UKC

just wandering how long would it take to lose climbing fitness if not climbing for an amount of time.
thanks
ioan

In reply to IOAN D:

could you specify the amount of time?

for instance, I've recently discovered that four months off has made me pathetically weak but in particular in the area of finger strength. it's nonexistent now!

In reply to IOAN D:

I think that's subject to a lot of variables. One thing I have found is that if I don't climb for several months, I drop back a lot; but it takes less effort to get back to where I was before than it did previously. If that makes sense.

say that no climbing for a week?

In reply to IOAN D:

that'll make very little difference, I imagine. I'd imagine that you'd only notice difference over the space of a week if you were at proper superstar level.

In reply to CJD: A week?!! Hee hee. Guess we punters are all screwed!

In reply to IOAN D: Deck out hard enough it can be pretty instantaneous! ;c)

Neill

In reply to IOAN D: depends how good you are,
id say the average to get to a point were ur really struggling on things you could have done with a bit of effort befor ewould be about 4 weeks

In reply to Alison Stockwell:

Alison its also a function of age, a factor you are too young to have noticed yet I suppose.
I could always get back to fitness in a week or two, be it climbing or running, when I was younger, now its a whole different ball game. Getting back to climbing fitness is a slow and tortuous process after a lay off these days, I recently had a long enforced lay off due to fractured vertebrae and getting back is proving hard at 57, I was leading 6c before my accident and now 18 months later I'm struggling at 6a, I don't think there is an easy answer, depends on the injury and age, bu t time is a great healer, I dont want to write myself off just yet,

In reply to IOAN D:
I only realy climb at uni, so have about 10 weeks climbing, followed by 5 weeks off.

Both times I have come back feeling like there was something missing from my climbing, and certainly slightly weaker, yet both times, within a couple sessions, I was climbing better than I ever had been

strange

In reply to CJD: Agreed mate, got the same thing.I was out 5 months with injury to shoulder.First thing I noticed when i got back was that my grip strength was totally gone.A few weeks later though and it was back and I was climbing to the grade I was before.In answer to the OP though, I think a few weeks off and you'll begin to lose strength.Youll build it up quickly again though

In reply to Al Evans:

>> Alison its also a function of age, a factor you are too young to have noticed yet I suppose.
Tee hee, I'm flattered! Well I'm happy to bask in my mythical youth for as long as I can get away with it, and it's amazing what a spot of Oil of Olay can do.

I think anyone would struggle to recover from a broken vertibra. Broken anything is bad, and I agree that recovering from injury is harder when you are older.

how long would it take to gain a lot of climbing fitness e.g if i climbed 3 times a week in a month how much fitter would i get?

In reply to happy_c:

Your fingers would get notably stronger to start with. After that it's quite slow.

jcm

In reply to Alison Stockwell:

>I think anyone would struggle to recover from a broken vertibra.

I don't know. Assuming 'broken' means 'chipped', I've known a couple of people who've recovered pretty quickly, though admittedly a lot younger than Al.

If it actually means broken as in, you know, broken, then I agree.

jcm

In reply to IOAN D:

Not long to be noticable on boulder problems or stamina routes, especially indoors. However, the good news is that I've never found that layoffs in the order of months have actually adversely affected my trad lead grade.

I've had a couple of three to six month lay-offs and I've certainly lost some strength and stamina. However, properly developed engrams (muscle memory; i.e. technique) are not affected over that sort of timescale, if ever. When it comes to normal trad climbing (i.e. not pure bouldering) I've never noticed much of a difference when I've started up again. In fact, I often seem to much climb better as I tend to apply more technique and thought rather than just try to power through moves.

This goes back to the fact that technique counts for (nearly) everything in climbing. Unfortuantely the process of gaining that technique is rather slow and if you don't have it, a disproportional amount of 'fitness' seems to be required to compensate.

It's taken me 11 years to get to the stage of leading English 6a moves consistently. However, given my job and general level of fitness, I'm now sure that even if I took a year off I'd be back leading 5c straight away and climbing a few times a week I'd be back to my current trad standard in a month or so.

When it comes to sport climbing I think it's a bit different as you climb much nearer your physical (rather than pyschological) limit. I'd guess I drop about 1/2 a sport grade after 3 months off and possibly 1-2 after 6+ months. After a year off I might drop 2-3 sport grades but I think my base level of fitness and muscle memory would ensure that my climbing standard wouldn't deteriorate much further than that.

HTH

In reply to IOAN D: It depends on how old you are, believe me, it really does.

In reply to Al Evans:

Too right, as I discovered on trying to climb at my local crag yesterday. Then again, the extra stone didn't help much either.

In reply to Mark Stevenson: Even if I have years off, even at 57 I can always lead VS, very quickly get back to HVS, the E grades take a bit longer. I think this is because I have basic stamina that doesn't seem to go away, and I have had years of learning technique. However what goes is my strength for hard fingery moves, and possibly my head for bold delicate stuff (eg Great Slab on Froggatt). I can always do things like The File or The Unprintable.

In reply to Al Evans: 15teen

In reply to IOAN D: You only have a very small problem

In reply to IOAN D:

4 months not climbing while knock you down a few grades...3 weeks back again and I was back up to just below my grade again...then I injured myself again...pushing it too hard.

In reply to Alison Stockwell:
Yep, I just find I've accumlated a series of nagging niggles from many years of sport, and it does take longer... how long did it take you to get back after having the kids? Looking at it the other way, how quickly do people find they 'plateau' if they only (!) train once a week? I reckon us oldies ( don't include you in that) can't put in quite the same training effort as before, you get knackered and take longer to recover.
Al : wish I could do the rasp at all!

In reply to IOAN D:
About two pints or so...
What I find is that stamnina and power endurance go fairly quickly (as soon as you stop climbing lots they start to go) but strength and technique are a bit more durable.