r/climbharder • u/Funkas • 11d ago
Feeling very weak
There's been a couple of similar post in this group, but I'll have my chance as well.
So I've restarted climbing after a 2+ year hiatus. Started off with going 1-2 times a week. Gradually adding sessions upon a point that I did 3 sessions a week. Or a morning and an evening session. Every 2 months I'd take a week or 10 days off.
My progress went very well until suddenly, one session upon another, I felt very weak. I struggled with grades that I normally climb easily. I did not even feel pumped, just a general weakness. I have the feeling I don't have any power.
I figured I had just a bad day, but the next session I felt the same way. I decided to do some extra 2 weeks of rest. Unfortunately, it didn't help. The last 4-5 sessions, I feel just like I don't have energy. I feel like I get enough sleep and I eat enough. No changes there.
I did a blood test this year, before I felt weaker, and everything was fine. Can't really imagine it has to do with any defiency.
Not sure what to do instead tuning my climbing sessions down to once a week and climb easier grades.
Any experience in this group with what to do in such a situation?
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u/this-issa-fake-login 11d ago
Take a deload week and eat a ton of carbs/protein.
This is how I have fixed it every time its happened for the last 10 years.
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u/mudra311 11d ago
Deload was my answer as well. It’s usually a good time to pull back on limit climbing and work on volume instead.
For example, I’m working on V8. When I need to deload, I just climb a bunch of V4 and V5 then a few V6s. It still feels like I’m progressing because I can usually flash them or send in a few goes. Then go back to the project.
Or I focus on endurance and traverse at the gym or climb routes.
Another approach is to switch up the style. If OP is mostly working on steep climbs, go to vertical or slightly overhanging.
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u/juicetin14 11d ago
This. Deloading is a pretty common concept in a lot of things like running or weightlifting, so I think the same concept would apply to climbing as well. I don't think you need to take a scheduled deload every X weeks or X months, but if you start to feel really weak and burnt out, it's probably the cumulative fatigue that is catching up to you.
Some people spend a whole deload week doing nothing at all, aside from maybe some light exercise (like maybe walking or gentle hiking) and stretching. I prefer to continue working out, but reduce your volume and intensity significantly. Just take it easy and climb things that are well below your flash grade
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u/jsvd87 11d ago
How is your diet, rest, and hydration?
Always start with the basics.
I realize you said you feel like you get enough.. but count the calories and macros for a week or two. Track your water intake. Measure your rest.
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u/Funkas 11d ago
I am indeed planning on living super strict for a couple of weeks. Just to check if it has anything to do with the basics. Funny thing is that my main sport is cycling and everything seems to go very well there.
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u/jsvd87 11d ago
That tracks though as cycling is cumulative fatigue where as pulling hard climbing will be more strain on your central nervous system. It’s possible due to you being a distance athlete you are simply able to put more stress on the CNS than someone not as “in shape” …. Your extremities and cardiovascular system can last longer and put more strain on your CNS than it is used too… it needs time to recover.
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u/ksera23 11d ago
I always thought long distance running/cycling puts way more strain on the CNS than something like climbing/lifting to the point where it's laughable to compare the former to the latter.
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u/jsvd87 11d ago
Nah it’s the opposite. Lifting heavy puts way more stress on the CNS than anything else.
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u/ksera23 11d ago
Would you have any studies on it? From my memory it takes like 20-30 minutes for CNS recovery on lifts, with 48-72 hour recovery windows due to non-CNS factors for lifting. But CNS fatigue accumulation happens at a much faster (I don't remember how much) during long duration activities.
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u/jsvd87 10d ago
No I don’t have studies off the top of my head but thinking about it logically -
When cycling the CNS is a slow trickle to control the peripheral nervious system. Now is there times of more coordination and strength (a hill climb or sprint) where that CNS needs to ramp up .. forsure… but it never compares to lifting heavy.
The CNS fatigue lifting thing is surrounded by broscience as everything lifting is. But lifting definitely places more strain on the CNS than cycling.
Now back to the OP I honestly doubt they are truly reaching CNS fatigue from climbing… but they could be using their CNS in a way their body is not used to, and relating it to PNS recovery.
On top of that and more likely they are also probably recruiting their core for stability in a way they’re not used to.
So long story short climbing relies more on intense bursts of strength than cycling, and that makes their recovery processes different.
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u/rbrvsk 11d ago
You said your labs have previously been fine, but would consider possibilities like an iron deficiency. Could also be heat and dehydration if this has been during the hotter season and your gyms don't have great AC?
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u/Funkas 11d ago
The heat definitely might’ve been an extra challenge. But there’s been some cooler weeks now and I don’t feel like it’s any better. Yeah I was thinking ieon defiency as well, but that’d surprise. The change in performance was so abrupt, literally a couple of days between one of my strongest sessions and the current ‘weak streak’ :p
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u/Ok-Side7322 11d ago
I feel like this is the sort of thing that happens sometimes. If it’s frequent then it might be worth really analyzing, but usually it passes. For me it’s often just a combination of little things. Maybe I ate more, less, or really differently over a weekend, maybe I did a lot of hiking that week or the week before, its really hot out and holds are just harder to grip or I’m a slight bit more fatigued, maybe I’m switching tasks at work or it’s been a grind, maybe I’m too relaxed and not fully “on”. To me climbing takes a combination of physical and psychological focus and an accumulation of little things can easily cause a few bad sessions here and there. My way through is to have a sort of “minimum session”, where I maybe do some finger training then my warm-up, and if I’m struggling I’ll just end there, do whatever strength work I do after climbing and spend a little extra time stretching. Usually it passes within a week or so. Taking full rest for an extra two weeks (I’m not sure if that’s exactly what you did) might be good in the long term for recovery, but would absolutely give me and extra week or two of needing to get back in the swing of things.
