Recently, climbers have been coming to me with aches and pains from recently starting up climbing again. And most of them have gone from doing nothing to doing too much all at once. One of the more common injuries that seems to be popping up recently is impingement and bursitis of the shoulder. This injury occurs from lots of overhead activity, poor pulling technique, and weakness in the back muscles. Pain is often associated with raising the arm overhead, and tight bicep and pectoral tendons. So how can you keep from getting this injury, or from reversing it if you already have it? Firstly, depending on how bad it is, you may need to seek professional rehabilitation advice from a Physical Therapist or a Chiropractor. Otherwise, you need to learn how to pull better, strengthen all opposing climbing muscles and lengthen some of the tight climbing muscles. The purpose of doing so it to create space between the impinged area, so that the clavicle and humerus bones stop pinching down on the tissues. The more balanced out you are in the shoulders the better.General upper body exercises to work on to prevent shoulder impingement:
| Exercise* |
Target Area |
Purpose |
| Dumbbell Chest Press |
Pectoral Muscles |
Strengthen |
| Narrow Hand Push up |
Tricep Muscles |
Strengthen |
| Bent Over Flys |
Rhomboids |
Rehab/Stability |
| Prone Shoulder Exercises |
Rhomboids, Mid & Lower Trapezius |
Rehab/Stability |
| External Shoulder Rotations |
Rotator cuff |
Rehab/Stability |
*Technique, technique, technique! No matter what movement you are performing, you have to move well. Good technique should override success, but it’s so tough to hold back and do that. So, that’s why you need to teach your body to move better with exercise. The strengthening exercises that you do for climbing should all be done with the best technique. All reps of the exercise should be done with good control and good intention of movement.
For rehab purposes, the chosen exercise should be done with high repetition, to encourage stability and endurance in those muscles (e.g. around 20 reps with light weight to create a burn at the end of the set). You want to repeat chosen exercises for 3 sets.
For strengthening purposes, the chosen exercise should be done close to failure (e.g. 8 reps and heavy enough weight to reach close to failure at the end of the set). You can repeat chosen exercises 3-5 sets.
The muscles that generally need to be stretched and mobilized for climbers are: Hands, Wrists, Forearms, Pectorals, Bicep, Thorax, Tricep. You want to hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds and repeat 2-3 times. The stretch should be slightly uncomfortable.
