Wrist schmist, or how to train for climbing without using your arms (much)

Right now, I’m typing with one hand while the other soaks in an ice bath. I’ve been rehabbing my left bicep tendon, and my right index finger, for the last couple of weeks. Luckily, neither is serious, but both were overtrained and headed for serious if I didn’t back off, get some rest, and shift my focus to rehab exercises, stretching and conditioning.

Luckily, I have friends with stories, who can type with two hands.

Cue the amazing, bad ass Lydia. Read on for her story of climbing injury heartbreak, rehabilitation, and unfailing optimism. Plus, I’m the least yoga’d person I know, so enjoy the tips from Lydia that I could never give you myself! And, allow me one editorial comment… this is an example of why I don’t ski! Thank you for sharing your story, Lydia!

About Lydia… she climbs, hikes and designs and loves adventures with her dog Isabel. For more info, check out www.lydiawhitehead.com or follow her on Twitter.

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It was end of January and I was just starting to feel the mid-winter blues. I couldn’t go outside to climb (unless I wanted to hike through snow and freeze my fingers and toes off, which I did not), so I’d begun a super regular regime of gym climbing and was excited at the prospect of being ready for harder climbs outside in the spring. To help with the winter blues and enjoy the outdoors, I thought I’d try a winter sport. So I went snowboarding for the first time with a friend of mine who’s a seasoned snowboarder.

And that’s when it happened.

I took a lesson to get comfortable with the basics and at the end, I strapped completely into the board (we’d practiced with just one foot strapped, to get used to the feeling of the board on snow) and proceeded to take a nasty backwards fall down the bunny hill.

Not one of my finer moments.

In the process of taking that spectacular fall (and oh, was it spectacular, feet up over the head and everything), I also managed to sprain my right wrist. Brilliant. My first thought was, Crap, I need this wrist to climb on! I’ve just been injured in a sport that isn’t even one I practice regularly! Oh funny sense of humor the universe has.

The pain was intense for the first hour, but after some ice and immobilization, it waned oh-so-slightly and I thought to myself, at this rate, I could probably be back climbing in a week or so. Optimist, I am.

The doctor had other ideas. The diagnosis was no climbing, no putting any weight on the wrist for any reason, move it as little as possible for 6-8 weeks. Which meant that Super Regular Climbing Regime for Maximum Spring Fitness® was out the window.

What now?

While I was totally bummed, I knew that I didn’t want the inability to use my wrist stop me from training for climbing. Instead, I decided I would do everything I could training-wise that didn’t require the use of my wrist. This, by the way, was frustrating, because at that point I really wanted to focus on strengthening my upper body. Let’s not talk about how many pull ups I could do at that time (pull ups are still a big challenge for me).

So, I put an emphasis on strengthening my core and working on my balance, both important things for climbing. Here’s what I did:

Yoga Poses

For balance, I started in Mountain Pose, moved to Tree Pose, then moved to Warrior III Pose. I returned to Mountain Pose and then repeated the sequence with the other foot. As it got easier, I held the poses longer and also practiced them with my eyes closed.

For core work, I held Full Boat Pose and slowly lowered to the floor into Corpse Pose. I then did Dolphin Plank Pose, and from there moved down into Locust Pose to strengthen my back.

Balance Ball Exercises
For back strength, I did something similar to Locust Pose, see here and here.

For core strength, I did ab crunches (on a balance ball, these are much more difficult!)

Aside from the above, I did regular floor crunches with variations, as well as lunges. I added more cardio by running at least 3 times per week (which was difficult to find motivation for, it was winter, remember?)

In training that way, I found that I was happy to be doing *something* to advance my climbing ability and I felt my balance and core did improve. It also made those six weeks seem to go by faster. And it brought me back to running, something I enjoy but had fallen out of the practice of doing.

I’ve had my wrist back for a few months now, but I’ve kept most of those exercises in my training schedule. Now that I can climb again, I feel that I’m climbing with a bit more control and balance on the wall. Routes at the gym that were somewhat wobbly for me before the injury are less so now, which makes my heart do a tiny little fist pump and say “Yesssss!” I’m still no climbing bad ass, but I’ll take any improvement I can get.

Your results may vary, but this worked quite splendidly to get me through my climbing hiatus and keep me out of the injury doldrums.

Filed under: Guest Posts, Injuries and Rehab, Training

Bicep Tendonitis and rock climbing

Some of you have already heard that I’ve been nursing a bit of a shoulder injury. Several months ago, I became a bit obsessive about bodyweight push-ups (as in, not “girl” or “modified” pushups) and pushed them a wee bit too far. After doing a set to failure one night, I felt a twinge in my left shoulder. Being a rock climber, upon sensing shoulder pain, I panicked. Ice, rest, Aleve and massage helped with that acute stage, but even after the pain subsided after a few days, I couldn’t return to push-ups. I tried benching, instead, to do something less than bodyweight, but the pain returned. I finally found that dips on the dip bar don’t trigger the pain, which still occasionally popped up. My dear massage therapist / climber friend identified the location of the pain as my bicep, not the dreaded rotator cuff, so for a few months I just nursed it, hoping that dips would do enough to stabilize my shoulder that I could avoid it getting worse. Luckily, climbing didn’t really aggravate it, but not being able to do bench / push-ups definitely wasn’t helping my shoulder stability any.

