How to Stay Healthy as a Routesetter with Mike Bockino

Mike Bockino shares how he stays healthy as a routesetter...

Nothing combines work and play better than routesetting…or so it seems from the outside. That’s exactly why so many passionate climbers seek out a career in routesetting. What better way to ensure that you get all the time on the wall you could possibly want? It’s not an entirely selfish pursuit, either. The opportunity to help shape the relationship people have with climbing is a special one. Those who enter the climbing industry often have a powerful story to tell about how the sport revealed a side of themselves that they never knew existed but soon became their entire personality. The right climb, set by the right person, could unlock the same insights for someone else. 

At the end of the day, though, routesetting is still a job—and a tough one, at that. It’s hard on both the body and the mind. And while a passion for climbing adds value to the job, it also makes the weight of the work feel even heavier. Routesetting requires an enormous amount of energy that leaves little to spare for training towards personal climbing goals. That applies to both physical and mental energy. Many routesetters find that their drive to climb dwindles after spending 40 hours a week inhaling chalk and shedding skin. Overuse injuries and nutritional deficiencies from busy days spent performing glorified manual labor make matters worse. 

Veteran routesetter Mike Bockino has had to dodge every punch this job could possibly throw over his 20+ years in the field, taking a few to the face in the process. He’s picked himself back up each time on his way to becoming the National Routesetting Manager for USA Climbing in 2020. Bockino’s resilience in routesetting comes from a willingness to learn from the beatings he’s taken and change his approach in response. While that sounds simple, it’s easier said than done because Bockino has had to take more steps back than forward. But his methods have kept him in the routesetting game for longer than the competitors he sets for have been alive. Setters all across the spectrum of experience can take a cue from Bockino on how to better preserve the body and mind in a career that has a habit of bulldozing both. 

Physical Health as a Routesetter

Bockino doesn’t train like the typical climber because he doesn’t have to. More than that, he’d be worse off if he did. “I don’t do any capacity training or crazy 12-week training blocks,” he says. “You get the same effect from setting and forerunning. You’re physically so active that the amount of supplemental training you need is actually quite minimal.”

He’s learned to trust that the demands of routesetting will cover the climbing-specific bases. That’s required restraint on his part to keep from tacking on more personal climbing after setting and forerunning. Anything he does do after work hours is more aimed toward general body health and injury prevention than climbing-specific development. He focuses on strength training and mobility work most. “I make sure to hit the rings once a week, more pushing than anything else,” describes Bockino. “Then I include a few basic lifts: overhead press, bench press, bicep curl, deadlift. Sometimes I’ll do some core circuits but that’s more because I want to, not because they do as much good as a lot of people think. Climbing on steep walls gives you the core you need.”

The one way that Bockino gets specific when it comes to his climbing training is with extensor exercises. He finds them even more important for routesetters than typical climbers. “Routesetting means you’re constantly in forearm flexion when you’re holding a drill for four to six hours a day,” he explains. “If you’re setting routes on a rope, you’re always gripping an ascender, pulling a bucket up… Even in bouldering, you’re always gripping something. Anything to open and build the extensors has been really beneficial to balance out the forearm.”

Bockino’s two decades on the job have taught him, though, that any extra would slash the quality of both his setting and his climbing. He sees the temptation in fellow setters, and does his best to “convince them to do less in their training and understand that routesetting itself is all the capacity work they need to do.” Beyond that, setters are only setting themselves up for fatigue and injury. 

Mental Health as a Routesetter

The fact that routesetters can’t climb or train in the same way as others is what Bockino considers the greatest threat to mental health among his peers. He’s seen the physical toll that routesetting can take on those new to the job creep into the mental realm. Bockino believes that “the hardest part for new routesetters entering a full-time scenario is the fatigue. Someone who climbs V10 and 5.13b/c pretty quickly before setting will get so tired after starting this job that their climbing performance gets seriously dampened by fatigue. There’s a steep curve there. It’ll be six months before you build up the work capacity to handle setting and start climbing hard again. A lot of people don’t know that’s going to happen, or at least don’t think it’ll happen to them, and they’ll start to hate the job. Once you get to that point it’s hard to take the mindset back.”

Bockino recommends stopping the downward spiral well ahead of that point by taking a proactive approach. Managers can give new routesetters the best chance of finding long-term fulfillment in the job by easing them in over a few weeks or months. “Something like two days of setting and three days of hold-washing to start,” Bockino suggests, “then slowly adjusting the ratio from there.” The gradual introduction allows the body to adapt to the load in a way that won’t sap every ounce of their energy in one fell swoop. They’ll build capacity over time and stay psyched on the job as they go. 

Nutritional Health as a Routesetter

To adapt appropriately, the body needs fuel—and plenty of it. Bockino treats a setting day the same way he would a full day at the crag. “The days are long and it’s hard to get enough,” he admits. “When you’re setting and forerunning for many hours on end or even days in a row it’s about taking in as many calories as possible.” 

There’s not much time to have full meals while setting and forerunning. “But if you want until there’s downtime, you’ll never eat,” he laughs, so Bockino munches on hefty snacks whenever hunger strikes. He’s also started using supplements to help him ingest enough nutrition to power through busy days and for quick turnaround recovery in between. “I’ll start my morning with breakfast and an additional protein shake on my way to the gym, then set for a few hours and drink BCAA’s and collagen just prior to forerunning, then finish with more protein at night after dinner.” He’s a fan of the Weapons-Grade Whey and Supercharged Collagen from PhysiVāntage, as well as the Flow electrolyte mix as a source of BCAA’s.

“If I’m diligent about maintaining that intake of calories and supplements, I feel less broken at the end of the week,” Bockino confirms. “There’s no getting around feeling a little broken after all that, but much less, and the overall recovery time from the last day of setting to when I feel like I can train at a normal level again has reduced significantly.” Where he used to need over a week of buffer time, Bockino now finds that he can get back at it within five to six days. That’s no small difference when training time is already so limited for routesetters. 

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