flash pump...

everyone got it every so often. the best way to avoid it is of course warming up properly. however, sometimes one can climb too hard too soon and get flash pumped. unlike regular pump, flash pump seems to never go away and ruins the whole day/night of climbing session, at least for me. so, the question is, how does everyone deal with flash pump? what works best for you to get out of it and resume normal climbing or even crank hard?

KH-
Personally I've never gone out too hard in a climbing session and the result was a pump that didn't go away for the rest of the day/sess.
If I start out a little too hard and get a flash pump an easy route or 10-15 mins of rest solve the problem and there's no residual effect.

Interesting question, I'm curious to see what people's experiences are,
BA

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Keep track of how you warmup, making note of what worked and what didn't. Consider that different crags require different warm up strategies (different difficulties & # of warmups), as do different legnths of routes (long & pumpy vs. short & burly).

If you ignore all of that and end up flash pumped anyway...

Take a long break (2-3 hours), and do some light aerobic activity (brisk walking, hiking uphill) during this period. Do not further aggrivate the forearms during the recovery period (don't carry stuff in your hands, etc).

Once the recovery period is over, re-warm up as you normally would for a typical climbing day, making some slight adjustments considering that what you did last time resulted in a flash pump.

It is possible to have a very productive day after a flash pump if you recover properly, but you need to have a lot of time left in the day. If its afternoon in the winter, you might as well just find some easier routes to climb.

personally i found a direct correlation between reduction of system nicotine with reduction of flash pumpage.

Kai-

I agree that everyone, no matter how hard you try, gets a flash pump every once in a while. Maybe you get on the wrong route and its way harder, maybe your buddy sand bags the piss out of you to make you look bad in front of your girlfrined. Either way it happens.

If I get a flash pump in the gym, I try to make that day an endurance training day. I back-off of on the grade, but try to do lots of routes, do them back to back, and try to look for overhangs with jugs so its more an aerobic workout than a forearm burner.

For a flash pump outside, I agree with the rest part but I think you can get carried away with this too. I take a long break and try to stretch my forearms often. I might look for a climb that focuses more on stemming or footwork to stay off my hands because lets face it, if I am at the crag I came to climb. I don't agree with the idea of taking several hours off and not even holding things in my hands. I feel like this just makes my forearms stiff and extends the time that they are out of commission.

You could try training a bit for the pump as well. Don't purposely get a flash pump, but try training in a somewhat exhausted state so you up your endurance and your lactic acid threshold limit. That way if you get pumped, you may not send the proj, but you can still crank somewhat hard and have a fun day.

I think most importantly though is to not let the pump ruin your day. A day spent sending easy cruisers can still be fun, and its a lot better than spending it on the couch, or in a cubicle.

Does anyone know what the correct medical term is for flash pump?

Eat a banana before you climb, or anything else high in potassium. Warm up slow on big holds if you are in the gym. Outside if I can't boulder the base of some routes I at least do push ups or push hard on the approach to make sure my body is warm. Going from ice cold to project never ends well.

I got a "flash pump" for the first time ever yesterday. My gym added a new 20 foot boulder (a lot taller than I'm used to for bouldering), with big roof sections. When I called it a day, I thought I had hurt myself. My forearms cramped if I flexed them a little, had to chill out for 15 minutes before I felt comfortable driving, weird. I was perfectly fine in an hour or so.

in case anyone cared about what I did on my lunch break yesterday