Then, during my last trip to Index, I had an unusually long, nearly bodyweight hang on a jam on that side while on lead. By nighttime, my shoulder was extremely painful (front, side and back), and panic once again set in. As soon as business hours arrived, I called my family physician and she referred me to a physical therapist.

A nervous work week later, the back and side of my shoulder slowly felt better with ice and rest while I waited for my appointment. The front — the bicep tendon — still hurt, though.

I very nervously met John Estes at DaVinci Physical Therapy on Bainbridge Island last Friday. His demeanor was great, and while he’s not a climber himself, he impressed me immediately with his above-average understanding of the stresses that climbing places on the body. It doesn’t seem all that complicated to me, but I’ve been to several PTs since starting to climb, and have been really surprised by their lack of awareness of climbing movement and the impact on the body. The first few visits are usually educating the PT about climbing and its physical demands. John was “with it” right out of the gate.

His exam was thorough… I started out really nervous, because I was afraid that the testing would hurt and expose some sort of horrible problem, but each test showed no serious injury, which was reassuring. The final diagnosis is bicep tendinitis, aggravated by extremely weak rotator cuffs and deltoids relative to my, um, well defined trapezius muscles and biceps. More on my traps in a second.

I’m going to count myself lucky that I developed the bicep tendinitis, so that I get this chance to learn about my shoulders and back before managing to get myself in serious shoulder trouble. Had I not experienced this little setback, I probably would have kept on training, neglecting my rotator cuffs and mid-back until I wound up with a serious shoulder injury.

John prescribed an exercise routine (that link will download the PDF), including scapular stabilization, scapular flexion, scapular retraction, resisted external rotation, resisted horizontal abduction, and some stretching exercises to increase my range of motion. The bicep tendonitis is relatively mild, so unless it doesn’t improve quickly, we’ll emphasize building stability and strength. If the tendinitis doesn’t improve, then we’ll do more “treatment” of the bicep issue. That approach works for me, since I’m on a tight budget, and I’d rather do exercises at home and go to the PT (which is an hour from home) less often, if at all possible.

I’m astonished at how weak I am at the exercises prescribed, when I look like a freaking tank. The exercises are hard for me to do, so I look forward to getting stronger.

One of the highlights of the whole thing was when John was talking through the results of his exam, and he pointed out my extremely strong Trapezius muscles relative to the rest of me. I do believe he called them “overdeveloped.” Even for a climber, my Traps are huge. My climbing partner calls my traps “Hulk Hogan muscles,” to give you some idea. John demonstrated two different climbing “postures:” one with his shoulders down and relaxed, and his Traps kicking in to lift the arms only once his elbows were past shoulder height; the second, totally tight and tense, with his shoulders darn near up around his ears, using his traps to lift his arms all the way up.

One guess what my natural / typical climbing “posture” is.

I’d say my natural climbing posture ranges from “tense” to “terrified.” John ok’d me to climb at sub-max during my rehab (good move — since climbers are notorious for NOT stopping climbing when we’re told to); but, prescribed climbing with a relaxed posture to let my back and shoulders do the work that my Traps have been doing all this time. I didn’t really get a chance to try that out bouldering last weekend, since I really mostly just kept it light since I was sore from my PT on Friday; I’m hoping to get into the gym at least once this week to do endurance work, and to give climbing with a relaxed posture a try. I was really excited about that particular insight he provided — even as a non-climber, he was able to diagnose one of my biggest climbing flaws… that I’m a totally stressed out, tense climber. I look forward to working on changing that!

I’ll post updates as I have new developments or additional insights, and please chime in with your own stories…

Filed under: Injuries and Rehab, Training

Index Lower Town Wall trip report, part 2, plus mental training and shoulder health

To be honest, I have to admit… I’m feeling a little bit adrenaline-d out.

First, on Saturday I had the brilliant idea to go mountain biking solo. Some of you have already heard how that turned out. For those who didn’t, here’s the short version of Sara and a bear mutually scare each other, submitted as a comment to our local mountain biking blog.

You’ve also already heard most of the story from our Index trip, but here’s a little bit more.

It was a kind of big weekend, despite relatively little climbing, and it’s cemented Index as one of the areas that I aspire to be competent enough to tear it up at. I was too busy climbing to take pictures, but hope to spend a lot of time at Index now that I have such warm fuzzies about the place, so will try to get you some eye candy the next time I’m up.

I would be remiss in not linking to the WCC’s Index Town Wall update page. In case you’ve been on Mars, the Lower Town Wall, one of Washington’s most beloved climbing areas, is being sold by the current private property owner. WCC and the Access Fund are working on an acquisition plan. Please, bookmark that page, and keep in touch with the WCC about what you can do to help with this process.

I had two goals for the weekend: (1) to lead a pitch on GM, a classic Index 5.9; and (2) to push myself beyond my comfort zone on gear.

