Portland Rock Gym Course

I was invited out to portland rock gym for a jam packed injury prevention clinic. We went over a climbing specific warm-up, muscle activation exercises and body positioning on the wall. It is amazing how much these clinic have grown.

I am lucky to be surrounded by awesome climbers that are stoked on preventing their own injuries. A key tip we shared at this clinic was teaching how to prevent pulley injuries. View the link to my article in DPM magazine to learn more.

It is important to always remember to strengthen the antagonist muscles which are the opposing muscles to what we use to climb. Not only did participants learn how to strengthen there with rubber bands, but we also used devices such as Hand Xtrainers to target the muscles even more.

We broke into the basic concepts of how the finger/wrist flexors and extensors act on the wrist. If you want to see a great video that demonstrates the muscles actions with some examples, check out from Eric Horst’s site Training For Climbing. Below I have linked in a video he made on the action of the muscles across the wrist. Click Here to Learn About Antagonist Forearm Strengthening From Eric Horst

We closed the clinic with a question and answer with the climbers. One participant had constant clicking in his shoulder. We made a body adjustment of a pelvic rock and sternum drop during his warm-up exercises and the clicking disappeared. Another climber had the same click but we moved her elbows forward and it went away, There are common movement patterns that I notice with the participants throughout the clinic and my goal is to guess what exercise modification fits each climber the best. That is the fun part. No body is built the same.