The Top 4 Climbing Injuries and Prevention Exercises
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Climbing is a unique activity that involves an incredible range of overhead arm movements, which place heavy strain on parts of the body. As such, there are a range of injuries that are particularly prevalent in climbing.
The good news for avid climbers is that you can prepare your body for the demands of climbing and thus reduce the likelihood of picking up one of more of these injuries.
THE TOP 4 CLIMBING INJURIES
The four most common climbing injuries each involve a different part of the body, namely:
Tendonitis / Impingement Syndrome - which affects the shoulder
MCL Sprain - which affects the knee
Pulley Injury - which affects the finger
Climber’s Elbow - which affects (you guessed it) the elbow.
1. TENDONITIS / IMPINGEMENT SYNDROME (affecting the shoulder)
Injury Profile
Tendonitis or ‘impingement syndrome’ is a general classification of injury that typically means a tendon is inflamed. In some cases, the tendon can get squeezed within its surrounding structures - giving the feeling of being ‘pinched’ or ‘impinged’.
Injury Risk
There are a couple of structures that are particularly susceptible to tendonitis in the shoulder:
the supraspinatus tendon and longhead of the bicep tendon - flexing the arms overhead with forward rounded shoulders (shoulder internal rotation) tends to aggravate and cause pain in the tendon
the serratus anterior - a muscle on the side of your rib cage that is attached to the shoulder blade. The muscle helps pull the shoulder blade away from the core and with upward rotation. Injuries to this muscle can prevent you reaching overhead.
Injury Prevention Exercise - Wall Slides
The wall slide is an exercise to specifically target the serratus anterior. The serratus anterior helps to guide the shoulder blade in overhead movement.
Exercise instructions:
Place a band around your hands or wrists, spreading them until they are approximately shoulder width apart, and place both hands against a wall.
Keeping the same distance between your hands, slowly raise your hands up the wall until your elbows fully straighten.
Move your hands back down the wall until your hands return back to the starting position.
Tips on technique:
As you are reaching up, try and force your shoulder blade to travel underneath your armpit. This activates the serratus anterior rather than the upper trapezius.
Suggested workout:
2-3 sets of 8-10 repetitions.
2. MCL SPRAIN (affecting the knee)
Injury Profile
The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is located on the inside of the knee and helps hold the knee joint in place. The MCL acts as a buffer to forces that buckle the knee inwards towards the mid-line (valgus forces).
Injury Risk
Climbing moves such as ‘drop knees’ place a lot of force on the MCL. This can lead to sprains if the MCL is not strong enough, particularly when the stress placed on it is high velocity and high force.
Injury Prevention Exercise - Eccentric Hamstring Slides
The MCL has a facial connection with the adductors and inner hamstring. Strengthening these connecting muscles can improve stability and control of the knee, while protecting the MCL and helping to prevent injury.
Exercise instructions:
Lay on your back face up, with both knees bent so that your lower legs are pointing straight down vertically.
Place a slider underneath the foot of your injured knee.
With both feet planted, raise your hips off the ground until your body straightens diagonally.
Bring your opposite leg off the ground to reach a 90° angle and slowly slide the foot that is on the slider away from you.
Once your knee is straight or almost straight, you can relax your body and lay on the ground.
Return back to the starting position.
Tips on technique:
Keep your glutes entirely off the ground until the rep is over.
Suggested workout:
2 sets of 6-10 repetitions.
3. PULLEY INJURY (affecting the finger)
Injury Profile
As a climber, a loud pop in your finger can be one of the most terrifying things to hear! In many cases especially when followed by pain and swelling, can indicate damage to the flexor pulley tendons. The A2 portion of the pulley is the most common for climbers. It is located at the base of the finger, which is the area where pain is normally felt with bending and straightening the finger.
Injury Risk
Pulley injuries usually happen with hard crimping, due to the large forces placed on the pulley. Although this is quite a debilitating injury for climbers, there are many ways to prepare your hands and fingers to become strong and resilient.
Injury Prevention Exercise - Rice Bucket
The rice bucket method for hand injuries is an effective way to create resistance in all directions for your fingers. Different movements with your hand inside the bucket can improve strength and build tendon capacity and resilience.
Exercise instructions:
Fully submerge your hand inside a bucket of rice (after thoroughly washing and drying your hands).
Perform these different movements with your hand inside the rice:
squeeze as hard as you can
open up your fingers at the bottom of the bucket and lift your hands of the bucket out while keeping your fingers straight
make rotational movements of the hand while keeping the fingers straight
make rotational movements of the wrist.
Tips on technique:
For more resistance, lower your hand deeper into the bucket.
Suggested workout:
Spend 20-30 seconds doing each movement.
4. CLIMBER’S ELBOW
Injury Profile
The muscles that allow you to grip holds with your hands are called the forearm flexors. The tendons of these muscles all congregate at the inner side of your elbow called the medial epicondyle. Here they form the ‘common flexor tendon’ before they attach to the bone.
Injury Risk
Based on your own training level, your common flexor tendon has a specific capacity that it can handle of climbing volume and stress. Training stresses the tendon. While training and climbing you want your flexor tendon’s capacity to be higher than the stresses you place on it at all times. If the stresses exceed the capacity of the tendon then injuries happen including climber’s elbow, which is a form of tendonitis.
Injury Prevention Exercise - Hanging Isometrics
To improve the work capacity of your elbow tendon, try ‘hanging isometric’ exercises. Isometric exercises come highly recommended for tendon pain as the pain is generally more tolerable than with other exercises. Loading the tendon as much as possible should be the main goal of rehab and this exercise is as functional as it gets for climbing.
Exercise instructions:
With palms facing away from you, perform a pull-up and pause so that your shoulders are not quite horizontally aligned with your elbows.
Hold this position for 10-30 seconds if possible.
Lower your body until your standing on the ground and release.
Tips on technique:
Aim to hold your position so that there is an angle of around 120-140° between your upper arm and forearm
Remember to breathe, relax the neck, and use the lats and rhomboids to hold the position.
Suggested workout:
3-5 sets of 10-30 second holds.
Strengthen your body with these exercises and it’ll go a long way to keeping you on the wall and off the injury table.
However, no climber is completely free from the risk of injury. Should you succumb to a climbing injury, you may want to consider seeking a sports chiropractor to help speed up your recovery.
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