• Wrist pain— something that almost every climber experiences at some point in their climbing career. Often times it starts off as just a tweak—a slight pain that we tend to […]

  • You’re almost to the top of a boulder problem that you have been projecting all week at the gym. You just need to overcome a tricky mantle to top out. […]

  • Your body is tense as you strain against gravity’s forceful embrace to finally summit the boulder problem you’ve been diligently working on these past three weeks. As you reach for […]

  • In the current era of training for climbing, finger strength is all the rage. A quick Google search will turn up no less than a dozen hangboarding protocols, with countless Reddit threads discussing each of them ad nauseam.

  • You hear it and feel it. Your shoulder popped in and out of the socket yet again. Going out and overhead to the next hold. Making contact with that jug at the end of the dyno. Pushing up and over the mantle.

  • You’ve made huge strides in your climbing ability since you touched that first hold a couple of years ago. Now, you’ve got your sights on the next grade, but you’ve hit a plateau. You decide to train 5-6 days a week to get stronger for climbing.

  • Muscle strains result from a sudden contracture of lengthened muscle fibers that causes them to rupture. In regard to climbing, abdominal strength, flexibility, and neuromuscular coordination is critical. Impaired abdominal function may result in injury.

  • You’re noticing improvements in your climbing, but you are starting to feel a bit broken down and are developing some mild pain in the front of your elbow that worsens after a long week of training and climbing. You even notice a bit of swelling in your elbow. What should you do?

  • Thoracic Outlet Syndrome is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning there can be other causes of pain and numbness, such as cervical radiculopathy or other nerve entrapments, that may not be due to true TOS. Learn more about how to diagnose and treat the condition.

  • Tenosynovitis, or inflammation of the finger flexor tendon sheath (synovium), is a common overuse syndrome that climbers may experience. There are 2 musculotendinous units that could be involved, the flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) and flexor digitorum profundus (FDP).