Lift your arm at the anchor to reduce recovery time

As you are climbing an intensive gym route, generally, the forearm muscles are contracted and the hands are over your head. This results in a lack of fresh blood coming into your forearms and you take every opportunity to shake out in order to increase the blood circulation. Once having clipped the anchor and you are lowered down, with no muscle contraction and your arms at your side, there is a big risk that the forearms get flooded. The artery is pumping more blood into the capillaries than the veins can handle. This will create swollen forearms which will reduce blood circulation demanding a longer recovery time.

The easy way to avoid your forearms getting flooded is simply to rest by the anchor for a minute or so and shake out where your belayer takes half of your weight. If you are lowered down, you could do your shakeout procedure by grabbing the rope. Once you are on the ground, immediately grab some jugs and continue. After a minute or so, you will feel that the flooding dilemma in your forearms is reduced. To lift and lower your arms doing the first five minutes after your climb will improve your blood circulation and speed up your recovery.