how to avoid burnout

A couple of weeks ago, I received a question that asked:

"what are good climbing career strategies - how can I perform well for 5-10 years?"

I got a lot of responses to my answer on IG and it's a topic worth expanding on.

First and foremost, to achieve long-term success you have to still be climbing in 5-10 years.

Athletic longevity has both mental and physical aspects to it. Mentally, longevity means mitigating burnout.

Burnout can be described as "a syndrome of continual training and sport attention stress, resulting in staleness, overtraining and eventually burnout." (Neal, 2016)*

Symptoms of burnout include loss of motivation, loss of confidence in ability to meet the physical demands of the sport, and a reduced sense of achievement.

These mental symptoms can be intertwined with the physical symptoms of overtraining: extended decrease in performance, chronic fatigue, frequent injuries/tweaks, etc.

The key to avoiding and/or resolving burnout?

TAKING A BREAK

Respect and listen to your motivation levels. If you force yourself to climb, you WILL burn out.

Stepping back for a couple of days, weeks, even months will be better in the long run rather than walking away from the sport completely because you burned out. 

Scheduling in short breaks throughout the year can alleviate self-imposed and external pressures on yourself to perform. It allows your body to rest and recover and also gives you the ability to catch up with the rest of life's demands.

This topic is timely because the holiday season coming up is a GREAT time to take a break. Resting is part of training and a break allows you to leave behind the feelings of guilt or like you're missing out. You're doing your body, your mind, and your climbing career a favor by chilling out for a second.

Then you can tackle your goals when you feel ready and able.