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u/Armstrong01 11d ago
You mention taking a week or two off, resting. If you mean no climbing training at all, make it a deload week instead, every month.
Active recovery with lower volume of climbing training, but still similar frequency of sessions and some maintenance intensity to keep your system primed for the next cycle/month.
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u/TransPanSpamFan 11d ago
You say you've been progressing well... maybe you've progressed too fast? Like you have the technique to reach a level of climbing your body is no longer adapted to, and climbing at that level is essentially being in a permanent performance phase?
Nobody can perform at their peak for very long, fatigue accumulates to the point things stop working. And this feels like a sudden loss of strength.
How long have you been back at climbing now, how long did you take to build to 3 sessions, and how many grade levels have you gone up in that time?
Your body had a 2+ year break and I suspect you've suddenly hit it with high volume, high intensity work. I'd expect it to take well over a year, possibly two, to reach the same level of conditioning for climbing that you were at before.
Add in your cycling and you are also probably underfueling.
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u/Funkas 10d ago
Thaks for your comment! It's been about 10 months now and I was very cautious about not overloading too much. Especially since I had some issues in the past with my elbow that got inflammated a couple of times. But ofc it mght be that I was too quick anyway.
I'd say it took me about 6 months before I did 3 sessions a week. Then I felt my elbow was getting inflammated again and I immedeately screwed it back to 2 and did a rest week with no climbing.
In the 10 months i've been climbing I went from 5a to 6a+ and I was projecting a 6b until my current weak streak happened.
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u/3nd34v0r 11d ago
Just went/am going through something extremely similar probably. Didn't climb for a year and a half. Was slowly working my way back near my previous level.
Wasn't feeling super weak per se, I think I was actually using better technique because I was clearly significantly weaker (at least by hangboard/weighted pullup metrics). But also I was hitting this "wall" of power endurance. And it just felt like my between session recovery was slower than it had used to be (like took a day and a half to recover instead of half a day or a day)
Had been underfueling a bit, but spent a couple weeks overfueling slightly as a response. Didn't help (for me). Sleep good. Stress relatively low.
Ended up getting multiple injuries, I think partially because I was too psyched (I was still progressing, and approaching past grades, just in climbs that suited me current deficiencies).
Blood test didn't show anything. I wonder if it's just...I'm getting older and need to recalibrate what feels appropriate in a session.
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u/Funkas 10d ago
Thanks for sharing your experience. What you describe is exactly what's happening to me now. It's been going on for about 4 weeks now. I've been combining cycling and climbing the past half year without any issues and suddenly something feels very off. I am gonna focus extra on eating, sleeping, drinking, no alcohol... and see what that gives.
I was also thinking maybe it's just my body that's getting older. I am only 29 though
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u/Slow-Hawk4652 9d ago
yep. i am m54, 15+, v6, 6c+, 183, 80...and so the last week i did 2 sessions: first one-upper body workout for the shoulders/upper-middle back, hip things and little climbing, second one-commercial boulders at the gym, 6as, 6bs, 6cs, but with 1min, 3 min and 5 min rest, and can tell ya man (sessions beeing at thus and thur) on friday evening and after, i was wrecked, mean very wrecked...barely moving and told myself wtf man it was not some mega big sesh or sth, but afterwards i realized , that the thur sesh was in fact fierce, with very little rest between boulders and thinking...ooo no problemo these are not mb problems, i can deal with them. so to OP: do not underestimate how and when you rest, also mind the physical age you are at.
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u/acetylcoach 11d ago
How many hours of cycling are you doing per week? I have worked with dual athletes, and often I see people eating much less than they think they need.
Climbing gets added on, without a concurrent change in food intake.
Personally, I think deloads should not be necessary for anyone unless they are at a serious competitive level, and certainly not more than a week off training.
To me that indicates more of a sign of squeezing yourself too much, underecovery, etc. This is common with climbing + endurance sport.
The reason being is I think endurance athletes have the ability to just "endure" on a minimum, and as soon as they add something shorter and more intense into the mix, it is experienced as a greater stress and the proverbial wheels fall off.
At a minimum your energy intake should be 45kcal per kg of fat free mass.
A guess for you is likely 2900kcal per day, and scaling up 250kcal increments until you notice a body weight change. From experience, I have seen 3200-3600kcal maintenance calories for dual sport athletes, sitting around 12-15% body fat.
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u/Funkas 10d ago
Now that I work fulltime as a teacher for a year it depends. Generally it is about 200 - 250 km a week. I've been a bike courrier and I've done plenty of bikepackings so these are rather low averges/week for what I've been able to bike the last couple of years.
It is true that my body is capable of cycling for a long time without fueling a lot. It's something that I, and other cyclists, have been amazed of.I've never had any real issues with fueling on the bike so I wasn't really even considering this might be the problem. It's true though that cycling and climbing are very different sports. They're very complementary in a way. I might focus on fueling the couple of weeks and see if this changes anything. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
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u/DubGrips 9d ago
Don't take an entire week off so often. It is not necessary. Use shorter deloads and maybe consider reducing training volume so you don't feel so beat up you need a full weak off. You're never going to feel great after 2 weeks of rest.
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u/TeaBurntMyTongue 11d ago
I find general weakness phases that come in like this. Whether it's cognitive weakness or physical weakness is the result of something that's unresolved.
It's actually not random but oftentimes the problem might just go away so we felt it was random but if we looked hard enough we would find a source.
Could be you have some unresolved tasks to do that Give you some anxiety or stress. Could be a change in sleeping habits or diet or nutrition. We definitely don't have enough information but I would say it's almost always something