Little did I expect, that GM would be our first stop. After a bit of confusion over who was climbing with whom, I wound up as second to Shawn, with Peter and GR in a two party after us. Shawn lead the first pitch, which I’d fallen on last year on toprope, but it felt fun and was pretty relaxed this time around. When we got to the first belay, Shawn looked expectantly at me, I looked at the pitch above, and I decided, what the hell. Looking up from the belay, I thought I could adequately protect the crux moves to keep myself off the deck. I figured it would be a scary, but relatively safe fall, with one of my favorite belayers on the other end of the rope. So, I tried to think positive thoughts while racking up, and then set off.

The second pitch is very short. It’s basically up a good crack system off the belay, to an arching shallow roof, with placements underneath the roof that can be reached before you start the no-feet friction traverse out the shallow roof, with good hands underneath. The friction is sufficient that with body tension you can work your way out the roof, so it’s more scary looking than it is in reality. Once you get a hand around the edge of the roof, it’s a good jug; then it’s forearm jams between, or reaching back to edges behind the roof and a huge deep flake to the right. I opted for a left forearm jam, thrown in and jammed securely into the crack. With my forearm solidly and securely jammed, my feet smeared on absolutely nothing, I let go of the jug with my right hand and reached for my #4 Camalot to get a piece in above me.

I then realized the err of my racking ways.

My right hand was free; my left arm solidly jammed; and my #4 was on my left side. I could have moved up by grabbing an edge with my right hand to free my left arm, but the security of such a move was uncertain. I decided, instead, to try to “get to” my #4 with my right hand, which turned into quite the production.

I don’t remember making noise, but Peter and GR say I was pretty — um — vocal, as I grunted and stretched, and fingered through the cams racked on my harness. I honestly don’t know how long I was jammed there by my forearm (which was totally bomber — enough so that I have a huge swollen bruise to show for it) but it felt like a LONG time. Shawn was encouraging, and calm, and ultimately helped talk me through my gear biner by biner (since I couldn’t see my back, where the #4 was racked) until I had my fingertips stretched to the right biner for the #4. Even once I had my fingertips on it, I had a hard time getting the biner off my gear loop. Once I did, I quickly placed the piece, clipped the rope, pulled myself up with my forearm jam and my right hand on the inside of the crack, and got my feet up into the crack. I immediately placed a #5 from the solid stance, clipped it, and finished up the pitch at a much calmer pace. I was happy, and excited, to reach the belay and to bring Shawn up. That was my hardest trad lead to date, and the hardest I’ve had to work for a trad pitch, ever. I was thankful to my partners for cheering me on, and their efforts to try to keep me calm and on task.

We left the #4 and #5 on the pitch for GR’s lead. Shawn lead the (hard) 10b pitch on Heart of the Country to the right of the GM route, then the options for the final pitch were a 5.9 finish on GM, or a 11a finish just to the right of it on Heart of the Country. Since I’d left my big gear for our second party, and had loaned them my #3 for their ascent, I didn’t feel I had enough big gear to protect the final 5.9 pitch — it looked to me like I’d have to run it out significantly, over not-gimme climbing. We eyed, and discussed the 11a pitch, which actually looked doable and we had the gear for it, but I decided I didn’t want to get in over my head, when I can come back another time and lead GM ground up as one of my next lead goals. We called it a good warm up, and rapped off, taking a break for Shawn to toprope a pitch he likes, then we headed to the Lower Town Wall proper to see if any of the classic 5.9s were open.

GR got on Princely Ambitions, which he calls “I Wanna Be A Princess,” a super long, super exposed 5.9 at Lower Town Wall. I was geared up to lead it but completely lost my nerve watching him work through the crux, a delicate traverse on small crimps out to the right, with a kind of technical gear placement to then traverse way left again. Traverses aren’t my strongest suit, and I felt like I’d burned through all of my “bold” on the GM lead, so instead of leading, after GR and Peter had cleaned the gear and rapped off, I toproped the wildly traversing Princely Ambitions.

It was all fun and games until I got to the far right hand crimp traverse, and then my fear of a huge pendulum toprope swing got the best of me. I called down to Shawn that I’d had enough, and wanted to bail, and got an appropriately snarky response, basically, to suck it up and rock climb. I took a few deep breaths and then tentatively worked my way right, terrified of the prospect of that huge swinging fall. I’m lucky — given how negative my thinking was — that I was able to pull the moves and didn’t fall. I mantled up and then worked my way back left. The route is a series of mantels one after another — the mantels would be scary on lead; but the traverses were scary on toprope. The best way to go would be to lead the route and then bring up a second with some gear placed to prevent the swinging falls I faced on toprope.

So, note to self, sometimes it’s better to just suck it up and lead, than to try to do something “less scary” by toproping.

After that, we headed back to the Country to get on the first pitch (10d) of Cunning Stunt, a classic, well protected bolted face pitch. Peter did a bold lead on it, and we took turns on toprope laps since it was close to the end of the day and nobody was waiting for it. I look forward to working up the courage to lead it — the cruxes are well protected with bolts nearby, so it would make a great, hard sport project for me.

