No climbing / excersise for 5 weeks. How much lost?

Hey MP. So I am 3 weeks into a 5 week recovery period from an injury. The bottom line is I haven't been able to do any real physical activity of consequence other than walking for 3 weeks and I have 2 more weeks to go before I can get back to "moderate" exercise. Joy.

I'm morbidly curious how much I'll have lost. I've managed not to become a porker but I think that's all I have going for me. Anyone have any experience with this? Pre-injury I would climb for ~10 hours a week, cycle ~70 miles a week and run a an hour or so.

Do I loose 5-6 letter grades? Do I lose my endurance? Does it take 4-6 months to come back? Are my summer alpine goals now shot? Anyone have any experience with this?

you are fine...you'll bounce back fast. And in the near future you will climb better than ever.

Plus, what does it matter? You can't change anything, right?

Nope, its doesn't matter at all because I don't have control over it, but being that I'm reading a training guide book and I can't go climbing or do anything else active/fun there no harm in trying to figure out what's ahead. I guess I'd just rather know in advance how bad it will be rather than find out when I try to do push ups again and can only do 17 instead of 70 if that is the case.

Assuming your technique remains, it seems you'll be totally fine.

Hooray for the body!

5 weeks off will translate into 5 letter grades lost. This is assuming letter grades start with 5.10. I.e, if you weren't climbing 5.11b or harder, the formula won't apply. If you climb in the 10s, limit yourself to 5.9, depending on how sandbagged the area you climb is. The world of 5.9/5.9+ can be spicey, so stick with as solid 5.9s as you can get. After 3 weeks of whatever your baseline normal is, add a letter every other week, factoring in rest periods. Rest periods are crucial for your body to recover from workouts, not just from injuries.

Thanks for the feed back guys and extra thanks for the link to some peer reviewed literature! Absolutely perfect.

If you maintain your BW then you should have very little strength lost.

For example, I took 5 years off climbing. I was redpointing 5.12b/c before I stopped and I have been climbing for 4 months since the time off and am back to around 5.12a RP level without even climbing ropes more than 1-2 times a week. I got back to V6 after 3 months of bouldering (previously I was bouldering V7/V8).

Climbing strength basically comes down to tendon strength in fingers, mental toughness, and bodyweight. There is very little other stuff (like technique).

Evan, first, as a chronically injured person myself due to a collagen defect, I have to say 5 weeks off is nothing in the grand scheme of a climbing life. A drop in the bucket. Stop hyper-focusing and roll with the punches. I know, easy to say and hard to do, but the mental growth you will experience learning to tolerate bumps in the road is worth it.

That said, de-training/deconditioning rates are relatively well understood (empirically, that is). Mitochondrial adaptions start reversing in days. Muscular strength gains tend to take weeks to completely reverse and are independent of your body weight, I don't care what 5.whatever says. While you have certainly had some reversals, I would say you will probably re-gain your losses relatively quickly as long as you don't ramp up too fast too soon post-injury.

Also, there is no way to say how many letter grades are lost after 5 weeks of non-activity in any given individual (climbing exactly what? I might add). I don't know where people come up with these generalizations and state them like facts. I think it's ok to state one's own personal experience in this realm, but anecdotes is not the plural of data.

Oh, P.S. I wish you the best recovery and I am sure you will be fine in just a few weeks. I had to quit climbing for a year due to an injury (just one of many many) and it took about 5-6 months for me to feel completely in shape again. Your alpine dreams are not squandered for the year, don't worry.

I had to take 4 months off, with out moving my arm much or doing anything weight bearing (shattered collarbone). When I came back I took it very easy for 3 months (I essentially started with no arm strength) and did lots of technique drills. After 3 more months I led my first 12a. I was again off for 3 months for another surgery and used the same model coming back. I now swear by taking 2 months every year to exclusively climb easy, work on technique (and endurance). No hard or goal oriented climbing. I am now climbing much better than ever because I had to spend some time thinking about how I wanted to climb and rebuild myself.

Grumpy Gym Climber wrote:I had to take 4 months off, with out moving my arm much or doing anything weight bearing (shattered collarbone). When I came back I took it very easy for 3 months (I essentially started with no arm strength) and did lots of technique drills. After 3 more months I led my first 12a. I was again off for 3 months for another surgery and used the same model coming back. I now swear by taking 2 months every year to exclusively climb easy, work on technique (and endurance). No hard or goal oriented climbing. I am now climbing much better than ever because I had to spend some time thinking about how I wanted to climb and rebuild myself.

In October i had jaw surgery and wasn't allowed to do anything physical other than walking (no matter how many times i tried to tell my surgeon i don't need a jaw to grab handholds)for six weeks. Exactly six weeks later i went to the gym and felt totally fine. other than i had ripped a flapper for the first time in years. you'll be fine as long as you dont get super fat or something. it probably helped that i literally couldn't eat because my jaw was wired shut lol.

Thanks for the encouragement! Glad to hear my summer goals aren't shot. I've been working up to them for years and then I injured myself moving a mattress up some stairs solo. Pretty pathetic.

Ive been out since december, and am set to have surgery this week. Doc gave me a 5 month recovery (knee injury). That being said, I havent lost too much. Was leading 5.10 trad and 5.11 sport, bouldering v5 before injury. I have been toproping hard 10's and easy 11's just fine... then again im sure ill lose a bunch over 5 months and its probably a bigger difference when you climb harder. prayers headed yo way!