Physiological Characteristics, Dietary Intake, and Supplement Use in Sport Climbing

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewResearchpeer-review

Purpose of Review: As sport climbing has become an Olympic sport and keeps gaining in popularity, there is growing interest in the role of diet and the effect of dietary supplements on climbing performance. The aim of this review is to provide an insight into the dietary intake of climbers and discuss ergogenic aids that could improve their performance. Recent Findings: Limited information is available regarding the dietary intake and eating habits of climbers, and the studies conducted are few and far between. The diet of climbers is apparently suboptimal, with inadequate energy intakes often owning to insufficient carbohydrate consumption. Likewise, supplement use and ergogenic aids for climbing performance are largely unexplored. Several ergogenic aids have been suggested to improve climbing performance; however, only two have been examined directly on climbing-specific outcomes. Summary: The dietary intake, eating behaviors, and supplement use in sport climbers are not well studied, and available information is most likely outdated. Considerably, more work is needed to determine which ergogenic aids can be beneficial for climbing performance.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCurrent Nutrition Reports
Volume12
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)788-796
ISSN2161-3311
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

    Research areas

  • Climbing performance, Diet, Ergogenic aid, Nutrition, Sport climbing, Supplement use

ID: 378749936