We didn’t get in a ton of pitches, but we did have a fantastic day. As always, I’m thankful for my climbing partners who stick by me even though I seem to be having a fear / bold setback this spring. After this weekend, I have two things to work on in earnest: (1) my fear, which seems to have made a strong comeback after a hiatus last winter; and (2) my left shoulder, which has been giving me a little bit of grief the last few months, but which is really sore after my prolonged full weight dead hang of an arm jam on that side on my GM lead.

I’m open to suggestions on both, please!

First, I’m ordering a copy of The Rock Warrior’s Way: Mental Training for Climbers, by Arno Ilgner. I’ve heard mixed reviews of the book, but I’ve already read the “mental training” sections of the other training books I have, and I need to add additional tools to my arsenal.

Second, I’m incredibly lucky to be a climber who currently has the privilege of paying through the nose for health insurance. Since that may not always be the situation, I’m going to put that insurance to good use and try to figure out how to keep my shoulders more healthy. I didn’t injure it climbing — I gave myself a touch of bicep tendinitis (or is it tendonitis?) doing pushups to try to AVOID a climbing injury a few months ago, and since resting and recouping that injury, that shoulder just hasn’t been as strong / pain free / quick to recover as the other. Unfortunately, that has meant no pushups or bench press, although I have been able to keep up with dips to try to keep my shoulders balanced — but I’m afraid the lack of pushups and bench has aggravated my already out-of-balance shoulders to the point where now, after that lengthy dead hang on that shoulder, my rotator cuff is sore. I suspect that all of these factors ultimately will cause, if I don’t do something to reverse course, rotator cuff tendonitis.

I’m resting, icing, Aleve-ing, and am checking around for local medical folks who have experience with climbers, so that I can hopefully figure out how to keep it from getting worse, and strengthen both my shoulders to prevent future injury. My dear family doc just called and gave me a referral to a PT she thinks highly of, so I’ll let you know how it turns out. It’s also feeling better already just with a day’s rest, ice and Aleve, so I’m optimistic that I’ve caught it early enough to not be too serious.

I look forward to your thoughts on mental training, and shoulder health! I’ll keep you posted on both fronts, and I promise, I won’t be going out mountain biking solo again any time soon. Take care and be safe out there!

Filed under: Index, Injuries and Rehab, Trip Reports

Is blogging about climbing bad for your tendons? Coping with climbing injuries.

Chatting with other climbing blogger friends online today, including Tom, Narc, and Jon it dawned on me… we were all trading injury rehab and treatment tips, all morning. Trading links about rehab exercises, frustrations with doctors and physical therapists giving the standard “stop climbing” advice, and links to Dave Macleod’s cold water bath for finger (and maybe elbow) recovery. Steph Davis even chimed in with advice from her M.D. brother. It got me to thinking…

Is blogging about climbing bad for your tendons?

I inquired, out to the universe, whether that could be possible, and the affirmative response came from Ryan in Boulder. Ryan was uninjured, as a climber, until he started blogging at The Boulder Diaries.

I jest, a bit, but it is that time of year, again. We’ve all spent a long winter in the climbing gym, as a sad, sorry substitute for real rock. We’ve been pulling hard, and lifting hard, and working hard to get in shape for our winter real-rock excursions, and, the upcoming training season.

Over Valentines day dinner with some of my climber girlfriends, we sat down at the restaurant and proceeded to spend the first twenty minutes talking about the various experiences we’ve all had with elbow tendinitis and recovery. Climbing Partner has been fighting off some finger injuries… just as his right hand healed, now he’s having trouble with one of the fingers on his left hand. Ever since just before my last Red Rock trip, I’ve been babying my left rotator cuff… and after a good bench and climbing session on Monday, which I should be recovered from by now, instead I noticed this morning that it hurt to lift my arm to shampoo my hair. I’m not worried — I just need to hit on a rehab / balancing / stability routine that helps instead of hurting, and my shoulder isn’t interfering with my climbing. So far. And, goodness willing, it won’t.

I have the world’s best massage therapist (who doubles as an awesome climbing partner), Amy Moorhead, at Old Town Massage in Silverdale (hi, Amy!). But I keep trying to develop a good, healthy, long term relationship with a climbing-experienced physical therapist, since those of us blessed (at least for the moment) with health insurance can benefit from PT early on, before the injuries become too serious. I know, if I could just find a good PT, he or she could help me sort out this little shoulder hiccup in a jiffy. To date, though, I’ve had a hard time finding PTs who are willing to do some homework on climbers and climbing, and have been less satisfied with my climbing-injury-related PT than, for example, my biking-injury-related PT.

If there’s a climbing-oriented physical therapist in the audience, please feel free to post your contact info in the comments so that other climbers can find you.

For now, I’m going to try to find a time to get in with Amy for a massage, and continue my search for a decent local PT, but I’m also going to try to take it a little easier in the gym for the next couple of weeks so that I can really enjoy my Red Rock trip coming up. After that, hopefully I’ll be able to spend much more of my time on real rock than in the gym. While I tend to bang myself up more outside than indoors, I also tend to have fewer repetitive-stress type injuries when climbing out side. Partly, I think it’s because I get a good cardiovascular warm-up doing the approach; and then, I pace myself well through a day outside (something I don’t always do in the gym).

