Abstract
Background: Supplementing β-alanine (BA) improves exercise performance in efforts that are highly dependent on anaerobic glycolysis. As it has not yet been established whether it relates to climbing, the current study aimed to investigate the effects of BA on climbing-specific performance. Methods: Fifteen elite climbers performed intermittent high-force high-velocity campus board exercise, and two bouldering traverses, hard and easy. They ingested 4.0 g·d−1 BA or placebo for four weeks in a double-blind, pre/post experimental design. Results: In the campus board trial, ANOVA revealed a tendency toward significance (p = 0.066). Post hoc analysis revealed that there was a significant (p = 0.002) and “large” (d = 1.55) increase in the total number of “slaps” in the BA group. No significant supplementation × group interaction was found in “hard” traverse and a significant interaction for mean changes in number of moves (p = 0.025) and in time to failure (p = 0.044) on an “easy” traverse. Post hoc analysis revealed that only the BA group significantly improved from baseline in number of moves (+9.5) and time to failure (+32 s). Effect sizes were d = 1.73 and d = 1.44, respectively. Conclusions: Four weeks of BA supplementation can improve performance during continuous climbing lasting about 1 min and repeated bouts of upper body campus-like movements. However, it failed to enhance climbing of a shorter duration.
Highlights
Academic Editors: DustinRussel Slivka and Richard B
In the campus board trial, there was a tendency toward time × group significance (p = 0.066), and post hoc analysis revealed that there was a significant (p = 0.002) and “large” (ES d = 1.55) increase in a total number of reaches in Background: Supplementing β-alanine (BA) whereas the increase in that variable in PL was insignificant
No significant supplementation by group interactions was found for both number of moves performed before failure (NoM)
Summary
Academic Editors: DustinRussel Slivka and Richard B. Each of them imposes slightly different physiological requirements on the participants, but in all of them, repetitive forceful muscle contractions are required to move the climber’s body on the wall This tendency is most visible in bouldering, in which climbers are frequently forced to do a series of moves requiring a high rate of force development. The essence of this kind of events is climbing short, barely a few meters long, routes called “problems.” To conquer them, a competitor has a time limit of 4 or 5 min (depending on the round), during which he/she can make any number of attempts.
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