Rock Climbing: Performance Nutrition

I'm back! Hello viewers, today I am here to teach you the best part about rock climbing or even the best part about anything, FOOD! Rock Climbing requires a lot of energy, and it exerts a ton of calories. Meaning, you need to eat the right foods and the right amount of them. "The foods and beverages you consume play a primary role in determining your mental acuity, physical performance output, and ability to recover from vigorous training or climbing." (Hörst 193) 

Protein

Protein is a major piece to a fantastic meal for rock climbing, in order for your body to build muscle, and repair body tissue, you need a good helping of protein in your diet. Some exceptional protein infused foods could be things such as bacon, eggs, steak, assorted nuts and much more. In the meal that I cooked, I used bacon and eggs as my protein. The book that I chose to use as my guide says this about proteins, "Protein has many functions in the body, including building and repairing of tissue, acting as a major component of the immune system, and making up enzymes, which facilitate every reaction that goes on in the body."(Hörst 194) This just goes to prove that protein is essential for your climbing diet. Now here are some pictures of me cooking up the protein portions of my breakfast.

Carbohydrates

Another key piece to obtaining the fuel you need to climb is carbohydrates, these give you short bursts of energy to do the climbs that you want to do. An example of an excellent carbohydrate is whole grain toast, to make the taste a little but better you can put pieces of avocado on it, or you can just put any type of spread that you like on it. "Although fat and protein can be used to provide energy, carbohydrate is the most efficient and effective source of energy for the muscle and brain."(Hörst 196) Carbohydrates will give the energy you need to do the hard climbs that you are performing. So make sure that you include carbohydrates in your next meal. Enjoy the next few pictures of me cooking the superb serving of carbohydrates to fuel me throughout the day. My whole grain toast is on the right in the toaster, and yes it is the same picture.

Water


Maybe one of the most important pieces to having outstanding nutrition is water, it keeps you going all day and keeps your body functioning throughout the body. When climbers are out climbing all day, it is natural to sweat, and when they do it drops there water percentage. You want to keep your water percentage as high as you can. In the book it explains how crucial your water consumption is, the book says, "even a 1 to 2 percent drop in water will cause problems in performance." (Hörst 198)
This just goes to show that water is so important to your nutrition. A common rule about water consumption says, you should never be thirsty, you should just be constantly drinking water. I try to live by this rule, although it never really works.

Now that you know the basics of what to eat, go out and try some new food combinations. Also, make sure you are balancing sweets and fats to your whole grains and lean meats. Nutrition can mean everything in climbing, so make sure you are aware of what you are eating.


Hörst, Eric J. Training for Climbing: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Climbing Performance. Guilford, CT: Falcon, 2003. Print. 


Question: How much water do you consume a day, and have you ever gotten a headache from not drinking enough water?

I went over board with water.... Haha get it

The last technique I read about was adding water to the acrylic paints to create a watercolor look. I've always liked watercolor a lot so I was excited to see how this turned out. “The beauty of acrylic paint is that if you do not mix water into it at all then in such a case it will resemble with oil paints and in the case where you add too much water then in such a scenario it will look more like water paint.” (152 Montgomery). I was very excited for this and added way to much water and it was no longer a picture but more of abstract colors. Good thing Abstract is a thing.


Another huge benefit to using water was that it made the clean up so much easier. The paint was already non sticky and just washed right off. "Since the now water based paints are already mostly clean the removal of paint is much quicker" (156 Montgomery). Though I liked the end result a lot more anyway. Moral of this story my screw up was my favorite so don't try to hard.

Do you prefer the crazy abstract look or a more structured painting?


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Montgomery, Aurora. Acrylic Painting: Acrylic Painting For Beginners - The Complete Crash Course To Learning The Basics Of Acrylic Painting In No Time! (Acrylic Painting For Beginners, Oil Painting, Acrylic Painting) UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition

Flip Turns- Swimming

While swimming a race there are so many different aspects that can help put you in the lead. One skill that is essential to helping you go your fastest in a race is the flip turns.

What are Flip Turns?
Flip turns are practically somersaults in the water. A typical pool is 25 yards long and the swimmer performs a flip turn just before they reach the wall when they are swimming distances more than a 25. For example, a 50 yard race is down and back and would require one flip turn, a 100 yard is four lengths of the pool and would require three flip turns, and a 200 yard race is eight lengths of the pool requiring seven flip turns throughout the race, and so on and so forth.


A flip turn in a long race can be compared to a little power up that a character in a video game would get to help them advance towards the finish line. Flip turns are essential because the quickness of the turn, the strength and force behind it give you an extra amount of speed as you begin the next leg of the race. Flip turns can be confusing and difficult to perfect but once the technique is properly learned and performed it can be the difference between a second and a millisecond in the race.


A flip turn consists of somersaulting, planting your feet on the wall, and exploding off the wall to go. According to Michael Brooks in Developing Swimmers, it states that for a fast somersault four things are required to happen quickly all at once. It states "Duck the chin, dolphin-kick powerfully, tuck at the middle, and back-scull with both hands toward the face" (Brooks 114).

Back-sculling is having the palm
 of your hands face the top of the

water, pushing the water as you flip

in order to propel you through the turn.

A dolphin-kick is a synchronized
kick where both legs are together
 moving up and down, similar to the
 movement of a dolphin.



After you turn, you plant your feet on the wall to explode. On the wall, it's a one touch and go, you don't rest your feet, no twisting or turning and no waiting to turn over on your stomach before you push off. For freestyle, also commonly known as crawl stroke, the send-away takes the speed from the flip turn and adds the power of the push-off and underwater kicking in order to get you the best start and most speed for the next length of the race.

Michael Brooks explains that there are also four parts to the freestyle send-away. First, explode off the wall as powerful as you can with a straight and taut body. Then streamline, this is when your arms are above your head and the elbows are squeezed tight with one hand placed on the other. Next, use hyper speed. Do powerful small and fast dolphin kicks off the wall. Lastly, an important part is the break out. This is the second you breach the water and immediately start your stroke. Carry the speed of the push off to start your first couple of strokes and never breathe the first two strokes because this would cause the speed from the push to instantly disappear (Brooks 115).

Why are flip turns the most convenient and fastest way to turn in a race?

Brooks, Michael. Developing Swimmers. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2011. Print.