Climbers : 3 big reasons you’re getting injured and what to do about it

For most of the climbers, there are several underlying causes that contributed to their injuries. Even for those who had more traumatic injuries the severity could have been reduced had these underlying factors been addressed. Here are the 3 big reasons why they’re getting injured.

Here is an interesting article about the reasons why climbers are getting injured. This is from the website natashabarnesclimbing.com.

Getting injured : often a question of technique

Every time we climb or train we expose our tissues to microtrauma accumulation. The better our technique is the more we can spread that stress on the body. A bad technique is the first reason why you are getting injured.

For example, if your footwork sucks and your feet slip off frequently that can put sudden load on your shoulder joint or fingers. This causes microscopic damage (microtrauma) to the collagen tissue in the fingers or shoulder joint. When this happens frequently the trauma accumulates over weeks, months and years. And injury can occur later on down the line.

The Fix : Improve your technique!

Work with an experienced coach. This is the fast track to improving your technique. It helps to have a second set of eyes on your quality of movement during climbing. A good coach will see things in your movement that you won’t and they have more experience watching people climb and catching small flaws in technique. A good coach is a worthwhile investment for anyone who is serious about climbing.

• Work on footwork
• Climb open handed as much as possible
• Invest in a quality pair of climbing shoes
• Switch to routes periodically if you only boulder, mix it up.

Second reason why you are getting injured

Another issue is improper dosage. A lot of times it’s in combination with improper technique as explained above, but it can be an issue in and of itself. We know you are excited about climbing but you don’t get to climb hard everyday without eventually suffering the consequences.

The vast majority of climbers are overtraining. Even if they aren’t “training” and they are “just climbing” we can still use that term. Overtraining is the cumulative result of excessive high-volume or high-intensity training.

Or both, without adequate recovery, that results in the exhaustion of the body’s ability to recover from training stress. And adapt to it. Once overtraining is diagnosed, it is imperative to take remedial action. Longer periods of overtraining require longer periods of recovery.

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