But first, it’s time to ice my shoulder. And, soak my hands in ice water for as long as I can stand. And while I try very hard to not take any kind of pills that might hamper my natural recovery, it’s feeling like an ibuprofen night, washed down with some extra omega-3s and a huge glass of water.

What are your tips and tricks for preventing and coping with injuries? Are there professionals in your community who are skilled and experienced with climbers, who you recommend? Please, share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments, below!

Filed under: Injuries and Rehab, Training

May day

Faithful reader – this is a boring week, I apologize. Last night was ladies’ night in the gym, but no big news… had fun climbing with the girls (and Mike) and did lead most of the night, but my strength and power were definitely off; I got back on a new project and just didn’t have it in me… and I mostly stuck to leading 9s and 10s just to get a little exercise and clear the cobwebs…

But, that happens. My elbow is flaring up, but I think it may be bruised from a bouldering smash-o last week; last night it was feeling a bit climbers elbow-ish but that was also after a bouldering warm-up (which I usually don’t do, since tense/stressed downclimbing is one of the harder things on my elbows) and afore-mentioned elbow smash-o last week. Ice, vitamin Aleve, glucosamine and arnica rub-down and it’s feeling bruised but not tendon-y today. My mediation training resumes today so no climbing tonight, then hopefully tomorrow I’ll be up for a climbing night.

I had a picture I was going to post today in honor of May Day… a few months ago, while I was on a gear-marking frenzy I had Chris hold my set of DMM wallnuts like a bouquet of flowers… but I don’t seem to have it on my mac. They didn’t turn out as good as I imagined them anyway, but it’s the closest thing I could think of to the May Day bouquets I remember from being a kid.

Filed under: Injuries and Rehab, The climbing life

I don’t play golf *or* tennis

Despite that, I came down with a pretty solid case of both golfers’ elbow and tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis and medial epicondylitis, or, elbow tendonitis) caused by rock climbing (let’s just call it what it is: Climbers Elbow). My elbows started to bother me just about eleven months ago, but like most beginner climbers I climbed through it and didn’t listen when the ache of exertion turned into the pain of overuse. I’m a very typical indoor climber – I progressed really fast, so my tendons couldn’t keep up with my muscles and I ended up injured. By the middle of this summer, I was working a 10b project in the gym that I had dialed on toprope but was desperate to finish on lead — I seriously overtrained on that route one night, and then found myself sidelined and seeing a doctor and physical therapist. Being a climber who has hit a nine-month plateau (10c’s are still utterly out of reach even on toprope) sucks — being an injured climber sucks even worse.

I’m about seven weeks into my recovery, and now starting to get to climb more normally with fewer restrictions (and less total rest than most of the conventional wisdom out there). Last night at the gym I was able to do my first few overhanging routes since my injury-imposed rest started, and I also did the hardest toprope route in a long time — Glen, you’re a sick dude, but that new 10a (I say 10b) is super fun.

Conventional wisdom on climber’s elbow is total rest and daily icing for six or more weeks, followed by a rehab program involving stretching and strengthening. For most climbers, the rest period is an excruciating experience in self-denial. For me, the required rest fell during the summer, which is a very short period of time between the other season of the pacific northwest year — the rainy season. I wasn’t willing or able to stop climbing completely, but I was willing and able to change my training to try to manage the injury until I can take a solid rest this winter.

First, I avoided downclimbing (sure-fire elbow pain trigger or aggravator, for me), traditional pushups and pull-ups, and overhanging sport and bouldering routes. These are all pretty self-explanatory – they’re repetitive, high tendon-stress activities. I also avoided the more extreme traditional treatments – specifically, cortisone shots, since I’ve had a bad time with them with past injuries.

Second, I focused on proper warm-up, cool down and stretching, and generally on rehabilitation and climbing activities that didn’t cause or increase pain. I also tried to focus on less repetitive motions (e.g. exercises involving a balance ball to randomize the activity a bit, and other really random exercises like ball-throwing to make the exercises less strictly repetitive). I massaged and iced nightly and tried to limit my climbing to twice a week, and just generally took things very easy. I braced with the ugliest brace on the face of the planet when climbing, and with a basic neoprene sleeve when not climbing to keep the joint warm. Bracing does seem to help prevent both aggravating and reinjuring the elbow – my worse elbow, which is always braced when I climb and often braced to keep warm when not climbing is now doing better than my “good” elbow. I’m on Aleve twice a day as a result of some other joint issues, but I don’t know how much it actually helps the elbows. I also did a three week course of non-climbing-specific physical therapy, and then developed my own climbing-specific strategies for recovery and injury prevention.

Physical therapy has been incredibly helpful, I think — first, she didn’t insist that I stop climbing completely; and second, she’s focused on building my weak areas (specifically, prior to PT I did not have triceps, apparently) so that even though I’m climbing way below max, I feel quite a bit stronger in areas like lockoff strength and in my shoulders. I’m also pretty sure that the routine she has me doing (emphasizing back, core, shoulders, and triceps) is helping me avoid other climbing-related injuries, specifically in the shoulders.

