Rock Climbing Injury Prevention
Climbing can be a very fun and rewarding sport. Here are some tips and tricks to prevent musculoskeletal injuries while climbing.
1) Warm-up!
Your climbing warm-up should involve dynamic movements at both the upper and lower extremities that are sport-specific. This means mimicking the types of movements used in climbing and moving the joints through their full range of motion. Dynamic stretches will help increase the blood flow to muscles and tendons and can help reduce the risk of injury. For the lower body, this may include repetitions of standing hip openers, high stepping movements, and flagging movements. For the upper body, this may include overhead movements for the shoulders, wrist flexion and extension, and flexing and extending the fingers. After completing dynamic stretches, start your climbing session with 2-3 easier routes to complete your warm-up.
2) Mobility
Climbing requires a wide range of movements and movement patterns. Achieving and maintaining the full range of motion throughout your joints, in particular the shoulders, hips, and ankles will allow for more optimal movement. Static stretches (holding a stretch for 30-60 seconds) are not advised as a warm-up prior to climbing but are useful when combined with dynamic movements to maintain or increase flexibility. A foam roll is a great tool for working on stretching and mobility of the upper body. Recommended movements include “angel arms” (laying on the foam roll and gently moving both arms as if you are making a snow angel). From this position you can transition into pec stretches in low, mid, and overhead positions. Open book stretches can be completed without a foam roll either laying on your back or in half-kneeling against a wall to promote thoracic spine mobility.
3) Strength Training of the antagonist muscles
Agonist muscles are the primary movers and antagonist muscles work in the opposite direction of the agonist muscles to complete an action. When an agonist muscle contracts, the antagonist muscle relaxes and rests while the movement of the agonist is performed. Incorporating antagonist strengthening specific to climbing into your strength program can help reduce the risk of injuries. This may include exercises such as resisted finger extensions (opening the hand against the resistance of a rubber band, for example), training of the wrist extensors (performed with a weighted dowel or flexbar), resisted shoulder external rotation at 90 degrees, shoulder horizontal abduction (“T’s) and shoulder overhead scaption (“Y’s”).
4) Core Strength
In order to effectively perform the variety of movement patterns necessary in climbing, it is important to build strong trunk musculature. Core strengthening for climbing should focus on trunk stability as well as include exercises that challenge trunk stability by adding arm, leg or a combination of arm and leg movements in movement patterns similar to those frequently used in climbing. Start with planks and side planks and add in arm and/or leg movements. This may include planking while moving your leg in and out of a flagging position, or moving your leg in and out of a high knee position touching the inside or outside of your elbow with your knee. With your arms, you could perform a cone reach to cones placed at different angles around you.
5) Movement training
Having a friend film you while climbing can provide helpful feedback to allow you to identify deficits in your climbing technique. Performing climbing drills to address the specific deficits in your climbing technique can help promote more efficient and optimized movement patterns and can help reduce the risk of an overuse injury. Several small adjustments in climbing technique that are beneficial in reducing the risk of overuse injury include engaging your shoulder blades, using a neutral (vs flexed) wrist position when grasping holds, avoiding overreaching at the shoulder during overhead movements, avoiding hyperextension of the elbows, climbing with good posture at your upper back, avoiding climbing with elbows kept in a flexed position, and using footwork and weightshifting effectively to avoid unnecessary overstraining of the arms.
