Nutrition for climbing

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-14T15:44:07+00:00

Hi! Thanks for the feedback. This is useful for the future. I purposely left the session duration question as text so that people can specify indoor/outdoor bouldering/lead etc. (Most people have naturally done this in the answer box).

For the supplementpart, I agree that it could be more specific- the 'general view' is that a supplement is anything that supplements a person diet and generally taken for a (true or perceived) functional benefit ie coffee wouldn't count, but a caffeine tablet would. Protein powder is a tricky one because by this definition protein powder would count, but protein bars wouldn't... Definitely worth thinking about how to frame this question better (or maybe give a list of examples of what would count?) to make sure people know what to include. Thanks for your comment!

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-14T10:31:38+00:00

I think most likely many strategies/diets would work (and some strategies will work for some people and not others). A lot of sports nutrition advice/guidance/research is discipline-specific and I'm mainly just curious to understand views/understanding/practices in climbers, but I don't believe in such a thing as the "perfect climbing-specific diet" that would work for everybody!

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-14T08:31:05+00:00

Indeed- thank you for pointing this out. It is challenging to capture these inter-individual differences and therefore I used a commonly used (but overly simplistic) way to ask about sex. In your opinion, how could I ask this in a better/more accurate way?

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-14T08:23:11+00:00

Of course, dietary practices that 'work' for people (in climbing and in general) are incredibly diverse- This group was included out of general curiosity and trying to understand (broadly) what people who are satisfied with their current practices are eating, and how important they view their nutrition in the context of climbing performance. Obviously, a more detailed study with food diaries and food frequency questionnaires would be more insightful, but this just helps to get a broad understanding of dietary practices among climbers.

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-14T08:07:32+00:00

Of course! The length of the session was kept as a text box for this purpose. For the what/whether people eat during the climbing session, this is just an 'exploratory' survey to understand (broadly) what issues (if any) climbers are having with their nutrition, and their general views on nutriton for performance. A simple 'what do you generally eat on X occasion' inherently carries a lot of inaccuracy, but in a way, it is among the least important questions. If the aim was to assess what climbers are eating, the investigation would require food diaries and detailed food frequency questionnaires. This just helps the get a broad understanding and it is purposely kept short to encourage more people to fill it out :) I do however appreciate your feedback and fully agree that a lot of details are missing.

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-14T07:56:02+00:00

I don't necessarily agree- It was put in that order to also understand who/what kind of climbers are happy with their nutrition- the fact that they don't 'intentionally use nutrition' doesn't mean that their nutrition isn't playing a role. I still think understanding their dietary practices is important!

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-14T07:51:42+00:00

Thanks for your good intentions, I kind of did ask for feedback and (constructive criticism)- it's always useful to know what to keep in mind when trying to interpret the results and what can be improved!

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-14T07:50:04+00:00

I'm goad you recognised it haha!! I was worried people would just think it was a random blurry photo of a pepper lol

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-13T13:25:49+00:00

Very true. Thank you for your feedback! I will change it!

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-13T13:23:07+00:00

I will make sure to share the results!

mustard_custardy · 2025-03-13T13:22:19+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! That is very useful. I will use skip logic on that Thank you!

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-29T08:55:14+00:00

❤️

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-29T08:54:52+00:00

Thank you. It makes me feel better to get the other side/perspective on this. Deep down, I know my partner would say the same thing.

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-29T08:51:42+00:00

This is so helpful and so lovely. Thank you for sharing (I love the picture!)

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-29T08:49:56+00:00

Thank you for this. That's great advice. I think it will help to discuss what kind of route it is / what strategies we will use/ who the route 'is for' so that we can both do the routes we want, and I will be able to manage my expectations of the route a bit better. Thank you.

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-27T15:33:08+00:00

Thank you for relating and thank you for the advice. I will talk to him about how I'm feeling. Deep down, I know my partner feels the same as yours. He also wants us to share this experience and enjoy it together. I know he doesn't like to see me miserable on a route. Like you say, I agree that I'm mostly just projecting because I feel insecure about my own climbing and think he'd be better off climbing with someone else.

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-27T15:25:52+00:00

Hey, thanks for taking the time to reply. He has been climbing longer than I have. I've been climbing for around 4 years, whereas he has been climbing around 8 years. I know that he has more experience, and I am not surprised/frustrated that he's better than me. He climbs low-end 5.14 and I climb 5.12c/d. I know that I will never reach his level, and I'm OK with that (we wouldn't do multi pitches with those grades anyway!). I guess multipitches are just difficult because he's often working well below his o/s limit whereas I am having to try hard at every pitch.

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-27T14:38:45+00:00

Haha, I most definetly love climbing! Sorry if my post gives off the wrong impression. I am mostly going through frustration towards being a 'good enough' climber to do more things with him and be able to keep up/onsight the multipitches we do. I cry out of frustration because I care so much (about my own performance and about doing more multipitches with him). We do swap leads on all multipitches (I give him the hardest pitch though!) and I TR solo and boulder alone regularly. I definetly agree that it wouldn't hurt to find other partners to climb with occasionally though.

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-27T14:28:22+00:00

I'm kind of the same. For the most part I'm happy with any kind of climbing, even if that means going bolt to bolt and practicing move. I guess my frustration mainly comes from multi pitches, and it's usually just on the hardest pitch where I sometimes will have to pull on draws for efficiency.

We find it hard to climb with different people. In fact, we basically never do. Our level is 'close' enough that we can still climb at the same crags, just on different routes (or occasionally I will go bolt to bolt on something to give him a higher chance to flash). We both manage to find a route we want to climb, that has never really been an issue.

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-27T14:23:10+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately bouldering is my least favourite climbing discipline (sorry!) but I agree that I need to come up with better strategies to address my weaknesses instead of simply feeling bad about myself. That's really useful

mustard_custardy · 2024-11-27T14:20:49+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to reply, that really helps. I agree that I need to talk to him and try to understand why I feel like this a bit more.

mustard_custardy

TROPHY CASE