More specific to climbing, I’ve added in a few exercises from the Eric J. Horst book Training for Climbing (specifically, pronators with a hammer, extensor stretches and wrist curls) and the hanging weight roll-up (and down) described here which seems to have helped both with strength training and as a warm-up exercise before climbing. At this point, I’m still climbing in the ugliest brace on the face of the planet (seriously, can they not at least make it in colors?), but I’m able to do my exercises without bracing, which is pretty cool. I’m still not back to doing full pushups — I’m doing modified pushups with fingers pointed in to work the triceps — but seriously, I’m (just about) 30 years old and was a couch potato until a year ago, so I think there’s nothing wrong with doing modified pushups and generally dialing down the intensity of my workouts.

Belaying off my harness with an ATC turned out to be much easier on the elbows than belaying off the anchored belay setups with a Gri Gri that we have at the gym; also, we have fewer slab and vertical options inside than outside, so I focused on climbing within my ability outside during the weekend, and then climbing easy inside, mostly focusing on drills. Inside, I focused less on climbing routes and more on climbing drills so that if something hurts I don’t have to force it in order to “stay on route.” I’ve done a lot of drilling on slab and vertical walls, and two of my favorite that kept things interesting are:

1. Foot matching: Work your way up a wall with lots of easy, secure holds, matching feet on every hold, with one foot doing all the upward movement. For example, the first time up, step up with your right; match with your left; then step up with your right, and match with your left. Repeat to the halfway point and switch feet — or, do the whole wall then repeat with the other foot.

2. Hands low: Keep your hands at or below your shoulders, chest, or waist (from easiest to hardest) and work your way up the wall relying more on your footwork and less on your grip. Elbow tendonitis can be caused or aggravated by overgripping, so using open hand grips, pushing up off of holds, using underclings and side clings, and cracks instead of just pulling your way up jug ladders can help you keep climbing without aggravating overuse injuries. Variations include no-hands climbing, or climbing holding tape balls, so that you’re using your balance and footwork, and not your grip.

Finally, instead of climbing days back to back, I rest at least two days between climbing days to give everything time to recover.

Overall, I feel much improved. I still have a little bit of discomfort (the good ache, I think, not the bad pain) after a hard day’s climbing, but normal activities (work, brushing my hair, getting dressed, lifting a gallon of milk out of the fridge) are totally back to normal. I do think I’ll take a good solid rest this winter and will continue my rehab exercises – I think the routine has a side benefit of helping my whole body (and my climbing performance) so there’s incentive to keep it up.

Enough about this. I just thought I’d put it to bed, since just about every stranger in the gym asks me what the heck is wrong with me when they see the ugliest brace on the face of the planet. I so envy the folks who can climb at high intensity without incurring repetitive stress injuries without taking any special efforts or precautions… but I’m determined to be someone who can climb at high intensity and if it takes special efforts and precautions, I’ll take them!

Rock Climbing

Filed under: Injuries and Rehab

I don’t play golf *or* tennis: Lateral and/or Medial Epicondylitis

Despite that, I came down with a pretty solid case of both golfers’ elbow and tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis and medial epicondylitis, or, elbow tendonitis) caused by rock climbing (let’s just call it what it is: Climbers Elbow). My elbows started to bother me just about eleven months ago, but like most beginner climbers I climbed through it and didn’t listen when the ache of exertion turned into the pain of overuse. I’m a very typical indoor climber – I progressed really fast, so my tendons couldn’t keep up with my muscles and I ended up injured. By the middle of this summer, I was working a 10b project in the gym that I had dialed on toprope but was desperate to finish on lead — I seriously overtrained on that route one night, and then found myself sidelined and seeing a doctor and physical therapist. Being a climber who has hit a nine-month plateau (10c’s are still utterly out of reach even on toprope) sucks — being an injured climber sucks even worse.

I’m about seven weeks into my recovery, and now starting to get to climb more normally with fewer restrictions (and less total rest than most of the conventional wisdom out there). Last night at the gym I was able to do my first few overhanging routes since my injury-imposed rest started, and I also did the hardest toprope route in a long time — Glen, you’re a sick dude, but that new 10a (I say 10b) is super fun.

Conventional wisdom on climber’s elbow is total rest and daily icing for six or more weeks, followed by a rehab program involving stretching and strengthening. For most climbers, the rest period is an excruciating experience in self-denial. For me, the required rest fell during the summer, which is a very short period of time between the other season of the pacific northwest year — the rainy season. I wasn’t willing or able to stop climbing completely, but I was willing and able to change my training to try to manage the injury until I can take a solid rest this winter.

First, I avoided downclimbing (sure-fire elbow pain trigger or aggravator, for me), traditional pushups and pull-ups, and overhanging sport and bouldering routes. These are all pretty self-explanatory – they’re repetitive, high tendon-stress activities. I also avoided the more extreme traditional treatments – specifically, cortisone shots, since I’ve had a bad time with them with past injuries.

