In one of the first posts I told you that half of climbing is mental. Today, I am going to tell you that half of climbing is rest. (Which means, if you check the math, we’re already at 100%, even before accounting for the physical, which doesn’t seem quite right since climbing is very physically demanding. It’s best not to dwell on the math … just go with it.)

Climbing is one of those sports that you really shouldn’t do every day. (Sure, there are people who do, but they often aren’t climbing at their peak ability.)

If you are showing up and trying hard, climbing will require as much rest as effort.

We trash our bodies, and it takes time for the body to recover. We need rest. And almost none of us are resting nearly enough. Partly because we get so excited to go outside, rope up, see progress on our projects, and have fun.

Unfortunately, like in the last week’s post, Balance, when we get out of balance, we get sick, tired, or injured. This is the body forcing us to rest.

There are weeks when I push my training schedule too hard, when I am out late too many days in a row, and get only 6 hours of sleep before I turn around and do it again. My body doesn’t have enough time to repair itself, and after too many days or weeks of this, I get sick. And while I’m pissed that I’m stuck in bed and unable to climb, I also know that my body knows what it needs: equal amounts of rest to the level of exertion.

There are so many reasons for rest. Maybe our muscles, core, or forearms are tired. Maybe our joints ache, or our skin is trashed. We’re out there trying really hard, so our bodies also need to rest really hard.

At the end of a long week (or day), whether it was physically demanding or cognitively demanding, we all need rest. That level of rest is determined by your level of effort (both physically and mentally.) Just listen to your body, it knows what to do, it does an amazing job repairing itself so that we can go play again next week.