How to Rest Between Redpoint Burns

That photo is of Paige Claassen takin’ a time out between climbs on our trip to Siurana. 

How to rest between redpoint burns is such an individual thing. Everyone has their own preference for how long they need between warm-ups and redpoint burns on routes, and between attempts on boulder problems. But there are some general guidelines to follow (I’ll get to those in a sec.)

How much rest?

There are a lot of variables, though. For instance, how close you are to sending. If I’m really close to sending something, I’m going to give myself more rest between redpoint burns just to make sure I have as much energy as possible to send next go. Generally for me that’s about 40 minutes or longer. Sometimes I time it. If I’m not that close to sending and I’m just trying to figure out beta and daylight is running out, then whatever – I just climb even if I’m not fully recovered.

Eating Between Burns

How much and what I eat between burns really affects my climbing, too. If I get too adrenalized and lose my appetite, that’s no good because I’ll get low blood sugar later on and therefore weak. So I usually eat some combo of lots of carbs (Paleo carbs in my case) and protein, with some fat thrown in the mix. Carbs are super important for me – if I don’t get enough, I just feel low energy. Same with protein really.

Resting Position

How I rest affects my climbing, too. I realized a long time ago that if I lie down flat on my back between burns, my forearms don’t recover as well. I think it’s a blood flow thing, so I try to keep myself in an upright position as much as possible.

Dave Wahl on How to Rest

But I’m not an expert on this. Dave Wahl, a really great climbing trainer who used to be based out of Denver, wrote a very comprehensive article about resting between burns including:

• how long to rest
• what and how much to eat
• what postures are best to rest in
• whether or not to stretch
• and so on

Nice article, Dave!

CLICK HERE to read Dave’s article on resting at climbing.com 

How much do YOU rest between climbs and why? What other things have you found helpful for resting?