"My nails crack easily," "I'm the type that doesn't build muscle easily," "When the skin on my fingers tears, it takes a long time to heal," "I can do the moves, but I don't feel like I'm getting stronger..." You may have heard conversations like these, or you may have experienced them yourself. In many cases, these are signs of a lack of protein.
As you know, climbing is a very intense exercise that involves a series of anaerobic moves that exert maximum muscle strength. It is said that even people who do not exercise on a daily basis need 1g of protein per day, while climbers who do high-intensity exercise on a daily basis need about 2g of protein per day (depending on age and gender). Climbers who are concerned about weight gain are unlikely to get enough. If they do not get enough, the symptoms mentioned above will appear.
The most important point is the symptom of "difficulty in building muscle". This is strongly due to the phenomenon that the muscles used during climbing do not store the amount of protein consumed to generate strength, so other muscles are broken down and consumed as protein. For this reason, not only are muscles not built, but they are actually decreasing. Even though you are training hard to get stronger, in fact you are just getting used to the moves, and your body's muscle mass is decreasing, fatigue is accumulating, and your muscle strength may be weakening.
On the other hand, if you get enough protein, the muscles you use will recover normally, grow, and become stronger. This makes a huge difference. I've been doing this kind of very wasteful training for over 15 years. And many climbers are still repeating the same training.
Try increasing your protein intake little by little through protein bars and high protein foods, and it could make a huge difference to your climbing.
(Yamamoto)