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pawilkes
Dec 2, 2004, 5:59 PM
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I've been climbing 2-4 days a week for the last 3 1/2 months (i've been climbing for about 5 years total just not at this frequency) and have started to notice the my elows and finger joints are achey. I know that people hurt fingers all the time and lots of people say that it hurts more to climb in the gym but WHY???
Is it the material you're climbing on (plastic vs rock vs wood vs clay), the friction of the material (how hard you have to grip), the method of attachement (natural vs one point)?? I'd be interested in hearing if anyone knows the reason behind it and/or the reasons that you suspect cause it.
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olderic
Dec 2, 2004, 6:08 PM
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In reply to: I've been climbing 2-4 days a week for the last 3 1/2 months (i've been climbing for about 5 years total just not at this frequency) and have started to notice the my elows and finger joints are achey. I know that people hurt fingers all the time and lots of people say that it hurts more to climb in the gym but WHY??? Is it the material you're climbing on (plastic vs rock vs wood vs clay), the friction of the material (how hard you have to grip), the method of attachement (natural vs one point)?? I'd be interested in hearing if anyone knows the reason behind it and/or the reasons that you suspect cause it.
It's not the material (at least not for the most part although course plastic can be abrasive) - it's the intensity of the climbing that typically takes place in the gym
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petsfed
Dec 2, 2004, 6:11 PM
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Its easy to pull hard quickly while in the gym. The routes are there and there's no reminder of any sort to warm up first. That's why you're achy. Warm up before hand and you'll feel better.
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j_ung
Dec 2, 2004, 6:18 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: I've been climbing 2-4 days a week for the last 3 1/2 months (i've been climbing for about 5 years total just not at this frequency) and have started to notice the my elows and finger joints are achey. I know that people hurt fingers all the time and lots of people say that it hurts more to climb in the gym but WHY??? Is it the material you're climbing on (plastic vs rock vs wood vs clay), the friction of the material (how hard you have to grip), the method of attachement (natural vs one point)?? I'd be interested in hearing if anyone knows the reason behind it and/or the reasons that you suspect cause it. It's not the material (at least not for the most part although course plastic can be abrasive) - it's the intensity of the climbing that typically takes place in the gym
Bingo. The sheer quantity of moves that you climb in a typical indoor session exceeds the number of moves you climb outdoors by plenty. It's so important to take your sweet time warming up, especially if you're over 25 years old :wink: . I climb inside twice a week and usually commit the first hour of my workout to climbing far below my limit.
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chadnsc
Dec 2, 2004, 7:04 PM
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Ditto on what everyone else has said in regards to warming up and the frequency of your climbing. The pain in your elbows may also be due to a strength imbalance of your forearms. Climbing works the inner/lower forearm extensively while the outer/upper forearm isn't hit as hard. Try doing reverse wrist curls with a dumbbell to strengthen our outer forearm and alleviate the elbow pain. Good luck.
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carbo
Dec 2, 2004, 7:56 PM
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"2-4 days a week for the last 3 1/2 months"
Your joints are not ready for the strain you put on them. you gain the muscle power to make the moves way before you joints can handle the stress. You easily climb a lot of hards move in a 2h gym session that would take you a whole day outside. AS others said, make sure you warm up.
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pawilkes
Dec 2, 2004, 10:46 PM
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I'm not really sure what you mean by my joints aren't ready for the strain. i have been climbing for a while, if joints can ever be ready for the strain i would imagine that my body would be getting there by this point.
I've been trying to warm up more, lots of slabby traverse bouldering at the start of my gym time but even warming up i get a bit sore in the fingers. i think the elbow thing makes sense, most of that pain started when i was messing around with a campus board doing some pretty big moves. thanks for the input
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takeme
Dec 3, 2004, 2:14 AM
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Everyone is giving good advice. I'll add that you should never climb 4 days per week in the gym (assuming you are pushing yourself and doing full-length sessions). This is true for almost anyone--at least anyone who wants to avoid injury.
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pawilkes
Dec 3, 2004, 1:14 PM
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im not doing 4 days a week in the gym. i climb twice during the week (tuesday and thursday) and depending on what i've got going spend the weekends climbing. i give myself rest days inbetween gym nights and also between gym nights and the weekend.
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mahlon
Dec 3, 2004, 1:53 PM
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Well, there isn't really any easy quick one line response to your post, so I'll do the best I can with the few minutes I have at the moment.
First off, the pain in your elbow is most likely "Climber's Elbow" which just means that because climbers almost exclusively use a closed grip (fingers closing in towards the palm) while climbing, those muscles become overdeveloped in relationship to the muscles you use in an open grip (fingers opening outwards). To put it simply your muscles are imbalanced, creating the pain in your joint (elbow).
In order to rectify the pain in your elbow the easiest solution is to take a 8 inch wooden dowl, drill a hole in it right in the middle, and take some cordelette cord (3 foot length should work nicely) and run it through the hole in the dowl and tie off the end, and tie a loop in the other end. Take an object weighing no more than lets say 5 pounds to start off with and run the loop through the object and then over the dowl. Put the weight on the ground and the dowl in your hands (one on each side of dowl) w/ palms facing down. Then slowly rotate your hands toward you (should feel the burn in the top of your forearm) till the weight is at the dowl, then slowly lower it back down, rinse and repeat. This will strengthen the opposing muscles in your forearms and the pain should leave while still allowing your interior muscles to get stronger.
As far as the pain in your fingers, it sounds like overtraining to me. Good idea would be to make sure you get a really good warmup, spend less time on trying to break your bouldering threshhold (yes that V-whatever will wait till your healthier), and concentrate on not overgripping the holds on routes and bouldering problems.
Also sometimes it helps to take a week or two off, even though it seems counter intuitive, your body might just need a break, and after the week or two you'll be back pulling harder than ever!
Well, I hope this has been helpful, but can't tell you for sure since this is only my firsthand experience with my own body, and since I've only been climbing around 14 months, my advice is highly suspect, but hell it's worked for me.
Goodluck to ya,
-Mahlon
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johnclimbrok
Dec 3, 2004, 2:38 PM
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is there anything to be said about the positioning of the holds in a gym compared to outside - bolted on holds are generally jutting out from the wall changing the angle your arm grips it at -
what about the amount of flex in the plastic compared to real rock - does the flexing (even if it might be relatively hard to notice) put additional strain on your joints/fingers - changing the angle and direction of forces?
i was a bio major, not a phyiscs one...
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