Easy Climbing for Boulderers: Does It Speed Recovery?

The short answer: easy climbing probably helps

Yes, probably. Easy climbing builds aerobic fitness, and the usual reasoning is that aerobic fitness speeds recovery between efforts. For a boulderer, that means shorter rests between attempts and, maybe, fewer wrecked days after a session.

I'd like to hand you a tidy trial that proves it. There isn't one. I'll be straight about that further down, because it changes how hard you should lean on this advice.

Why boulderers skip the easy stuff

Bouldering rewards power, so we train power. Easy climbing feels like time you could've spent on the project. Boulderers are generally very good at treating a warm-up as a personal insult.

The cost shows up later. You fall off the crux, sit on the mat, and need a long rest before the next go. Then you need an extra day before the next session. Finger strength and tendon health matter for that, sure. Your general ability to recover from hard efforts may matter too, and that's the part easy climbing is supposed to help.

What Eric Hörst says

Eric Hörst says most climbers, boulderers included, benefit from a mix of two kinds of work:

• Aerobic stamina work, which is low-intensity climbing you can keep moving on for a while.
• Harder muscular endurance work, which is the kind that makes your forearms burn.

Why aerobic fitness would help you recover

The reasoning is simple. A boulder attempt is short and hard, then you rest, then you go again. How fast you bounce back between those efforts is partly down to your aerobic fitness. Build that up and, in theory, you're ready sooner.

That's why the easy climbing and the harder endurance work sit together in Hörst's advice. They train different things, and most climbers can use both.

What we don't know yet

How much of this a boulderer needs is contested. The argument is mostly reasoned from physiology, meaning how bodies are understood to work. It hasn't been tested much in climbing trials.

So don't treat it as settled. It's a sensible idea with a low cost to try, which is a pretty good place to be. If you're someone who already recovers fast and sends heaps, you may not need much. If you're resting ages between attempts, it's worth a go.

How I'd test it on yourself

Run it as a small experiment, so you're judging by your own results and not by my opinion. Add some easy climbing to your sessions and keep the hard bouldering as it is.

Then track a few things:

• How long you rest between attempts on the same problem.
• How you feel the day after a session.
• Whether you can do more good attempts before you're finished.

Making it stick

Easy climbing gets skipped because nothing forces you to do it. Put it on the plan as its own block. If you plan your sessions in Blok Sessions, that's where I'd add it, so it doesn't get dropped when you're keen to pull on something hard.

Give it a few weeks before you decide. If your rests don't get shorter, you've lost very little.

FAQ

Is easy climbing a waste of time for boulderers?

Probably not. Eric Hörst says most climbers, boulderers included, benefit from aerobic stamina work alongside harder muscular endurance work, and aerobic fitness is thought to speed recovery between efforts.

How much easy climbing do boulderers need?

Nobody knows for sure. The amount is contested, and the reasoning comes mostly from physiology, not climbing trials, so treat it as something to test on yourself.

Will easy climbing shorten my rests between attempts?

It might. The usual reasoning is that aerobic fitness speeds recovery between efforts, but that hasn't been proven for boulderers, so track your rest times and see.