Performance to Perform in Climbing

These blogs are brought to you by Andy McVittie, also known as Process Physio

This blog series aim to give advice, education and practical tips that build into a useful resource we can all use to stay injury-free and perform in climbing.

The essence of the blogs is that every action has a consequence. Whether this is overall positive or negative is up to you; these blogs will provide you with the tools to make the right decision.

We continue with a phrase we’ve all likely used before…performance. So, how can we perform in climbing?

Or as I like to call it…Performance

Performance is a very tongue-in-cheek term and seems to be Marmite for whether people like it or groan inside. But it gets the message across, so I’m going to fight auto-correct and continue to use it.

Forget “warming up.” Performance is about preparing your body and mind to actually perform. Tissues need time and progressive stimulus to “wake up” and reach full capacity. You simply can’t climb well in cold weather, whether it’s pumpy routes or hard boulders.

Injury Prevention Club

The first rule of injury prevention club: nobody wants to talk about injury prevention!

It’s hard to motivate people for something they’ll never know they avoided. But done properly, performance massively reduces injury risk (see FIFA 11+).

Luckily, we can focus less on the boring “injury” bit and more on getting ready to crush.

Climbing culture has evolved—warm-ups are now normal. But waving a yellow band around and doing 20 progressively harder problems isn’t performance.

The 3 Rules of Performance club

1. Have a basic routine you adapt to the session (steep, slab, board, routes, indoors/outdoors).
2. Make it look like climbing. If you’re not entering a resistance-band wrestling competition, don’t warm up like you are.
3. Start easy and finish at or above session intensity.

A good routine takes 15–20 minutes and reduces the need for endless “junk-mile” warm-up problems. You still need some climbing movement, but not 30+ easy climbs. Start moderate, ramp quickly, check for tight spots, refine technique, and practise falling/jumping off.

Before you begin, ask:

1. What am I doing today?
2. How hard do I need to go?
3. How can I prep for that off the wall?

Match your prep to the session: steep juggy routes? Slabby crimpy boulders? Start easy, finish as hard as you need, and mimic the demands off the wall.

Examples of useful movements:

• Pull-ups, lock-offs, hangs, scap shrugs
• Edge lifts, repeaters
• Planks, side planks, hollow holds
• Pushing/twisting work (press-ups, dips, handstands)
• Leg work, jumping, and falling practice

Alternate upper/lower or push/pull to save time. 4-6 sets of 6-10 reps, or 6-10 seconds of a hold.

Specific prep example: If your project has a hard gaston, use a heavy band and rehearse that exact movement for 4–6 reps of 10 seconds, building to max effort. Far better than hoping you hit a gaston in your warm-up circuit.

After 15–20 minutes of this, you should only need a few climbs to feel ready—then get on your project.

A consistent performance routine becomes a readiness gauge. You might feel tired but perform well once recruited—or feel great but underperform on key benchmarks.

If you normally hit 1-4-7 on the campus board or hang a certain edge but can’t today, it may not be a “try-hard” day. If your session is juggy routes, tired fingers don’t matter; if it’s a fingery board problem, they do.

This works positively too—if you’re smashing your usual numbers, adjust the session upward.

This is the foundation of autoregulation: judging your session by how your body performs, not how it feels.

Top Tip: Have a Fall-Back Session

We happily make sessions harder when we feel great, but rarely make them easier when we should. A pre-planned fall-back session removes that barrier.

It still moves you toward your goals and protects consistency and injury risk.

Next up: a deeper dive into autoregulation—the secret to avoiding the boom-and-bust cycle of trying hard and getting injured.

Andy McVittie has been climbing for 30+ years, coaching for 20 and is a full-time climbing physiotherapist who practices as Process Physiotherapy.

Using this experience, Andy has a deep understanding of how to treat climbing injuries without the need to fully stop climbing. Blending rehab advice with climbing, training and plans, Andy works with climbers to help you get back stronger and more robust for your future climbing career.

Andy is also the author of the best-selling ‘The Self-Rehabbed Climber‘. A must-have for any keen climbers bookshelf.

Andy also hosts sessions at BIG Depot Manchester on Thursdays between 07:30 and 19:00, and Saturdays between 10:00 and 17:00.