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Jumprope
Jun 29, 2011, 6:50 PM
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Registered: Jun 14, 2011
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Hey, I searched I promise 
I'm new to climbing and am signed up at a bordering gym near by. My fore arms are sore and am wondering if taping will help. It's not an injury and just sore I'm more worried about injury prevention.
From what I gathered tapping is more for pulley issues, but will it help me?
Thanks!
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Speed4TheNeed
Jun 29, 2011, 9:53 PM
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Registered: Jun 6, 2011
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I don't think taping will hurt, but for a beginning gym climber I would probably avoid it--assuming you are not going to the rock climbing gym every day. It sounds rough, but building up calluses on your fingers will help you in the long run.
Soreness in the forearms is natural for most people, especially when starting out. Don't overdo it at the gym (take at least a day or two off between sessions) and you should naturally build up finger/grip strength.
I don't know how true it is for climbing (I havn't personally read any studies), but for many sports soreness actually prevents most injuries. What I mean is, muscles get sore, but muscles have much more bloodflow than tendons or ligaments do and therefore are able to heal and grow stronger much faster than you tendons are able to take the strain. Coming from a football background, most injuries I've seen and experienced have come from the muscles being strong enough to take a beating while your tendons have not quite gotten up to speed yet...basically a case of your muscles overpowering your tendons and causing an injury. If you are sore, that's your bodies natural way of preventing injury (by making you not want to use them). Eventually--and surprisingly quickly--you will stop being sore, and that is when you will need to pay better attention to injury prevention.
Someone who is more experienced climbing feel free to overrule me. This is just my experience and knowledge coming from multiple other sports, but not specifically climbing.
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onceahardman
Jun 29, 2011, 11:24 PM
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Jumprope wrote: Hey, I searched I promise I'm new to climbing and am signed up at a bordering gym near by. My fore arms are sore and am wondering if taping will help. It's not an injury and just sore I'm more worried about injury prevention. From what I gathered tapping is more for pulley issues, but will it help me? Thanks!
Forearm soreness, as it relates to climbing, is generally muscle soreness. You can research delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
DOMS is apparently inflammatory, generally begins about 24 hrs (sometimes sooner) after the offending activity. It generally lasts about 72 hrs (sometimes longer).
Although it is often attributed to a buildup of lactic acid, much research has been performed, some very elegant studies, which have pretty much proven that whatever causes DOMS, it is certainly not lactic acid.
The cure for DOMS is time. It is the only sure cure. Taping does not help. There is a bit of evidence that very gentle, yoga-type exercises are very slightly effective in decreasing symptoms.
Regarding the other poster's assertion regarding tendon strength vs muscle strength... while in theory that sounds good, it is not supported by research. I did some digging a while back, and found some then-recent research showing that muscle essentially never gets stronger than its associated tendon as a result of strength training. The tendon has enough excess capacity to immediately compensate for strength gains in the muscle.
It makes sense, but does not hold up in the lab.
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Speed4TheNeed
Jun 30, 2011, 12:02 AM
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That may be true and also makes sense. I don't know so in my ignorance I won't argue that point at all. But what I do know is that muscle sometimes can (and does) overpower tendons. Perhaps this is from a tendon already being unknowingly injured while the muscle has already healed and ready for action (it is proven that muscle heals much more rapidly than it's corresponding tendon).
Not to bring up other sports that would make this conversation irrelevant but I have seen in both football and basketball settings where a player does the same cut with the same force he has done thousands of times before, and all of a sudden an ACL or such is blown (no contact). Again, this probably is due to the tendon already being unknowingly injured, but it does happen and has happened to many people--including myself.
In a (hopefully) non-contact sport such as climbing, this would probably be more relevant should a climber push himself too hard to where he either unknowingly injures himself or barely notices the injury and it doesn't prevent him from pushing on. As we all know, pushing through an injury can very well lead to a greater injury.
As for as climbing, that is just speculation on my part. I don't pretend to know climbing specific injury prevention methods. Climbing involves many different types of movements that are unique to the sport, but usually there is at least some common ground to be found.
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stealth
Jun 30, 2011, 1:04 AM
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Registered: Jun 29, 2011
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onceahardman wrote: Jumprope wrote: Hey, I searched I promise I'm new to climbing and am signed up at a bordering gym near by. My fore arms are sore and am wondering if taping will help. It's not an injury and just sore I'm more worried about injury prevention. From what I gathered tapping is more for pulley issues, but will it help me? Thanks! Forearm soreness, as it relates to climbing, is generally muscle soreness. You can research delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). DOMS is apparently inflammatory, generally begins about 24 hrs (sometimes sooner) after the offending activity. It generally lasts about 72 hrs (sometimes longer). Although it is often attributed to a buildup of lactic acid, much research has been performed, some very elegant studies, which have pretty much proven that whatever causes DOMS, it is certainly not lactic acid. The cure for DOMS is time. It is the only sure cure. Taping does not help. There is a bit of evidence that very gentle, yoga-type exercises are very slightly effective in decreasing symptoms. Regarding the other poster's assertion regarding tendon strength vs muscle strength... while in theory that sounds good, it is not supported by research. I did some digging a while back, and found some then-recent research showing that muscle essentially never gets stronger than its associated tendon as a result of strength training. The tendon has enough excess capacity to immediately compensate for strength gains in the muscle. It makes sense, but does not hold up in the lab.
Yoga sounds good.
Some climbing gyms have yoga apres climbing.
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