on the food you're eating first.

Without knowing what you're currently eating -- maybe you are!

But the easiest way to cover all the bases is going to be "eat a lot of fruit and veg" (and oily fish for the omega-3s if you're not a vegetarian, etc.).

Huel is a meal replacement drink (like Soylent); it's designed to hit the RDA for essential vitamins and minerals (which it does partly by having added vitamins and minerals in it).

It's not necessarily bad if you want an occasional meal replacement, but it's going to be worse in terms of micronutrients (especially all the micronutrients we're barely beginning to identify and understand) than eating a diverse range of whole foods. 

Huel is basically oats and flaxseed and protein powder with the equivalent of a ground-up multi-vitamin pill thrown in; that's not a diverse diet.

I've always been a fussy eater. It's mostly vegetables I struggle to eat. I'll work out my BMR and try and work on that as well. 

I do find sometimes I feel starved for the rest of the day after a really good climbing session. 

I should have added I'm not overweight. I'm average for my height and age. 

But I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. 

I think I'm going to geek out and start logging. I just eat whatever takes my fancy and I don't really consider what I am actually eating. 

I am going to get some more fruit and veg in and make a conscious effort. 

Also, someone else mentioned BMR so I'm going to keep this in mind. 

Thank you for the advice. 

Just eat a decent diet of healthy, tasty food.

If you were trying to break into v15 or win the world cup, you might want to consider a load of technical whatnot... 

Yeah, it's often considered a good idea to get in a meal (or a snack with some protein in, if a proper meal isn't feasible) in the hour or two after you've been doing a sport/training activity.

Sounds like that could be a good idea for you.

I still cant boulder V6 yet i drink 16 protein shakes a day, snort creatine monohydrate like marching powder and climb wearing a beanie and no top. I also take my aeropress to the indoor wall with my home ground artisan coffee beans. Where am i going wrong?

Obviously your shoes aren't tight enough.

I knew i should have gone 4 sizes down not 3. Any tips on how to get rid of my bunions?

I think the problem is that the connies are simply not sufficiently sick. They may even be bordering on gash. 

too much gluten.

Have you considered a homeopathic brush or ethically sourced chalk to improve your edge?

I only ever use my brush that was hand carved by the lost Inca tribe of Dios dos Santos with bristles make from the indigenous Chupacabra, my purchase helps them to strive for a better life whilst more importantly allowing me to talk sanctimoniously about the way i live mine. As for chalk i belive it violates the human rights of the rock.

But seeing as i've hijacked this thread, Jongofett...just eat a well balanced diet with enough of the right nutrients in there. Perhaps if you feel you're lacking protein have a shake after a strenuous workout and also put some cardio 1/2 times a week into your routine. General overall fitness is never a bad thing to have for any sport.

Also a big one...sleep, make sure you're getting enough. You can train as hard as you want and eat the best things in the world but without sufficient sleep your body will never recover and allow you to improve.

Cardio for bouldering = complete waste of time. It eats into time/energy for recovery from other (more specific) training so unless you are starting from an unfit/overweight base then it is more likely to have a negative effect than positive.

Otherwise I agree entirely with what you said.

Edited to add reasoning.

Haha don't worry about it I just didn't know what to respond but thank you for the advice. 

I'm taking note of my diet over the next couple of weeks and will see what I'm lacking. 

Thank you. 

Totally agreed -- but at the same time, that's easier said than done for many people.

Particularly given all the conflicting advice and info we get about what's "healthy", the fact that different people often seem to benefit from different approaches to eating, and all the practicalities and logistics of getting food in.

In my experience, all the nutritional theory in the world tends to go out of the window if you get home late at night and you're knackered and there's nothing in the fridge and/or you have no energy left to cook and the takeaway menu is calling ...

So if someone's not been thinking about healthy eating before at all, I think it can be helpful to pay some attention and get the basics (like fruit and veg and not eating too much junk) covered.

The first time I ever tried logging what I ate, I found out I wasn't getting enough protein to meet the bog-standard medical recs for normal non-athletic people. Which was a shock as I'd been eating in what I thought was a pretty ordinary way. Whoops.

It can also be about figuring out what's practical for you. Stuff like "if you can't eat a meal soon after climbing, then stick a health-ish snack in your climbing bag so you don't end up eating five slices of cake in order not to pass out from hunger."

Or "if you generally hate vegetables, put some conscious effort into figuring out if there are any you like at all, or ways of cooking them that make them okay, then try to do more of that."

You don't have to turn it into rocket science, but info and advice can still be helpful.

lol

I managed my first 7c after switching my diet up. Generally have the following key items and have noticed a massive difference.

Rustlers Burgers, Pot Noodles, Fray Bentos pies, Mr Brains Pork Faggots, Rathbones white sliced bread, smiley potato faces, 'The Full Monty' (full english in a can), tinned hotdogs and 24 packs of choc ice.

Give it a go. Works for me

Fair enough. I think i was going from my point of view of enjoying big multi pitch mountain trad where its a huge benefit to arrive at the crag following a 1-2 hour walk in at times not blowing out yer hoop!

Here is what I have been doing and I feel great and continue to make progress on my bouldering:

1. Drink lots of water. Like 6-8 cups a day or more, depending on how you feel. A quick way to see if you are dehydrated is by looking at the color of your urine.

2. Protein is good. Also make sure you get enough fat. Fat has been scorned for a long time but is coming back as a nutrient to focus on to provide a stable energy supply.

3. Consider getting your relevant hormone levels checked, e.g. testosterone levels: https://www.accesalabs.com/Free-Total-Testosterone-Test

If your testosterone or other hormone levels are low, consider eating specific things to rebalance (e.g. Brazil nuts for testosterone) or else see a doctor to get some hormone replacement.

4. Avoid sugar whenever possible. It's in everything, especially if you eat out, and can cause all sorts of inflammatory processes to slow down recovery and make your joints hurt.

Flexibility is also something I've found to be increasingly important as I climb harder routes.

I've started wearing a fez and now I can do f9a just like that!

Crikey, I read that and feel it's a miracle I can climb the stairs....

I drink very little water, my liquid intake is almost entirely coffee and G&Ts (occasionally whisky, variety is the spice of life); my diet is pretty low on protein.... lots of bread and ready meals; I've never checked my hormone levels (but as I have the physique of a 13 y.o girl, I suspect I am not overly endowed with testosterone)... and I like sugary food (maybe I should take some ibuprofen to cope with the inflammation I am now told is caused by the jam on my toast!).  The one saving grace is that my flexibility is reasonable (through no deliberate effort)... or at least in  keeping with my resemblance to a collapsed anglepoise lamp.

[Location
Los Angeles]

Citation needed!

Beer , some crisps. Wine and cake. 

Anti-gravity salted nuts are good as is  the odd single malt whiskey.

just enjoy it .