This rock climbing injury continuing education course series is for medical professionals looking to advance their knowledge in assessing, diagnosing and treating injuries with rock climbers. The material is highly interactive with an emphasis on case based learning and practical application. The course series is divided into six units. For each unit, you will access and view pre-recorded lectures on the unit’s topic, read associated articles, and meet for zoom live sessions to problem solve rock climbing patient cases related to the material. The course series is comprehensive and by the conclusion you will have a strong understanding of how to rehabilitate rock climbing injuries. All registration fees are fully refundable up to 48 hours before the first live session. This Registration is for the 2025 Cohort. Use code “earlybird” to receive $150 off of registration if used before Jan 1st, 2025.
Rock Rehab Hybrid Course Series
$900.00
Description
Objectives
- Learn the biomechanics and sport specific demands of rock climbing
- Understand how to provide proper management for musculoskeletal rock climbing injuries including body regions of the neck, shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist, hand, finger, back, hip, knee and ankle
- Support climbing injury management with peer reviewed research studies and learn in-depth treatment interventions for climbers including climbing specific exercises that address mobility, muscle performance and climbing specific movement
Includes
- 6 units of pre-recorded lectures (1.5 – 3.5 hrs each unit) on climbing injury
- 2 zoom live sessions (5.5 hrs each session) problem solving climbing patient cases
- Extensive video library of rehabilitation exercise and climbing movement
- Detailed step-by-step protocols for climbing injury rehabilitation
Unit Topics
- Unit 1: Movement
- Unit 2: Neck and Shoulder
- Unit 3: Elbow and Forearm
- Unit 4: Wrist and Hand
- Unit 5: Fingers
- Unit 6: Back, Hip, Knee and Ankle
2025 Live Session Dates (hosted remotely on zoom)
- May 3rd (Units 1, 2, and 3), May 4th (Units 4, 5, and 6)
2025 Live Session Times (hosted remotely on zoom)
- 8am-9:30am, break, 10:00am-11:30am, break 12:00pm-1:30pm (Pacific Time)
Contact Hours
- 24 contact hours of content
Course Certificate
- Course completion certificate for 1440 minutes (24 hrs) of course material
Approved for Continuing Eduction Credit
- This course series is approved for 24 continuing education contact hours in California (CPTA #22-549) and for all states that offer reciprocity with California including: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington DC, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. If you have questions pertaining to your individual state requirements, please refer to your state’s licensing authority. We are happy to provide each registrant with documentation needed to submit for approval to their own licensing board for individual approval. Requests can be submitted to info@theclimbingdoctor.com.
Is there a discount for Physical Therapy Students?
- Yes! In order to support the growth and develop of physical therapy students, we have created a coupon code for 20% any course. Email your student ID to info@theclimbingdoctor.com to receive a coupon code for 20% off of the course.
Lectures
- Lectures will be released to all course participants one month prior to the start of the first live session
- Early access to all lectures can be provided upon request
Continuing Education Content Access
- Participants have unlimited continuing ed course lecture video access for 3 years after enrollment
- All con-ed course PDFs are downloadable allowing lifetime access
Level
- Beginner to Advanced
What is the difference between the “Rock Rehab Hybrid Course Series” and “Rock Rehab Online Course Series”
- The online content from the Rock Rehab Hybrid Course Series is the same online content from the Rock Rehab Online Course Series. The main difference is that the Rock Rehab Hybrid Course Series includes an additional 9 hours of zoom live sessions to help synthesize the material and apply it to rock climbing patient cases.
Instructor
- Jared Vagy is a doctor of physical therapy with a focus on treating rock climbing injuries. In addition to his doctoral degree, he has completed a one-year residency in orthopedics and a one-year fellowship in movement science. He is the author of the Amazon #1 best-seller “Climb Injury-Free,” has published numerous articles on injury prevention and lectures on the topic internationally. Dr. Vagy is on the teaching faculty at the University of Southern California, one of the top doctor of physical therapy programs in the United States. He is a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist and a certified strength and conditioning specialist. He is passionate about climbing and enjoys working with climbers of all ability levels, ranging from novice climbers to the top professional climbers in the world.
Aggregate Course Feedback Survey Statistics
Selected Reviews From Course Feedback Summary
“In 21 years of practicing as a Physical Therapist, I rank this course in the top 3 I’ve ever taken. Literally. Jared’s teaching style, methods, practicality, humility, expertise/deep knowledge, resourcefulness, are truly noteworthy, and I’m grateful that there are people in our field at Jared’s level.”
‘Amazing course. I will be coming back and reviewing this material for years to come. Every time I leave a live session, I feel compelled to immediately go climbing too, so it ignites an enthusiasm for the sport as well as a feeling of confidence in treating these athletes.”
