Howzit man, 

I don't want to claim I know exactly what's going on but I can talk from personal experience. With regards to training for climbing, it is a very new sport and I don't think there has been that much scientific studies into optimizing training, sure there is the basic structure to follow with periodization (which has been adopted from other sports) but I think most coaches and athletes work by trial and error. I think this is also true with the nutritional aspect of the sport.

I personally do use supplements but it largely depends on my training cycles, I will normally consume whey protein during large power blocks just to help with recovery. Unfortunately climbing is a power to weight ratio sport but that is a can of worms for a different forum 🙁 I also take BCAA's quite religiously as I like the idea of them helping to repair my body as quickly as possible while continuing to train. Last I have played with CBD to help with sleep and concentration while training. 

All of the supplements I've taken have all been recommended to me by friends and coaches, I am quite fortunate to have a few people helping me with my performance. As the sport grows (especially within SA) I think the financial aspect will help with studies into climbing nutrition and it'll become more prevalent on a common level. It feels that even on an international level nutrition supplements are over look and a huge emphasis is placed on just a healthy diet which is probably the best option for performance so far!

but I think everyone of us are rolling on caffeine as that's something we can't live without and it's social 😉 #coffeelove 

@chris-cosser Thanks for the valuable input , I think as the sport grows different things ( like supplements) will normalise, more people experimenting with things will grow a knowledge base , which in a small way I'm hoping posts like these will catalyse.  

On a side note just learned carrots are high in nitrates(converts to nitric oxide , which is a vasodilator amongst other things ), Looks like Alex Megos is one up on us with his "Carrots for power." 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5789728/   - "Dietary nitrate‐induced increases in human muscle power: high versus low responders"

Interesting insight regarding this topic @ https://www.climbingnutrition.com/
Unfortunately there are no citations, doesn’t help for further reading

@ Choc07

These look like marginal gains. This is cool if you have the basics down like eating an unprocessed diet with 5 cups veg/ day and optimum protein levels.

Does creatine not lead to water retention, hence reduced power to weight ratio. I guess you could cycle on-off to during a training/ send phase.

Re protein: how many grams per kilogram of body weight per day do you guys use?

I was on 1.67g / kg about 25% of my overall macros.

Gonna now try 30% It's quite a lot tbh, and difficult to get in without making a concentrated effort.

You start losing muscle mass after age 30, so upping the protein will help retain the muscle. Less muscle leads to a lower Metabolic rate.

Protein also has a thermogenic effect 5 times greater than carbs or fat. It takes the most energy to digest (20-30% of calories)

Carbs are 5-10% and fat 0-3%

Interesting topic!

Cheers

Cormac

@cmax to some extent yes some of the gains will only be marginal, not all and obviously you don’t always know if that might be the one supplement that pushes you to the next level , but I think what might be of a surprise to many people is what a difference it can make in your training sessions . Some of them might make you fatigue that bit slower , others might help that you aren’t to sore and stiff in the car driving to the office the next morning . Amongst other things this adds to the enjoyability of training as well as what you can get out of yourself in a day.

Regarding creatine from what I have read and understand is that the strength increase far out weights the weight gained , every individual reacts differently to supplementation tho so guess its a case of try and see if it works for you, from my experience (in the non-climbing gym) I saw large increases in strength (at the time I was very self conscious of being under weight )  initially I gained just over 1 Kg but because I could push harder in the gym and I incorrectly did ,I stripped of allot of the last bit of fat I had left  in the end netting a 1Kg weight loss , over 3 months . This was in conjunction with other supplements and as always your mileage may vary.

Regarding Macro’s , as above mentioned I struggle keeping on weight so I try to keep my calories as high as possible (or I become very lethargic )  I aim at around 1.5g/kg of protein on a average of a 2700 calorie diet. 

I will definitely read up on the energy for digestion - not something I have really studied up on much .

I think from all of this and which may seem obvious is that there isn’t a clear cut solution, one size fits all here . Every individual will react differently not only that but think goals, health, enjoyment, dedication and financial means to supplement. Will be great to be able to see what other people are doing and what’s working for them to then be able to experiment with similar this and see the effect in context .

Bouldering and speed might benefit from training for explosivity which Probably gets trained to some extent anyway , not sure how much carry over there is to route climbing and how it might affect endurance ?
https://www.trainheroic.com/blog/4-scientifically-proven-ways-to-develop-explosive-power-and-how-to-program-each/