Setting Bouldering Goals During Pregnancy
Bouldering during pregnancy can be good for your mental and physical health if necessary precautions are taken. It also helps to feel part of the community as bouldering is a social sport.
Using a Home Climbing Wall for Endurance Training
Like many others during the pandemic, my local climbing gym got shut down. I was not as fortunate as others to have close access to outdoor climbing areas. It’s pretty flat here in Michigan, so this left me with two choices: drive 7+ hours to Red River Gorge or build a home wall. [...]
Climbing with discus hernia
After a long day of work at the office you finally get to your favorite gym. You perform a quick warm-up and 15 minutes into it you are on the wall to try a freshly set of new boulder problems. As you push yourself harder and harder, you keep falling. After landing a few [...]
Collateral Ligament Finger Injuries in Climbers
If you are familiar with rock climbing, you’ve probably either experienced a finger injury or know someone who has. Finger injuries are a common occurrence in rock climbing due to the high demands of supporting your body weight on small, irregular holds - sometimes just by the tips of your fingers. You may [...]
Trigger Finger
In the middle of an intense 6-week training regimen for climbing, you notice a catching and locking in your left ring finger when opening and closing your hand. There is a pain in your finger and in the top of your hand. Since you want to send your project this year and don’t [...]
The Gym Boulder’s Guide to Preventing Lower Body Injuries While Jumping/Landing/Falling
Are you sending hard only to jump off and twist your ankle and/or knee? Day 1 in the boulder gym we all learn proper falling technique, “gently land with your knees bent and roll to your butt…” but… how many of us actually do that on a regular basis..? Unless you down-climb 100% [...]
Footwork Techniques to Prevent or Reduce Bunion Pain
You begin reading the route, noting all the tiny footholds you will have to balance on. You imagine placing your weight on those holds, and dread begins to set in as you prepare yourself for the ache that will come. As you begin the climb, you consciously guard against putting too much weight [...]
Cardiovascular Training for Rock Climbers
You’re on a week-long climbing trip to Smith Rock State Park with your gym friends, psyched on trying to send your big project after a winter of good training in the gym. You climb hard for three days, almost sending the climb but stuck on the second to last move. Feeling your raw [...]
Into the “Core” of Climbing
Have you hit a plateau in your climbing and are trying to figure out what to work on? Have you ever wondered if you need to include core training in order to reach that next level? Climbing is often considered a whole-body activity that works a lot of different muscle groups in the [...]
Preventing Work Related Injuries Among Route Setters
Rock climbing as a sport and a lifestyle has been around for centuries. However, climbing began its transition to the industry it is today just as recently as 1987 with the opening of the first indoor climbing gym. Since then, the total number of climbing gyms worldwide has risen to 2,167 according to [...]