Impact of hypermobility on climbing
Joint hypermobility affects around 10-15% of the population. And largely affects women and children over men. Joint hypermobility also affects more Asians and Africans than Caucasians. Although joint hypermobility occurs in many people, it does not become a problem. Until it causes symptoms such as pain and instability. It is important to understand if you have hypermobility so that you can avoid positions that might lead to injury.
People who have joint mobility-causing symptoms often report that starting in childhood. They experienced joint pain in the back and knees, growing pains, or nocturnal leg pain. Other indications of hypermobility are a history of muscle injuries, fractures, and dislocations and subluxations. The signs of having an injury due to joint hypermobility are pain that affects the joints for more than 3 months. And having a painful joint that dislocates or subluxes frequently.
Flexibility vs. Hypermobility
When considering why hypermobility is important in climbing, it is first important to understand the difference between joint mobility and flexibility. Flexibility is the ability of a muscle to stretch. While joint mobility is the ability of the joint to move actively throughout its range of motion. In other words, flexibility involves muscle length. And joint mobility involves joint movement. An example of flexibility is the ability of your hamstrings to allow you to bend over and touch your toes while an example of joint mobility is the ability of your knees or elbows to move into the fully straight (or over extended) position. it may also involve hyperlaxity of the fingers.
According to research, flexibility was found to be a significant performance component in climbing-specific tests. Draper et al. found that the climbers who climbed at higher grades were found to have greater flexibility on average than climbers at lower levels. What this means is if the muscle is longer, indicating greater flexibility, climbers should be able to more easily perform movements that might assist them into certain positions.
When joints can move further, climbers are similarly able to move into more extreme positions. However, when joints are pushed into positions past the limits of healthy movement, such as in people with hypermobility, this can lead to eventual pain or even muscle, ligament, or tendon injuries. Flexibility should be improved for better performance both in and outside of the gym. Hypermobility is something that a person is born with but should be addressed in training to prevent injuries from happening.
Impact on climbing
There are a few theories why joint hypermobility can cause pain or injury. Biomechanically, hypermobile joints are more susceptible to injury. Due to stress and repetitive use. Another theory is that loose ligaments and muscle weakness are usually combined, which negatively impacts the joint’s stability. Due to the lack of stability, the joint then will rely on other structures such as the muscle or tendon for stability, which can cause muscular overuse and eventually other injuries such as muscle strain, tension, tendonitis (inflammation), and pain.
The last problem that might arise with joint hypermobility is compensation. Which is the concept that a joint that is not able to be used functionally will rely on other surrounding structures to achieve function. For example, if you have pain in your shoulder, then you might not want to use your shoulder as much. And will then rely on your elbow and hand more. Which can eventually cause overuse in the muscles that support your elbow and hand. The body relies on a delicate balance of its muscles for movement: injuries are caused when some muscles are overused when compared with others.
