[cjsheps]

Hi UKB,

Talking to some friends recently, I've come to think that a lot of climbers at some point go through a phase of losing a significant amount of weight - either in the form of muscle or fat - due to lifestyle changes.

I've been through this over the last year or so, and my experiences seem to agree with those of people I've spoken to. Namely, performance increases significantly for a time for the obvious reasons, but eventually the body settles down at a lower weight. It almost feels like performance dropped off in the long term as a result.

Does anyone have a past experience with this that they can share, preferably backed up with some SCIENCE?

[a dense loner]

No, I've always had a good body

[abarro81]

I've never undergone that change. I'm about a stone lighter now than when I was 18, mostly muscle loss I think, but it was quite gradual.

Anyway, whilst dieting for EV earlier this year I weighted my fingerboarding back up to the original weight (started 12 2, weighted myself back up to 12 the whole time, went away just under 11 3). IIRC my deadhangs actually got worse at that original weight, i.e. my strength dropped slightly. If I took the weights off, however, I was better, which was what mattered.
What was the question?

[Sasquatch]

18yo - 145-150lbs all legs due to footy, then I started climbing
19yo - 165lbs
20yo - 175lbs
30yo - 200lbs - mostly quit climbing for a few years due to family stuff, plus wife was way too good of a cook and I had no self control for food and I discovered good beer.
35yo - 185lbs - After doing endurance events for a few years, I got back into climbing. 
38yo - 165-175lbs - I tend to fluctuate quite a bit winter to summer, with an annual low weight in Sept/Oct. 

Not sure if any of that counts as "significant" amount of weight.  and really none of the major losses were during a period of "climbing" focus.  For me, the losses during climbing tend to be smaller short term losses. 

I'd guess that part of the reason most people seem to see a drop in performance is due to meeting performance goals and thus decreasing the focus on training.  No idea if this is true, just me thoughts. 

When I train on a FB, I use total hanging weight as a metric, so I can tell if I'm stronger or not.  not added weight, which could be deceptive. 

[Three Nine]

I seem to have got my creatine obesity under control. Am 10 5.5 this morning, which is a pound and a half over bouldering fighting weight. Just wanted to let you all know.

[cjsheps]

Thanks for the replies to a pretty vague post. So my question was basically - "have people found themselves getting weaker in the long term after getting overly light for a while, and how have they dealt with it?".

Perhaps this isn't as common in climbers as I suspected, although I can definitely think of a few cases. Not Dense though - you've been perfect forever. 

[abarro81]

I can only speak for flucuating for trips but: Weaker in absolute terms yes, weaker in the terms that matter no. Perhaps it makes me weaker for a few weeks after a trip as the weight goes back on but certainly not whilst light. Post-trip I'm liable to dip anyway so its not really possible to disentangle everything.

[moose]

Thanks for the replies to a pretty vague post. So my question was basically - "have people found themselves getting weaker in the long term after getting overly light for a while, and how have they dealt with it?".

Starting route climbing in my case.....