Second, I focused on proper warm-up, cool down and stretching, and generally on rehabilitation and climbing activities that didn’t cause or increase pain. I also tried to focus on less repetitive motions (e.g. exercises involving a balance ball to randomize the activity a bit, and other really random exercises like ball-throwing to make the exercises less strictly repetitive). I massaged and iced nightly and tried to limit my climbing to twice a week, and just generally took things very easy. I braced with the ugliest brace on the face of the planet when climbing, and with a basic neoprene sleeve when not climbing to keep the joint warm. Bracing does seem to help prevent both aggravating and reinjuring the elbow – my worse elbow, which is always braced when I climb and often braced to keep warm when not climbing is now doing better than my “good” elbow. I’m on Aleve twice a day as a result of some other joint issues, but I don’t know how much it actually helps the elbows. I also did a three week course of non-climbing-specific physical therapy, and then developed my own climbing-specific strategies for recovery and injury prevention.

Physical therapy has been incredibly helpful, I think — first, she didn’t insist that I stop climbing completely; and second, she’s focused on building my weak areas (specifically, prior to PT I did not have triceps, apparently) so that even though I’m climbing way below max, I feel quite a bit stronger in areas like lockoff strength and in my shoulders. I’m also pretty sure that the routine she has me doing (emphasizing back, core, shoulders, and triceps) is helping me avoid other climbing-related injuries, specifically in the shoulders.

More specific to climbing, I’ve added in a few exercises from the Eric J. Horst book Training for Climbing (specifically, pronators with a hammer, extensor stretches and wrist curls) and the hanging weight roll-up (and down) described here which seems to have helped both with strength training and as a warm-up exercise before climbing. At this point, I’m still climbing in the ugliest brace on the face of the planet (seriously, can they not at least make it in colors?), but I’m able to do my exercises without bracing, which is pretty cool. I’m still not back to doing full pushups — I’m doing modified pushups with fingers pointed in to work the triceps — but seriously, I’m (just about) 30 years old and was a couch potato until a year ago, so I think there’s nothing wrong with doing modified pushups and generally dialing down the intensity of my workouts.

Belaying off my harness with an ATC turned out to be much easier on the elbows than belaying off the anchored belay setups with a Gri Gri that we have at the gym; also, we have fewer slab and vertical options inside than outside, so I focused on climbing within my ability outside during the weekend, and then climbing easy inside, mostly focusing on drills. Inside, I focused less on climbing routes and more on climbing drills so that if something hurts I don’t have to force it in order to “stay on route.” I’ve done a lot of drilling on slab and vertical walls, and two of my favorite that kept things interesting are:

1. Foot matching: Work your way up a wall with lots of easy, secure holds, matching feet on every hold, with one foot doing all the upward movement. For example, the first time up, step up with your right; match with your left; then step up with your right, and match with your left. Repeat to the halfway point and switch feet — or, do the whole wall then repeat with the other foot.

2. Hands low: Keep your hands at or below your shoulders, chest, or waist (from easiest to hardest) and work your way up the wall relying more on your footwork and less on your grip. Elbow tendonitis can be caused or aggravated by overgripping, so using open hand grips, pushing up off of holds, using underclings and side clings, and cracks instead of just pulling your way up jug ladders can help you keep climbing without aggravating overuse injuries. Variations include no-hands climbing, or climbing holding tape balls, so that you’re using your balance and footwork, and not your grip.

Finally, instead of climbing days back to back, I rest at least two days between climbing days to give everything time to recover.

Overall, I feel much improved. I still have a little bit of discomfort (the good ache, I think, not the bad pain) after a hard day’s climbing, but normal activities (work, brushing my hair, getting dressed, lifting a gallon of milk out of the fridge) are totally back to normal. I do think I’ll take a good solid rest this winter and will continue my rehab exercises – I think the routine has a side benefit of helping my whole body (and my climbing performance) so there’s incentive to keep it up.

Enough about this. I just thought I’d put it to bed, since just about every stranger in the gym asks me what the heck is wrong with me when they see the ugliest brace on the face of the planet. I so envy the folks who can climb at high intensity without incurring repetitive stress injuries without taking any special efforts or precautions… but I’m determined to be someone who can climb at high intensity and if it takes special efforts and precautions, I’ll take them!

Rock Climbing

Filed under: Injuries and Rehab

I don’t play golf *or* tennis: Lateral and/or Medial Epicondylitis, aka climbing-related elbow pain

Despite the fact that I don’t golf or play tennis, I came down with a pretty solid case of both golfers’ elbow and tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis and medial epicondylitis, or, elbow tendonitis) caused by rock climbing (let’s just call it what it is:Climbers Elbow). My elbows started to bother me just about eleven months ago, but like most beginner climbers I climbed through it and didn’t listen when the ache of exertion turned into the pain of overuse. I’m a very typical indoor climber – I progressed really fast, so my tendons couldn’t keep up with my muscles and I ended up injured. By the middle of this summer, I was working a 10b project in the gym that I had dialed on toprope but was desperate to finish on lead — I seriously overtrained on that route one night, and then found myself sidelined and seeing a doctor and physical therapist. Being a climber who has hit a nine-month plateau (10c’s are still utterly out of reach even on toprope) sucks — being an injured climber sucks even worse.

I’m about seven weeks into my recovery, and now starting to get to climb more normally with fewer restrictions (and less total rest than most of the conventional wisdom out there). Last night at the gym I was able to do my first few overhanging routes since my injury-imposed rest started, and I also did the hardest toprope route in a long time — Glen, you’re a sick dude, but that new 10a (I say 10b) is super fun.

