Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

of maximum intensity. Worse yet, contractions of as little as 20 percent of maximum intensity begin to hamper capillary blood flow, and at 50 percent of maximum contraction blood flow may be completely occluded (closed off). As a result, LA concentrations skyrocket until blood flow can resume during periods of low-intensity contraction or complete rest.
    Tips to Accelerate Short-Term Recovery
     
    1. Strive to limit fatigue in the first place by climbing with maximum economy, optimal technique, and brilliant strategy!
    2. Accelerate recovery at midclimb shakeouts by using the G-Tox recovery technique.
    3. Engage in active recovery between climbs by walking around and performing light stretching and massage. Research has shown that this will lower blood lactate by up to 35 percent compared with just sitting around between ascents or attempts.
    4. Do not smoke! Smoking decreases circulation and slows recovery. Worse yet, smoking inhibits the production of collagen and thus slows healing of tendons and ligaments.
    5. Camel up by drinking a quart of water in the two hours preceding a workout or day of climbing.
    6. Continue drinking water as you climb at a rate of eight ounces per hour (more in hot weather).
     
     
    What’s more, when dangling your arm in the traditional shakeout technique, it’s common to experience an initial increase in the sensation of being pumped. This is because, as the muscle relaxes, blood flow into it resumes—but the venous return of the “old blood” out of the muscle is more sluggish. This traffic jam perpetuates the pump and slows recovery, yet many climbers continue to dangle their arms and complain about how sickening of a pump they have.
    The G-Tox technique puts gravity to work by aiding venous return of blood toward the heart. By helping get blood out of the arm more quickly, this practice enhances the removal of lactic acid and, therefore, returns you to a baseline level of blood lactate more quickly. The effects of this technique are unmistakable—you will literally see the pump drain from the elevated arm due to the interesting fact that arterial flow into the arm is less affected by gravity than is venous return flow.
    So why not just use the raised-arm position for the full duration of the rest instead of using the alternating technique as described above? Since the raised-arm position requires some muscular contraction in the upper arm, shoulder, and chest, these muscles would fatigue and possibly hamper climbing performance if you held the raised-arm position for a long time. Consequently, the best protocol for recovery is alternating between the two arm positions every five to ten seconds. Do so, and you will definitely feel the difference the G-Tox makes!

Engage in Active Rest
     
    Along with the G-Tox, active rest is another underused yet highly effective strategy for accelerating recovery. While the G-Tox shines in its effectiveness to enhance recovery at a midclimb shakeout, use of active rest between climbs is an equally effective strategy for increasing the rate of lactic acid removal from the working muscles and bloodstream.
    Several recent studies, including one excellent study on climbers (Watts 2000), have shown that active rest significantly reduces blood lactate compared with the more common practice of passive rest. In the Watts study fifteen expert climbers attempted to redpoint a 20-meter, 5.12b gym route, with eight of them engaging in active rest (recumbent cycling) and the others assigned to passive rest immediately following completion of the route. Periodic measurements of blood lactate revealed that the active-rest group returned to preclimb levels within twenty minutes, while the passive group took thirty minutes to return to baseline levels. Therefore, low-intensity active rest accelerated the clearing of lactic acid from the blood by almost 35 percent.
    Applying this research finding at the crag is simple. Upon completing a pumpy route or redpoint attempt, instead of sitting down and resting passively (or worse yet, having a smoke), grab your water bottle and go for a casual twenty-minute hike. This will help clear lactic acid more quickly as well as provide a mental break from the action. Both these factors will enhance your performance on the next route!
    Another study compared recovery after maximum exercise in four groups: passive rest, active rest, massage, and combined massage and active rest (Monedero 2000). After fifteen minutes of rest,