Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

after surgery.
    Physical therapy may be beneficial but is not required for fit individuals who can begin a gradual return to physical activity after two or three weeks. A full return to training activities and climbing typically takes two to three months.

Preventing Injuries
     
    This chapter began by quoting studies that place your odds—as an avid rock climber—of getting injured as at least three to one. Therefore, it seems appropriate that we conclude this tome with an attempt at lowering those odds!
    First, abstinence is the only preventive measure that is absolute. Climbing is a stressful sport, and injury may be unavoidable. Still, I estimate that you can lower the risk by at least 50 percent if you follow all the preventive measures outlined below. Undoubtedly, some of these guidelines fly in opposition to the modus operandi of many climbers. By now, however, you are familiar with the thread weaving throughout this book: “To outperform the masses, you must do things that they do not do.”

Ten Rules for Preventing Overuse Injuries
     
    Detailed below are ten strategies for lowering your exposure to overuse injuries. Clearly, there will be situations that demand breaking one or more of these rules. By climbing and training in accordance with these guidelines most of the time, however, you will likely decrease your risk of injury and never, or only rarely, join the injured mass of climbers.
1. FOCUS ON TECHNIQUE TRAINING OVER STRENGTH TRAINING.
     
    Many overuse injuries result from too much of a focus on strength training too early in an individual’s climbing career. As advised throughout this book, it’s fundamental to develop a high level of technical competence before jumping full-bore into sport-specific training. Not only does good technique help you reduce stress on your fingers and shoulders, but it also helps maximize economy of movement and, thus, increases apparent strength on the rock.
    Remember that two to four days per week of climbing will naturally produce rapid gains in sport-specific strength in beginners. Because tendons strengthen at a slower rate than muscles, novice climbers are not exempt from injury risk. With little experience, these new climbers have not yet developed the keen sense needed to distinguish “good pain” from “bad pain.” The number of climbers who become injured during their first year or two in the sport—as they quickly progress from, say, 5.5 to 5.10 (or higher)—is alarming. Therefore, awareness, maturity, and a prudent approach to training are vital traits that must be fostered in all enthusiastic climbers.
    Finally, it’s important to avoid the added stress of using highly specific training tools, like a fingerboard or campus board, during the first year or two of climbing. After that, these activities can be added gradually as part of an intelligent, well-planned training-for-climbing program.
2. REGULARLY VARY THE TYPE OF CLIMBING.
     
    Varying the type and magnitude of climbing stressors on the body is a highly effective way of lowering your exposure to injury. For instance, alternating consecutive weekends of climbing between sport and traditional routes naturally varies the type of specific strains placed on the body. Likewise, regularly changing the focus of weekday climbing and training activities—for example, alternating among bouldering, roped gym climbing, and general training—prevents any single system from being overly stressed. This practice of constantly mixing things up is the essence of cross-training applied to climbing.
3. USE PROPHYLACTIC FINGER TAPING IN THE MOST STRESSFUL SITUATIONS AND AFTER INJURY.
     
    This subject was covered in length earlier in the chapter, but it’s worth underscoring here—supportive taping of the finger tendon pulleys helps lower the force load placed on the tendons and may help prevent injury. Still, prophylactic taping is not something you should use every day and on every climb. Subjecting the finger tendons and annular pulleys to gradually increasing levels of stress is what will make them stronger and able to function under higher and higher loads in the future. The use of taping all the time could have a negative impact on the long-term strength of this system.
    Reserve use of prophylactic taping techniques for workouts or climbs that you expect will push the envelope of what your tendons have previously experienced. For instance, taping would be a wise measure for attempting a hardest-ever