UKC

Hi 

How important is a good warm up before a session and how long should a good warm up be?

Sometimes mine last for twenty minutes but other times the duration is forty minutes.

Sav

10-15mins, or less. You could just pick a route that's easy for you, climb it 4 or 5 times back to back ie. Don't swap over between turns. That's why warming up for some indoors takes so long, climb 20m, untie, belay, re tie in etc.. more time faffing than exercising, and you're cooling down too much between turns. You can even down climb between ascents for extra warming up. 

I used to do it at WS but I was encouraged to get there earlier and have a longer warm up. I have various things in my warm up.

As I get older (I'm 57) I find that a longer warm-up seems to be required.  Steadily increasing intensity without overdoing things.  Can take anything up to an hour before I feel ready to try hard.

Becoming in tune with one's physicality can be useful, noting what the body feels like when it's warmed up, and how the elbows and fingers are feeling. Sometimes it's a day where trying a bit less hard and 'just climbing' is the thing to do, avoiding any 'I should be able to be doing this' is good. 

During the Development Coach training I did at UoW I warmed up with bouldering and then went straight to toproping I didn't stretch before hand so I came down and did a very short warm up which afterwards I was told my warm up was something I needed to work on.

S

Not great advice, the world of sport has moved on somewhat.

Different strokes for different folks. I try to.do 3 sets of every physio exercise I have been given, hoping that this will help prevent a repeat of that injury. However as I have aged and collected injuries, this has become a workout in itself.

I am 45 (going on 46 in August) and long warm up suits me very well - I keep adjusting my warm up. At CanaryWall, sometimes I am there an 1:15 mins before the session starts.

I have had those days at White Spider when I just wanted to climb an F3 or two and maybe an F4 and I have days when I felt a bit light headed or I tweaked something during warm up and I just wanted to belay and hone in on that. 

S

I mobilize first. 1 min leg swings forward and sideways 10 dead hang 10s active hang 12 scapular pull ups 1min shoulder whirls and wrist and elbow manipulation and finally finger mobilisation. Then a few easier boulder problems. I think the main benefit is being able to stretch out further rather than waiting for the routes to pull me out to my extremities. My stretching program is now a dedicated hour long recovery session twice a week between clmbs and that has shown a remarkable improvement in the range of motion that mobilization induces.  

At least a couple of years before doing any actual climbing. 

Of course it's horses for courses and there's a poo load of science now. But doing a route alternately isn't great for warm ups either, it can work out at only 5-10mins actual climbing for the first 30mins in there, 10-15mins of low intensity continuous is way better. That's how people pull muscles, finger pulleys etc they think because they've been in there ages they've warmed up, but haven't. Obviously you should also really make it relevant grade wise, different styles to work all muscles, hr monitor, followed by stretching and then progress build up of difficulty. You could also add in self belays, rowing, skiergo or rowing machine, depends how serious you want to take it. But, i did pitch my response relative to the ops previous threads. 

Bouldering isn't that good either unless walls have an easy traverse line so you can actually be on long enough to warm up. If anything easy roped routes are better warm ups for bouldering, not the other way around. 

When I started indoor bouldering at Craggy Island Sutton (now Yellow Spider) I had no flexibility so few people told me to keep up yoga to become flexible.

When you get older still you realise that the 'window of opportunity' between being properly warmed up and being totally knackered gets depressingly small if not non-existent.

Usually one route for me 😁

1. swing limbs around and rotate neck in attempted semi systematic fashion

2. easy circuit board loop hanging and stretching on each hold

3. harder circuit board loop, smooth and fast

4. cappuccino and millionaire shortbread, faff about on phone for a bit 

5. Send!

Agree - sometimes just a move or two at peak level before you find yourself on the downward slope...

What!  One WHOLE route - you lucky blighter...

I‘ve got into the habit of kneading one of those Decathlon rubber finger rings with alternate hands on the 20 min bus ride to the wall. Nowhere near enough to get my forearms pumped, but it‘s definitely a good start to the session.

I have two Y&Y Aliens that I use at home or on the way to the wall. I have seen the Y&Y version of those. 

Lol

I have used the circuit board at BethWall Green during their social.

What if the wall you are at, doesn't have a circuit board? 

This is so true 😊

Typo: It should have been: so a few people told me to take up yoga to become flexible.