How I dealt with my climbing injuries
Climbing is a physically demanding sport, and injuries are a common occurrence. Even the most experienced climbers can suffer from injuries, and they can happen to anyone.
There are a number of reasons why climbers get injured. Some of the most common causes include:
Overtraining: Overtraining can lead to overuse injuries, such as tendonitis and muscle strains.
Genetics: Some people are simply more prone to injuries than others.
Bad technique: Poor technique can put climbers at risk for injuries.
Bad luck: Even the most careful climbers can suffer an injury from time to time.
No matter what the cause, injuries can be a major setback for climbers. They can prevent climbers from climbing at their best, and they can even force climbers to take a break from the sport altogether.
I've had many injuries over the years: MCL tears, back impingement, rotator cuff tear, a2 pulley tear, and burnout more.
In this video, I look over all the injuries I've had in my climbing career - what caused them and how I dealt with them. But here are my two highlights that most people can probably relate to.
A2 Pulley Injury
The is a very common injury for climbers. Trying my project 'End of Silence', I injured my finger on the crux move. To add insult to injury I taped it up and continued climbing. Lack of conditioning was the cause of this particular injury, and it took about 2 months of recovery plus some rehab with a physio to get back to my pre-injury state.
Burnout
This is something people probably associate more with the office than the climbing wall. In 2017 I had my first bout of burnout, showing up as exhaustion and intense brain fog. in short, even getting out of bed was difficult and climbing well became near impossible.
For me this came from not being aware of how the intensity of my training and workload was steadily increasing to an unsustainable point. This was the hardest to avoid a it's difficult to see until it's too much. And treating it took a lot of time to reevaluate what I was doing and make sure I wasn't overloaded - whilst giving myself time to recover."
