Aerobic Power and Wattage Breakdown in Correlation to Sport Climbing Grades
By Aman Anderson
Sport climbing. A sport which requires a great deal of aerobic endurance, could now be more trackable through wattage output, to measure performance.
KörperForce wattage calculator, to input your body weight to calculate avg. finger forces, and 5 min wattage output for different lead climbing grades.
When it comes to endurance performance, everyone knows it doesn't come easy. When I raced triathlon, I realized very quickly that endurance performance is critical to the sport. For five years I tested my own training protocols experimenting, and adapting to see what could yield the most benefit for the sport. During that time I also felt my healthiest as a sport climber, and recognized the cross-over benefits.
Adaptions in response to endurance training
As a result of endurance training, physiological adaptions in the body take place, allowing the body to keep up with the demand; increased heart size to allow the heart to increase total blood volume, a lower heart rate, and adaptions in maximum heart rate, where you can get more power with less. There is also improved respiratory function, and increased capillaries, with existing capillaries being improved with training¹.
Adaptions in metabolism also take place, allowing the body to more efficiently pull from fat stores, then carbohydrate stores to sustain the athlete for a longer duration of time².
"Type one muscle fibers produce less lactic acid because they use less ATP. They primarily run on oxygen and fat—which is beneficial to the endurance athlete."
Wattage and Performance
A key factor of endurance training is what happens on a fiber level within the muscles. One of the biggest questions from sport climbers is, "why do I get pumped?" Science has been trying to answer this question for a long time. Is it lactate build up? Is it inefficient blood displacement in the vessels under continuous load? To answer this question is very difficult, since everyone is different. But there are four, maybe more potential factors for muscle fatigue in sport climbing. The first factor is energy depletion, energy supply limits performance during high-intensity exercise³. Accumulation of fatiguing metabolites⁴. Central neural transmission to the brain to signal skeletal muscle performance reduction⁵, and respiratory muscle fatigue, limiting human performance⁶.
A few factors to consider when seeking to improve endurance performance is, training slow-twitch muscle fibers produce less lactic acid because they use less ATP. They primarily run on oxygen and fat—which is beneficial to the endurance athlete⁷. Furthermore, evidence has shown that inspiratory muscle training plays an important role in improving endurance performance⁸. Addressing each of these factors with one workout can be very difficult, but implementing short, intensive endurance training sessions of about 30 min are effective in improving aerobic fitness, more favorable to improve VO2 peak, and improving endurance adaptations for the factors mention above, including aerobic capacity and body composition⁹.
“On a typical competition sport route, there are 30-40 moves. 50 feet of 5.14a/8b+ climbing, and 6 minutes to on-sight. You have one chance to prove that 2 months of training, has prepared you for a 6 minute on-sight.”
Bringing a measurement of energy performance to sport climbing is critical to the advancement of the sport, and improving athletic endurance. Measuring force throughout the body, and the reorganization thereof is common in our sport. Assessing force contact on fingers, toes, and joints. But as forces through the body increase, output of energy also increases. If a system is capable of exerting a force over a distance, then that system possesses energy¹⁰. In Figure 1, the illustration shows wattage output of a 130 Lb climber, across grades 5.10a to 5.15d. The determination of these numbers comes from a linear regression of finger force data showing average finger forces in Lbs across sport climbing grades¹¹ converted to watts by KörperForce, as a concept for future consideration and quantification.
Figure I
Sport climbing wattage across grades, based on strength to weight ratio data in collaboration with Beast Fingers Climbing. Stroke m/s: 30-31, Damper: 4, Grippül's outfitted with 15 degree crimps. Over a span of 5 minutes of near maximum effort.
Using wattage as a metric for sport climbing, then allows for further markers of demarkation between climbing grades, a new variable for consideration in climbing grading. Practitioners and performance coaches alike can develop pathways to success, as competitive climbers are seeking to improve on-sight potential for championship climbing events like the IFSC World Championships, and the Olympics. Questions about ‘what is the ideal finger to strength ratio to stay competitive on the world circuit?’ Have already been answered, but this metric, though applicable to both bouldering and sport climbing, has not completely satisfied world competitors. If this was the case, then every sport climber would on-sight every competition route presented them. Why are they not? It’s because coaches, and practitioners can’t forecast a variable that they can’t effectively reproduce.
"Using wattage as a metric for sport climbing, then allows for further markers of demarkation between climbing grades, a new variable for consideration in climbing grading."
On a typical competition sport route, there are 30-40 moves. 50 feet (15 meters) of 5.14a/8b+ climbing, and 6 minutes to on-sight. This puts a competitor under a great deal of psychological stress, for training and competing. If your foot slips and you fall, you’re done. If you get pumped on the 6th clip and fall, you’re done. If you take too long and run out of time, you’re done. On the championship stage, you have one chance to prove that 2 months of training, has prepared you for a 6 minute on-sight.
Less effort for more
It's a scary task when you embark on quantifying any metric in climbing, you welcome criticism, any time you seek to change the narrative for how we view our young sport. The team at KörperForce has begun collecting data on wattage output of sport climbers over a span of 5 minutes, wattage to sport climbing grades, using a modified Concept2 Model D rowing machine, with two Grippül's outfitted with 15 degree crimps.
Breaking down sport climbing to metrics of wattage really opens up a dialogue of what metrics can we capture that separates a climber from grade to grade. As shown in Figure 1, climbing 5.13b looks like a lot of work. We can then develop programing to build v02 max and improve wattage over time. In more cases than none, we have seen a clear improvement in climbers ‘lead on-sight potential’, through this continual case study, understand this study is un-controlled, and non-peer reviewed, and is to prove a concept for future developments in the sport. And we welcome researchers who are willing to assist us in seeking clarity.
Figure II
watts and the future of sport climbing
With climbing making the bid for the 2020 Olympics, coaches and trainers all over the world are figuring ways to increase aerobic power for gains to develop the fiercest contender—Now, more than ever.
KörperForce Athlete Management app, used to help keep track of athlete's growth and athletic performance.
Training and finding your zone injury-free
There are very familiar sport training protocols that the climbing community is familiar with to build aerobic capcity;
Shuttle Runs (commonly known as 'suicides')
The process of going up to a clip on a moderately-intense climb (70% of max effort), then climbing down to the beginning after every advancing clip.
No-Break Laps
Pulling the rope through and advancing to the next moderately-intense (70% of max effort) climb without breaks between climbs.
HR Zone Training
Zone training is also a great way to track how hard you are working by using a heart rate monitor while you climb, bike, or run. Training in different heart rate zones will build aerobic capacity and VO2 Max¹².
Though it may be hard to get to a climbing gym when traveling or away from a gym, you can still maintain your heart training through running, cycling, or other forms of cardiovascular training. At the end of the day, the heart doesn't know the difference between climbing and cycling. As long as your hitting your heart rate zones your cardiac output and aerobic power should stay maintained.
When topics of over-use injuries and growth plate fractures are in the mix, it leads to more conservative and methodological approaches to training. Training smarter is the key. Athlete or coach can focus more time on training at intensities meant to improve an athletes threshold, in hopes of making it to the top.
References
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