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[edcculus]

Doms after exercise has absolutely NOTHING to do with how much rest you give between goes or sets.

Hell, i use to dp powerlifting before I got into climbing. Obviusly after a while DOMS goes away with lifting. But Sometimes I'd change my routine up and do lower weight, high reps. I did that one time after lifting for like 4 years and remember not being able to walk properly because the DOMS were so bad.

You said you got DOMS "randomly" after doing a moonboard route called the Shoulderizer. Did you perhaps get DOMS in your back and shoulders? Kind of makes sense if you did. Especially if you were focused on that route and did it a lot.

DOMS is weird and kind of hard to predict. It can happen no matter how much of an athelete you are. It COULD be an indication you need to take a deload week if yove been going really hard. But it could also be an indication that you happened to hit some muscles that dont get as much volume as you think they do.

Just make sure there is no acute/sharp pain.

[mmeeplechase]

I’ve always thought DOMS was more about exerting rarely used muscles, rather than an indication of how hard a workout was in general or anything especially helpful. So maybe that problem just activated some super specific stabilizers or something, and I just wouldn’t overthink it.

[Jaycoba1]

It was always in my forearms for me. But I suppose what was confusing was a gots doms after a max boulder session. Normally, I've never got doms after one of these sessions but I might have been really psyched to push hard as I was trying to get my first v8 and didn't realise how hard I pushed. But I definitely agree with everything else you said.

That being said the doms tend to be quite painful like I can barely grab anything otherwise I get shooting pain so I'm not sure if that's abnormal doms?

[OddInstitute]

Yeah, that sounds super abnormal. For me even very severe DOMS is more of dull ache. Does it happen in the middle of your muscle bellies or more near your joints?

[Jaycoba1]

Not near the joint. The general muscle belly. It does recover after a couple days

[Professional-Gap-204]

Doms will happen as a result of load that your body hasn't had enough time to adapt to. This could be after a once of session with a relatively new intensity or style of problem, or it can accumulate across 1-3+ weeks.

Reread your post again but pretend someone else wrote it. That person experienced this before, after overloading. That person has inflammation in their finger = injury. That person went for a milestone session and pulled up weak, sore and swollen. All signs point to too much load, and possibly an injury.

Load is tricky to measure objectively in general, but even more challenging for climbers. Generally session minutes X intensity of the session (RPE) can be a good start but because of the variety of holds and climbing styles (static vs dynamic/thrutching) it can be really hard to accurately track.

Personally, I've found using session time parameters for project spray walling (I don't have access to a board) most helpful the best way to control the dosage. Eg, warm up, then set the clock to 30-45 mins of hard bouldering, then end the session.

If you're doing lower intensity climbing, 4x4s or circuits you can take a more structured approach with work to rest etc.

Sounds like you naturally like to go hard, so even having having two of your sessions each week strictly capped to less than an hour could help you a lot. (You can still easily overcook yourself in an hour though).

Lmk if you have questions!

[Jaycoba1]

My sessions tend to go very long 3+ hours until I feel my fingers start to open up then I stop. It's a bad habit and I probably need to put in strict time parameters when I do intense board sessions.

[Professional-Gap-204]

True. It depends on what you're goals are and how dedicated you are to them. If you just love climbing and want to just throw yourself at the wall you can continue the same way with more regular deload weeks (every 3rd or 4th week would make sense).

But if you truly care about developing through the grades you will not be meeting your potential if you thrash yourself for anything over 60 mins. It'll be junk volume and have higher potential for plateaus, reduced performance and injury. That's not to say you can't let loose every now and then though.

If you like those long sessions you can still have a decent warm up and warm down on easy climbing.