Climbing Injuries

Climbing can be a strenuous sport and injuries are quite common, ensure that you have the right travel insurance :

There are three main injuries associated with climbing :

1. Shoulder Pain :

Here the pain is due to an injury to the rotator cuff or the biceps tendon that is attached to the shoulder, you need to ascertain which injury this is : that's the first thing you need to ascertain. With the rotator cuff you may have a tear, a strain or hopefully not tendentious.

If its a tear then do not climb go and see a doctor

If its a strain then rest 3 to 6 weeks, you should ice it daily and take anti-inflammatories.

With Bicep tendentious again stop using it, tendentious is basically an injury due to over use.

Tendentious is a difficult condition to shake of, if it is still there after 6 weeks then you should really go and see a Physical therapist.

2. Elbow Pain :

This will usually occur in three areas

• medial
• lateral
• deep

Medial epicondylitis - is the inside part of the elbow

Lateral epicondylitis - is like "tennis elbow" on the outside of the elbow.

Deep - this is almost exclusive to climbers and the pain is deep inside the elbow.

Again rest here is the treatment - a good 2 to 6 weeks, once you can lift bottles and open car doors again then without pain then you can start some light climbing. Then do stretches, bend your wrist backward and forward, once these do not hurt you can start to do strengthening exercises :

• Reverse wrist curls
• Wrist radial deviation
• Forearm pronation and supination

If there is pain then stop these exercises and see a doctor.

3. Finger pain

This will come about because of too much climbing and where the holds are not good, the result being straining of the flexor pulleys of the ring and middle fingers mainly.

There are three main diagnosis of finger injuries

• Sprain of the finger ligaments, pain on the pulley and when squeezing.
• Partial rupture of the pulley tendon, pain when you actually extend your finger
• Complete rupture of the pulley, you may hear a pop or a crack, there may be swelling and bruising.

The treatment is STOP climbing, rest and ice and then when the pain subsides open and close your hand a lot.

Recovery can take anything between 6 to 8 weeks, don't rush back into climbing until fully healed.

Get proper travel insurance if you are going climbing :