Abstract
Aim. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between submaximal and maximal physiological responses to rock climbing for climbers of differing abilities. Methods. Twenty-six male climbers performed a submaximal climbing test on a known circuit at 90° (vertical) and 105° (15° overhanging) inclination and speed 25 movements·min−1. A maximal test was undertaken on a similar circuit at the same speed with inclination increasing by 10° for each successive 3 min stage. Results. Mean oxygen consumption and heart rate (HR) increased with wall inclination and climbers reached a mean (±SD) peak of 40.3 ± 3.5 mL·kg−1 ·min−1 during the maximal test. Self-reported climbing ability was negatively correlated with and HR during the submaximal test at 90° (, r = −0.82; HR, and r = −0.66) and at 105° (, r = −0.84; HR, and r = −0.78) suggesting an increased exercise economy for climbers with a higher ability level. Conclusion. Findings from this study indicate that there is a relationship between wall inclination and the physiological demand of a climb. However, the increased technical ability and fitness of higher level climbers appears to an extent to offset the increased demand through improved exercise economy which in turn leads to an increased time to exhaustion and an improvement in performance.
Highlights
Interest in the physiology of sport climbing has grown among sport scientists over the past 25 years
As can be seen from this table, trends were as expected, with mean heart rate (HR), V E, V O2, and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) rising with increased wall inclination
There was a significant negative correlation between climbing ability and V O2 at 90∘ and at 105∘ (r = −0.82, P < 0.05; r = −0.84, P < 0.05) and HR (r = −0.43, P < 0.05; r = −0.78, P < 0.05), respectively. These results suggest that the higher the ability of the climber the lower the physiological response (V O2 and HR) to climbing at a submaximal intensity
Summary
Interest in the physiology of sport climbing has grown among sport scientists over the past 25 years. Further research has shown that the physiological responses during climbing have varied with the length and style of the ascent [15, 16], the speed and direction of the movement [17, 18], the inclination and the surface of the climbing holds, and the overall difficulty of the ascent [1, 18,19,20]. The increase in physiological responses with increasing inclination during submaximal climbing was first demonstrated in studies by Mermier et al [19] and Watts and Drobish [20]. As the speed of the ascents was not determined in their study, the relationship between inclination and the physiological response evoked remains to be determined
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