Investigation of Lactate, Heart Rate and Handgrip Force Responses of Climbers

Introduction. Sport climbing, which is included in 2020 Olympic Games, is a new sport that is both recreational and performance-focused while being the subject of scientific research all around the world. The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in lactate concentration, heart rate and handgrip forces all at once in the actual sport climbing competition.

Material and Methods. Thirteen male climbers volunteered for this study. The climbers climbed three different routes prepared according to the International Federation of Sport Climbing standards that are classified as easy, medium and difficult. Lactate, heart rate, dominant and non-dominant handgrip forces were measured for each route before climbing, immediately after, and during the third and fifth minutes after climbing. Climbing performance was determined using the number of holds that the competitor reached.

Results. We observed significantly higher post-lactate concentration in comparison to the pre-climbing values for all climbing routes (p < 0.05). Statistical observation shows that post-climbing heart rate values were considerably higher than the pre-climbing values for all three climbing trials (p < 0.05). There were also statistically significant differences in climbing performance and handgrip force between the three routes (p < 0.05).

Conclusions. According to the results of this study, significant increases were noted in all three climbing routes relative to the pre-climb in lactate, heart rate and climbing performance data between the routes.