Whether you like to admit it or not, overcoming the risks and challenges that climbing presents is a huge part of why you climb, this blog is going to touch on the following points on how to maximise the chance of you staying injury free.
Injury Prevent or Rehab, what, how and why?
Falling, Intentional and Unintentional
Risk Mitigation, What to consider when make the go or don’t go decision.
* image from Ivyrehab.com
There are always going to be injuries, you cannot avoid every single one of them.
Something about me.
In 2018 I was climbing, not long before heading to nationals, some friends and I were making up some boulders and trying to flash or get them in a few shots, there was a move on some small crimps, the foot position was on a good footer, rocked over my right heel which ended up with essentially sitting on my right foot with my heel on top of the hold. To move my hand I needed to lean away from the wall pull in and as I was moving towards the wall move my hand….. Pretty common move right! Suddenly POP from my right knee, the deep knee flexion, a little twisting and an old injury that I never Prehabed properly all mixed together and I had a bucket handle tear of my meniscus, it folded inside the knee and locked my knee at almost straight. Almost a year post surgery and function is getting there, maybe about 80% function back in the knee with only deep knee flexion and load being the issue now, no high steps or rock overs yet!
I was not competent with this kind of injury so I got assessed by a physio, referred to a surgeon, had surgery then worked with a physio for a rehab program, thanks to the team at Fieldwork Health I am almost back to full function.
So! IF THEY AREN’T AVOIDBALE THEN WHATS THE POINT?
Thats the thing, many injuries aren’t avoidable but the majority of them certainly are. The most common injuries I have seen in my years of climbing are ankle sprains. There are 2 groups of people that are most common for this injury type: “People climbing less than a year” and “Lead/ Top Rope climbers who go bouldering”….. There’s a common denominator between these newbies and lead climbers. Neither practice falling.
Because they don’t understand the risks
and because “I can climb”
Drop off only 10 climbs per session, 1 session per week, 52 weeks in a year and that’s 520 falls! Most people climb 2-3 times per week and fall off upwards of 50 times. I cannot stress enough the importance of falling practice, every time you climb you hit the ground again! It is the most underpracticed skill in the climbing world in my opinion and I have seen many many people escape with pure luck over the years.
PRACTICE FALLING! ITS A SKILLL!
You may understand and be able control falling when its intentional like dropping off from the top, but what about unintentional falls, the kind where your foot slips, or you miss the handhold? This is where practicing falling at all other times really comes in handy, if you have always dropped and rolled then your body has an automatic response when it drops to hit the ground and roll, if not then you are more than likely going to splat.
(Something I feel I should note here, is that falling while bouldering outdoors has a different set of rules and is a different falling style and skill set to falling indoors)
Ok, rant over, now for Prehab.
Whether you like it or not, a healthy body for climbing or even general life is built by spending time on the floor or in the gym working to improve the function of your body.
Tight Muscles - Getting them moving better
Unstable Shoulders - Improving their stability
Imbalances - Physical Optimisation.
Prehab - Before Rehab
I would guess that 95% of injuries in life are preventable or if you already have them, removable. Its just that most people aren’t prepared or forget to put the 10-20 minutes a day into removing these aches or pains.
I see so many people do exercise internal rotation shoulder exercises because its what youtube told them they must be doing to improve their shoulder health but in reality when tested they are super strong at IR and need those muscles released and external rotation exercises put in place, or people stretching because they want to get more mobile, when in reality those people are weak through those ranges of motion so their muscles have “locked on” in a protective state and no amount of stretching is going to help them.
Where too from here then? Assessment, to know which exercises are appropriate for your dysfunctions you need to get assessed. You can probably find these assessments online somewhere, probably even youtube but I think you will get a much clearer picture of where you are at by getting assessed by a competent professional, someone who has seen hundreds if not thousands of people which similar if not the same functions or dysfunctions as you.
A 1 hour assessment costs $70 and will get you progress that is specific to your wants and needs, Don’t Guess. Assess. If you can get to Portside or South Perth then email us at hello@axis-coaching to find out more.
Risk Mitigation
My rule of thumb, Only climb as high as you feel comfortable climbing and only drop off from as high as you feel comfortable dropping off from. People may cheer you on but that is your decision to continue to climb higher or just do THAT move.
Every day we get to make the decision: Is climbing this climb worth it to me once all the risks are considered and knowing my skillset?
If yes, then pull on, try hard and have fun.
If no, then there is always more climbs to be climbed and maybe one day when your skill set improves and confidence levels improve you will look at that climb and think hell yes, or maybe that could be tomorrow.
I found this blog really hard to write from a point of I don’t want to be a fear monger, I hope that fit comes across as educational rather than trying to scare you out of climbing but I felt that people need to understand the risks better so that they can make decisions for themselves rather than being unaware and suffering the consequences.
Whats your thoughts, comments or questions?
