How to rest on the wall

Most climbers think the way to get up a long route is to be fitter. Often the real answer is to rest better. A good shake-out can give you back most of what a hard section took out of you, and the difference between fluffing the last few moves and clipping the chains is usually recovery, not raw power.

Find the rest before you need it

When you read a route from the ground, do not just look for the cruxes. Look for the rests. A jug at a corner, a stance where your hips can sit over your feet, a slab section between two steep walls. These are where the route is handing you free recovery, and the climbers who top out fresh are the ones who spot them early and commit to using them.

The best rests are the ones that take weight off your arms entirely. A no-hands stance on a slab is gold. So is a deep kneebar in a roof, where you cam a thigh against a hold and hang off your skeleton instead of your forearms. Even on steep ground, a good heel hook can pull you into the wall enough to let an arm go.

Get the position right first

A shake-out only works if you are actually resting, not just hanging there pumping out more slowly. The aim is to get as much load as possible onto your bones and your feet, and as little as possible onto your gripping muscles.

Some things to sort out before you start shaking:

• Straight arms, hanging off the skeleton, not bent and holding tension.
• Hips in close to the wall and over your feet, so your legs carry the weight.
• A relaxed grip on the resting hand, open and loose rather than crimped tight.

If you find a heel or a toe hook that takes real load, use it. Dropping a heel onto a hold beside your hands can turn a marginal stance into a proper rest by pinning your body to the wall and freeing an arm to shake.

Shake, breathe, swap

Once you are settled, shake one arm out low, down by your hip where the blood can drain back in. Some climbers like the slow dangle and gentle wrist circles, others a quicker flick. Both work; the point is to relax the forearm completely between holds. Then swap, and shake the other.

Breathe while you do it. Under stress most people hold their breath, which does you no favours when you are trying to recover. Slow, even breaths through the rest help your heart rate settle and your head calm down at the same time.

How long to stay is a judgement call. Early in a route you can take a generous rest because you have time to spend. Near the top, hanging around can cost more than it gives, especially on a stance that is only half a rest. The honest test is simple: if your forearm feels softer and your grip feels surer than when you arrived, the rest is working. If you are just slowly leaking, move on before it gets worse.

Practise it like a skill

Resting is a skill, and like any skill it gets better with deliberate practice. Next time you are on an easy route or doing laps, stop at a jug and actually run a full shake-out even though you do not need it. Learn what a real recovery feels like in your arms so you recognise a good stance the moment you reach one.

Get this dialled and you will climb routes a full grade or more above what your fitness alone would allow. The strongest forearms in the gym still lose to someone who knows how to switch off mid-pitch and switch back on for the crux.