Hey guys, it's Wasim from Curious Doc. I've recevied lots of messages to make a
follow-up video for my last climbing video which was about 3 biomechanical techniques for climbing.
So today we'll be doing part 2 of the series about managing the dreaded forearm pump.
If you haven't watched part 1 click on the link in the cards or in the
description and make sure you're subscribed with notifications to be notified about part
3 where we'll be talking about the physics of the deadpoint technique in climbing.
Before we can treat a arm pump, we first have to understand how the forearm pump happens. When we
grip onto an object, it requires contraction of the flexor muscles of the fingers which reside
in the front of the forearm here. The key to understanding the pump is knowing that the forearm
is a closed compartment. It has this strong fascia enclosing all the muscles, blood vessels
and nerves within forearm. In terms of blood vessels you have arteries delivering oxygenated
blood to the muscles and veins which drain the deoxygenated blood away. The deoxygenated blood
travels from the superficial veins that you can see on the skin surface to perforating veins which
travel through the muscle and then, finally, to the deep veins before it returns to the heart.
**Basically every time you contract your forearm muscles, you're compressing the perforating veins
that travel in between the muscle fibers.** This causes blood to back up upstream which
increases pressure in these vessels. When the pressure increases in a blood vessel,
fluid leaks out into the surrounding spaces in a process called oedema. This further increases
the pressure in the forearm compartment which collapses the perforating veins even more.
As you can see, this creates a viscious cycle which is very difficult to stop once you've
got it going. The other consequence of compressing these veins is that it decreases blood flow.
Eventually, from a combination of slow blood flow and continued muscle contraction,
the muscles become deprived of oxygen which is called ischemia. Since muscles can no longer rely
on oxygen to create energy for muscle contraction, it uses an alternative pathway called anaerobic
respiration where lactic acid is a byproduct. Now lactic acid gets a bad rap but it's not the
only cause of muscle fatigue. ATP levels also go down, meaning the muscle fibers lack the energy
to actually contract. On top of this, the low ATP levels causes an imbalance of sodium and potassium
ions in the cell which is required for neurons to stimulate muscle fibers. Anyway, the end result is
that this cycle manifests in pain and fatigue. There are a few ways to manage an arm pump:
1. Every new climber is told to try to keep their arms straight and legs bent when possible.
This minimises forearm contraction and lowers the center of gravity
so that the strong legs can take more of the body weight.
2. Find ways to rest during endurance climbs. Make the use of stable holds to give your arms a rest.
Climbers have come up with a lot of techniques to help with this. For example, the heel hook
allows the leg to be used almost like a third arm, resulting in less pressure on the arms.
Knee bars are another creative example which can take almost your entire body weight.
3. Perform stretches and warm up before climbing. This loosens the muscles and decreases pressure
within the forearm compartment. Warming up also helps dilates the blood vessels within the
forearm, providing extra oxygen to the muscles and flushing away pre-existing waste products.
4. In between sets, try RICE - that is, rest, ice, compression and elevation.
5. Massaging the forearm is an effective way in stimulating venous return
and encouraging blood flow to ischemic muscles. 6. Try not to over grip and use only as much
grip as necessary to hold on. The best way to do this is to ensure you're applying
weight perpendicular to the plane of the hold. If you apply a force at an angle,
then you'll naturally have to overtighten your grip to combat the lateral forces.
The biggest thing to keep in mind when doing these techniques is to do them before you start to feel
the pump. This is because once you start to feel the pump, it's already too late, the viscous cycle
has already started so it will take much longer for the swelling in your forearm to come down.
So if you see a jug hold on a long difficult climb, use it to take a rest and shake your arms
out. Make sure to stretch at the beginning of your workout and message your forearms between sets.
And use every opportunity to practice good technique like keeping the arms straight and
not overgripping. Hopefully with these tips, you can delay or even prevent arm pump and fatigue.
Next week I'll be talking about deadpointing, so stay tuned and make
sure you're subscribed with notifications so you know when that video comes out.