“I truly and thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this course. Jared, is an excellent instructor and I hope to continue learning from you. I am glad to have met so many great clinicians and hope to build upon those relationships and strengthen the world of climbing physical therapy!”
“Love the videos and the occasional puns inserted in there. It allows us to see how serious and professional medical provider you are but also how behind all that you seem to have that awesome easy going rock climber vibe that we can easily relate too.”
“The Rock Rehab continuing education course is a comprehensive guide to assessing, diagnosing, and treating rock climbers and typical rock climbing injuries. In my opinion, it is an essential course for physical therapists looking to expand their knowledge on how to effectively treat rock climbers.”
“This course takes an in-depth dive of the research and applies it seamlessly into assessment and treatment of the rock climbing athlete. It builds upon the foundations and allows us to assess and treat this group of athletes, specific to their sport, which hasn’t been done before.”
“This course contains a wealth of knowledge for any medical provider looking to work with rock climbers of any level. The course focuses not just on giving the provider information about the types of injuries but also information on how to view and assess the climber in function and return the climber back to sport. The author is very knowledgeable and has a number of great tips and experience that lends itself to unique intervention.”
“The course goes in depth on climbing specific injuries, but presents it in a way that is not intimidating if you don’t have climbing experience. The sport is becoming more popular so we are bound to see more climbers in our clinics, and this course is a great way to learn how to treat the potential injuries we will see as rehab professionals”
“This course strongly reinforces that PT’s are movement experts and it is essential to perform movement analyses for the proper assessment and treatment of every patient. A lot of the content is relevant to non-climbing patients as well, who come in with similar injuries discussed in this course. That being said, there are many injuries that are very climbing-specific that you don’t commonly see in the general population which this course thoroughly addresses”
Dana Williams (verified owner) –
I really enjoyed the diagnostic process the most, because seeing the clearly presented rule up/down process was incredibly clear. I also liked the breakout sessions, because they allowed real application of the material. I don’t have a large climbing population at this time, but as an orthopedic provider, this deepened my ability to accurately diagnose condition and expedite appropriate treatment. It also improved my creativity with treatment movement patterns.
Sean Patrick Darrow (verified owner) –
This course was beneficial to me because it has aided me in the ability to evaluate and treat rock climber.
LeeAnn Mills (verified owner) –
I really enjoyed the case studies, then working with the group to allow for collaboration on the cases.
Mike Chou (verified owner) –
The course does an amazing job at breaking down a rock climber’s treatment plan into distinct components and discussing the nuances of pathology and rehabilitation plan in an extremely complex sport
Jennifer Andersen –
I enjoyed the case studies since they helped with being able to apply the information to future patient cases. I think it is very beneficial to look at injuries that are specific to climbers especially in the hand, wrist, and fingers and what climbing specific tests and measures will help with diagnosis and treatment.
Julia Heyer (verified owner) –
All information is evidence based. Great lecture components that were sent out early with videos to demonstrate assessment and interventions. Really great, evidence based, information for how to rehabilitate climbers.
Elizabeth Boshears (verified owner) –
The course was beneficial for a clinician who is new to treating climbers, but also a good refresher on movement analysis for treating all kinds of patients.
Samuel Stromei-Cléroux (verified owner) –
The course was a comprehensive and detailed way to assess injured climbers, which also helped with my non climber patients. The movement analysis really opened my eyes about a new way to assess patients and advise them in their day to day activities as well.
Courtney Shish (verified owner) –
This course was super informative, readily applying research to athletes and being able to provide better guidance on return to sport. I thought the information was also applicable to non-climbers but just a more athletic population as well.
Keren Zamir (verified owner) –
A “must have” course for PT that works with climbers
miguel zevallos (verified owner) –
The discussions were really well done and allowed for critical thinking by putting the questions on use and only then chiming in with the thoughts of the instructors. Extremely relevant for anyone wanting to work with climbers!
Camille Ronesi (verified owner) –
The videos were very well organized with a good mix of research data, anecdotal, and clinical application. This course provides an extremely thoughtful and methodical approach to treating climbers. It has go-to resources that provide immediate real-world application. Dr. Vagy is very responsive via email for any questions or concerns.
Juliana Merighi (verified owner) –
I loved the live sessions. I really enjoyed the case studies using real patients of yours. I loved discussing them in small groups and then again in the larger group. This course improved my ability to critically think in order to differentially diagnose. It also refreshed my memory of using tests and measures that are based off scientific evidence.