Conventional wisdom on climber’s elbow is total rest and daily icing for six or more weeks, followed by a rehab program involving stretching and strengthening. For most climbers, the rest period is an excruciating experience in self-denial. For me, the required rest fell during the summer, which is a very short period of time between the other season of the pacific northwest year — the rainy season. I wasn’t willing or able to stop climbing completely, but I was willing and able to change my training to try to manage the injury until I can take a solid rest this winter.

First, I avoided downclimbing on routes (sure-fire elbow pain trigger or aggravator, for me; I can downclimb “anything in” without issue), traditional pushups and pull-ups, and overhanging sport and bouldering routes. These are all pretty self-explanatory – they’re repetitive, high tendon-stress activities. I also avoided the more extreme traditional treatments – specifically, cortisone shots, since I’ve had a bad time with them with past injuries.

Second, I focused on proper warm-up, cool down and stretching, and generally on rehabilitation and climbing activities that didn’t cause or increase pain. I also tried to focus on less repetitive motions (e.g. exercises involving a balance ball to randomize the activity a bit, and other really random exercises like ball-throwing to make the exercises less strictly repetitive). I massaged and iced nightly and tried to limit my climbing to twice a week, and just generally took things very easy. I braced with the ugliest brace on the face of the planet when climbing, and with a basic neoprene sleeve when not climbing to keep the joint warm. Bracing does seem to help prevent both aggravating and reinjuring the elbow – my worse elbow, which is always braced when I climb and often braced to keep warm when not climbing is now doing better than my “good” elbow. I’m on Aleve twice a day as a result of some other joint issues, but I don’t know how much it actually helps the elbows. I also did a three week course of non-climbing-specific physical therapy, and then developed my own climbing-specific strategies for recovery and injury prevention.

Physical therapy has been incredibly helpful, I think — first, she didn’t insist that I stop climbing completely; and second, she’s focused on building my weak areas (specifically, prior to PT I did not have triceps, apparently) so that even though I’m climbing way below max, I feel quite a bit stronger in areas like lockoff strength and in my shoulders. I’m also pretty sure that the routine she has me doing (emphasizing back, core, shoulders, and triceps) is helping me avoid other climbing-related injuries, specifically in the shoulders.

More specific to climbing, I’ve added in a few exercises from the Eric J. Horst book Training for Climbing (specifically, pronators with a hammer, extensor stretches and wrist curls) and the hanging weight roll-up (and down) described here which seems to have helped both with strength training and as a warm-up exercise before climbing. At this point, I’m still climbing in the ugliest brace on the face of the planet (seriously, can they not at least make it in colors?), but I’m able to do my exercises without bracing, which is pretty cool. I’m still not back to doing full pushups — I’m doing modified pushups with fingers pointed in to work the triceps — but seriously, I’m (just about) 30 years old and was a couch potato until a year ago, so I think there’s nothing wrong with doing modified pushups and generally dialing down the intensity of my workouts.

Belaying off my harness with an ATC turned out to be much easier on the elbows than belaying off the anchored belay setups with a Gri Gri that we have at the gym; also, we have fewer slab and vertical options inside than outside, so I focused on climbing within my ability outside during the weekend, and then climbing easy inside, mostly focusing on drills. Inside, I focused less on climbing routes and more on climbing drills so that if something hurts I don’t have to force it in order to “stay on route.” I’ve done a lot of drilling on slab and vertical walls, and two of my favorite that kept things interesting are:

1. Foot matching: Work your way up a wall with lots of easy, secure holds, matching feet on every hold, with one foot doing all the upward movement. For example, the first time up, step up with your right; match with your left; then step up with your right, and match with your left. Repeat to the halfway point and switch feet — or, do the whole wall then repeat with the other foot.

2. Hands low: Keep your hands at or below your shoulders, chest, or waist (from easiest to hardest) and work your way up the wall relying more on your footwork and less on your grip. Elbow tendonitis can be caused or aggravated by overgripping, so using open hand grips, pushing up off of holds, using underclings and side clings, and cracks instead of just pulling your way up jug ladders can help you keep climbing without aggravating overuse injuries. Variations include no-hands climbing, or climbing holding tape balls, so that you’re using your balance and footwork, and not your grip.

Finally, instead of climbing days back to back, I rest at least two days between climbing days to give everything time to recover.

Overall, I feel much improved. I still have a little bit of discomfort (the good ache, I think, not the bad pain) after a hard day’s climbing, but normal activities (work, brushing my hair, getting dressed, lifting a gallon of milk out of the fridge) are totally back to normal. I do think I’ll take a good solid rest this winter and will continue my rehab exercises – I think the routine has a side benefit of helping my whole body (and my climbing performance) so there’s incentive to keep it up.

Enough about this. I just thought I’d put it to bed, since just about every stranger in the gym asks me what the heck is wrong with me when they see the ugliest brace on the face of the planet. I so envy the folks who can climb at high intensity without incurring repetitive stress injuries without taking any special efforts or precautions… but I’m determined to be someone who can climb at high intensity and if it takes special efforts and precautions, I’ll take them!

Rock Climbing

Filed under: Injuries and Rehab