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.