Cara Lukas (verified owner) –
Patient cases were well presented and similar to cases that I often see in clinic. The independent prep work was highly organized and dense with information I will continue to return to for refreshers on the content. This provides an in depth look at climbing from a health care providers perspective. All of us in the group have been climbing, but we’ve never had an opportunity to sit and discuss with other providers the way that climbing could cause these injuries or change plans of care. The opportunity to collaborate with so many climbing clinicians provides confidence in treating patients who rely on you.
Victoria Bartel (verified owner) –
Very comprehensive material was provided and discussed. Great information on hand and finger injuries and diagnosis. I feel this is the most comprehensive material for medical professionals on hand and finger injuries regardless if for climbing or not.
Evan Ingerson –
The content was research-based, had a lot of really great climbing-specific examination and modification techniques, and the examinations/interventions ranged from having lots of equipment to having minimal equipment which makes it very practical for all types of clinicians. This will help you understand climbing movement on a very deep, but also practical level. This course teaches you to think about every aspect of the patient and their climbing style to help you get the correct diagnosis and the best treatment plan.
Dawn Pfeffer (verified owner) –
This was a great course to help with looking at climbers as a whole as they demonstrate significant differences in performance compared to other athletes.
Dylan Sheedy (verified owner) –
Excellent, broad scope of climbing specific information. Good differential diagnosis. Case-based learning is excellent way to integrate didactic material and build confidence for clinical problem solving. This course provides an excellent overview for treating all body regions for patients who are rock climbers. This course is an excellent supplement to the general orthopedic training in traditional physical therapy that enhances the clinician’s ability to work with most climbing and non-climbing related injuries, especially for the elbow, wrist, and hand.
Evelyne Lajoie (verified owner) –
Tremendous work on the asynchronous content. All the litterature is there & updated! I appreciated how it was divided (medium-short clips), making easy to complete. I have been treating climbers for over 10 years and this course still provided me with useful assessment and treatments tips that I immediately started using in the clinic. It was also a excellent validation of what I came up with on my own through my climbing and physio readings and. Clinicians of any degree of expertise can get more insights on the specificity of climbing injuries and how to return to mouvement
Kyle Anthony McGregor (verified owner) –
I think this course did a great job and illustrating how climbers do things a bit differently and having a good foundational knowledge of the movement patterns in critical in order to better structure the POC to meet the physical demands of the sport.
Joyce Shahboz (verified owner) –
Great way to bridge thre gap between what’s often seen in the clinic with getting the athlete back on the routes. The course provided a better understanding for movement patterns observed with climbing and how that can contribute to injuries.
Blaise Peters (verified owner) –
This course is an incredible synthesis of the most recent evidence and hands on experience from some prominent North American climbing therapists.
Christopher Amato (verified owner) –
The course units were organized well by topic matter and further organized in short sections that made managing learning and time very easy. The live session meet ups were similarly well organized and covered and further challenged the unit content. In addition to the lecture slides, the take away information and handouts look like they will be very good material to refer to in the future. This course provides the provider with the underlying knowledge and tools to effectively start seeing climbing patients with confidence in themselves and in treatment plan.
Maarten Harris (verified owner) –
I found helpful the discussions with guidance and asking more in depth question. Hearing creative solution to treatment ideas.
Joleen Prystupa (verified owner) –
I really enjoyed the online videos. As I have clients come up, I can go back and reference these videos and re-watch interventions. The course is fantastic at exploring evidence based assessments and interventions specific to climbing. Being from Canada, access to MRI’s is a long process with long waitlists. Therefore I enjoyed how this course gives tools to help enhance my clinical diagnosis skills, as imaging may take months to access with our public health system.
Jessica Nelsen (verified owner) –
Very clear and concise. Nice compilation of video, handout/reading, and discussion. Excellent sport specific considerations
Young-In (Steve) Kim (verified owner) –
The async and live session combo worked well. Async material can be self guided and self paced, live sessions gave opportunities to open up discussion. I liked being provided with a structured way to dx climbing injuries and specific protocol/framework for treating climbing injuries. Takes the guesswork out.
Christopher Amato (verified owner) –
Course provided a great level of education to allow a medical provider to start or better treat and improve climbers. Well organized units and content further organized allowed for good time management and learning.
Shay Ting Daphne Tan (verified owner) –
The course material was informative, the best part is being able to interact with clinicians and instructors to come up with a treatment plan for each case. You’ll be able to accurately and effectively evaluate and treat climbing specific injuries. The course is targeted toward climbing specific movements that will greatly benefit those who are both professional and hobbyists in the sport. The tools taught in this course are comprehensive to each body part, and the treatment options taught are also universally applicable to those with similar injuries that are not rock climbers. Overall, this is a great course and I highly recommend taking it to expand your knowledge, particularly about the distal portions of the body
Scott Runyon (verified owner) –
I liked adding case studies. Hugely helpful in applying the material. It’s going to be very helpful in treating rock climbers and already has been. I feel much more comfortable in identifying and diagnosing these problems.
