Crushing Tip #20

rr2Let’s talk about rest. It’s a concept that gets kicked around quite a bit by climbers and for good reason. We rest after working moves on our project routes, after training sets, after epic days at the crag and so on. This type of recovery is undoubtedly important but there are other types of rest we should consider. Many climbers miss excellent opportunities to rest while actively climbing a route which leads to inefficient, pumpy climbing and unnecessary mental stress. It may seem counter intuitive but finding a secure, balanced body position and taking turns hanging and shaking each arm before a crux will go a long ways toward helping a climber stay cool and focused.

Rests come in all shapes and forms when climbing. Sometimes you can land your hands on a giant jug with a nice set of ledges for your feet, but most of the time you have to be more creative with body positioning to find rest when climbing. In order to get better at resting on route, you need to practice. Start identifying potential rest spots from the ground, then force yourself to take a rest at your designated rest spot whether you are tired or not. Or, determine a number of rests that you are going to take on a route and be sure to get them all in. And don’t forget there is no time limit on rests; you can milk a rest as long as you want until you feel recovered enough for the next moves.

Hope to see you all casually shaking those arms out!

Matt Coleman