Belaying Body Mechanics and Energy Conservation

People always think about climbing as hard on the body, but belaying is hard if not harder. Yes, I said what I said. Why did I say what I said?

Well, with belaying, you literally have the climber's life in your hands, so it takes all mental and physical concentration to make sure you don't f*** up. This means you have to make sure you're in tune with your body before belaying!

Let's talk about what's happening in the body with a top down approach:

1. Belayers' neck: Your neck is craning upwards into hyperextension and your deep neck flexors located on the front of your neck are not strong enough to pull your head back into alignment. This creates a lot of stress on your cervical paraspinals as they keep your head from falling victim to gravity.

2. Thoracic kyphosis: Your arms are protracted for an extended period of time as you hold the rope, waiting to feed out slack. This causes your mid-spine, or thoracic spine, to start rounding out. Again, gravity wins.

3. Anterior pelvic tilt: The core gets tired (or they are non-existent in the first place). Your low back starts to get tired holding you upright, so your body decides to start sagging into its Y ligaments for support, instead of engaging your stronger, posterior muscles (ahem, glutes).

4. Foot intrinsic soreness: Depending on what shoes you wear, you're oftentimes on concrete or extremelty hard flooring. Moving back and forth creates a lot of impact that then gets absorbed into the smaller muscles in your feet.

What can you do fix these body mechanics? Set yourself up for success by training the postural muscles! If you are expected to stand for a long period in time, have the right muscles contracting for you. Hit the upper body, core, and legs to make sure you have enough energy to belay!

Onsight Physical Therapy can help you come up with strategies to mitigate these postural pains while belaying. Schedule a free 15 minute discovery call today!