Cara Vite (verified owner) –
This course helps identify common injuries that can arise in the climbing athlete as well as how to detect how this injury is happening and how to treat. Some of the information can be applied to non climber athletes as well which is helpful for other patients.
Stephen Gallegos (verified owner) –
Comprehensive and clearly presented information. Information presented through clinical cases. Slides are detailed and will serve as good references.
Felicia Hu Meiting (verified owner) –
The finger and shoulder rehab was helpful. Thank you for uploading the discussion session for people who were unable to attend.
Matthew King (verified owner) –
The case examples and emphasis on looking at the climber’s movement as a whole, as opposed to the injury site. Clear, research-backed information in an easy to follow structure (the rock rehab pyramid) which emphasises the importance of looking at the whole picture, not just the one structure causing symptoms.
Vivane Kevin (verified owner) –
Reliable and concrete. The fact there’s real climbing case with background and what to do in those certain situation. It would be nice to have a downloadable syllabus to read when you can’t watch the videos. Powerpoint are nice, but you explain a lot more on your videos.
Jennifer Yarin (verified owner) –
A well rounded and thorough review of many important considerations for treating rock climbers. There will also be very helpful and informative resources that you can reference with patients specific to climbing
Graham Gage (verified owner) –
This course was helpful to accurately diagnose and develop treatment strategies for climbers as patients. I would maybe have preferred front loading units 4-5. Wrist and hand treatment is maybe the least familiar to the average PT compared to shoulder, elbow, and LE.
Evan Schneider (verified owner) –
Helped gain a better understanding of proper loading for climbers as well as the unique demands of the sport, and how biomechanically deficits in one area can affect the way they climb and vice versa. Was great for reviewing cases, talking with experienced clinicians, hearing about clinic set-up, getting your name out there and seeing more climbers in your practice.
Adam Arlitt (verified owner) –
This course felt like a full on deep dive into the conditions you are likely to see when treating rock climbers. If that is a population you hope to treat it was an invaluable resource of information and best practices for interventions.
Samantha Jang-Stewart (verified owner) –
Case studies in live session were awesome. I really liked the ability to go over slides at our own pace prior to zoom! Hearing different peoples experience and opinion during live session was great as well.
Todd Bushman (verified owner) –
The online content and amount of resources provided are above anything I’ve seen a course provide and incredibly valuable for continued learning and mastery. The structured approach and organization are well done. The cases were engaging. The teaching assistants did a nice job facilitating and knowing when to add to the discussion vs ask and guide the process. Comprehensive and engaging hybrid course. And a plethora of material to continue using and mastering after the class is over.
Michael Pearce (verified owner) –
Relevant case studies that were well guided and then good education and clarifying of points. Never felt like we rushed onto the next topic limiting questions. It was a bit challenging working across multiple documents at times. I don’t have a solution for this but anything that helps to streamline this would mean more time focusing on discussion and less on flipping through open windows. This course helps speed the process of movement analysis and the rehab pyramid to be able to more effectively treat climbers.
Pía Francisca Miravalles Foix (verified owner) –
You will be able to perform a thorough analysis of climbers’ movement to understand the origin of their injuries and treat them as efficiently as possible. Good self-study material and meaningful group case discussions. I found it to be a very good course. As a suggestion, perhaps you could send the cases the day before, so I could read them and have some things in mind for a more productive discussion. (I found it difficult to understand the cases quickly due to English being my second language).
Marian Penso –
Very clearly laid out and demonstrated with video/photos/cases, info in manageable time chunks for learning. Great way to integrate knowledge as a provider with knowledge as a climber into a climbing provider.
Allison Tran (verified owner) –
I really liked the in-depth didactic material during asynchronous content, then applied to real-life cases. I think the case-based discussion is highly valuable. The emphasis on how we can set ourselves a part from generalists to climbing-specific providers was very helpful. I had the same small group leader almost every time – might be cool to discuss with different leaders. This course significantly increased my knowledge and confidence level with climbing specific injury epidemiology, diagnosis, and rehabilitation. I’ve seen too many climbers avoid seeking treatment because the providers in their community do not know the intricacies, movements, etc. of their sport. Being able to speak both climbing and medical language can help fill this gap in care.
Sarah Groman (verified owner) –
Detailed videos and easy access for self paced material before and ability to review after the live sessions. I’m now better able to recognize hand and wrist injuries and treat immediately rather than prolong treatment by needing to find a specialist.