Lean and mean? Associations of level of performance, chronic injuries and BMI in sport climbing.

OBJECTIVES

To assess possible associations between performance level (achieved level of difficulty), chronic injuries and body mass index (BMI) in sport climbing.

METHOD

Retrospective survey.

SETTING

Web-based questionnaire.

PARTICIPANTS

667 active climbers (385 reported having chronic injuries).

OUTCOME MEASURE

BMI, performance level in sport climbing, onset of a climbing-related injury, preferred style of climbing, education, gender.

STATISTICS

Descriptive statistics and general linear model(GLM) performed with SPSS V.25 for windows.

RESULT

No associations were found between level of performance in sport climbing, onset of a climbing-related injury, preferred style of climbing, education, gender and BMI.

CONCLUSION

BMI is not associated with climbing-related chronic injury or level of performance in climbing. The average BMI of climbers up to the elite level is similar to that of a lower rate of performance.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

The findings in this study suggest that there is no need for maintaining a low BMI to be able to reach elite levels in climbing.