Climbing teaches us to push our limits, to overcome challenges, and to never give up. The greater the passion, the higher the risk of something bad happening, but that shouldn’t discourage us. The same applied to climbing injury recovery!
While statistics say that 30% to 50% of both boulderers and sport climbers have experienced some sort of climbing injury – and most of those I know have hurt at least a pulley (including myself!) we shouldn’t let this discourage us. Instead, we can embrace everything as a journey.
This doesn’t mean your love for climbing will eventually condemn you to injuries. However, if for whatever reason this happened to you we want to make sure you have the best tools to hang on in there during your climbing injury recovery, cheer up, and come back even stronger!
Why do injuries occur in the first place?
Be it repetitive hard moves, skipping warming up, ignoring the signals our body gives us, bad nutrition, not drinking enough water, lack of sleep, or simply bad luck – there can be many reasons.
Knowledge IS Power
In my opinion, part of the healing process is also reflecting on why you got injured. Not only you’ll understand your injury better but this can help prevent similar situations in the future and contribute to you strengthening the injured part!
The truth is that before injuring my pulley for the first time it had never crossed my mind this was a possibility. Maybe it was linked to me not breaking a bone ever (zero fractures) but I remember feeling lost, not knowing what to do, and having questions such as “Will my finger be normal again?”.
There is a time to cry and a time to fight!
I stole this one from the mother of a dear friend who always says this to my friend and I believe this mindset might actually be part of what we share as friends.
Healing is a journey that you mostly take alone but it’s easier with friends around! Cruising it includes a few vital steps that are so essential that skipping them would make your journey more challenging. Are you ready?
Step 1 – Grieving
Give yourself time and space to process your emotions and accept reality. Writing can help a lot! For instance, whenever I get injured, I often experience a sense of injustice which makes me feel unlucky, a victim of faith, and paralyses my sense of action.
Once you acknowledge and understand your emotions, you can move on to the next step.
Step 2 – Warrior mode
Wipe your tears, be brave, and observe: after making all this space, what is there for you in it? It might look easier said than done but trust me, warrior: once you start it – just like with everything in life, you realise that starting was the hardest part!
Instead of crying about what you lost, train your focus more on what you do have and what you can accomplish with it. Remember that injured or not, you are still in control of your life, and taking responsibility for it can feel quite empowering!
There is always something else to train
Are you struggling to climb as you would like? No worries. Let me share some tips and tricks I’ve discovered on my own to help you handle yourself and overcome this challenge. Keep reading and find out how to improve your climbing game!
Stay creative! Maybe you’ll not be able to climb and train at your max but most of the time you’ll be able to train core, body balance, and coordination or make easy climbs fun and interesting just so you can maintain your fitness level.
- Did you injure a pulley? Climb on big holds, top-rope routes to maintain your fitness level!
- You injured your shoulder? Work more on your core and body balance, and strengthen your weak parts!
- Did you injure a part of your leg? Climb with one leg!
Struggling with motivation while injured
Not being able to 100% pursue your passion can feel puzzling and may even make you feel less enthusiastic about climbing and question whether you want to continue climbing or not. And that is a bummer for us, climbers! Not to mention the extra energy you have from NOT climbing.
But hey, very often not being able to climb at your level doesn’t mean you can’t climb at all! Or at least find areas that need more training! Look for ways to challenge yourself during this time by working around the injury and you’ll soon see opportunities for stuff you don’t normally pay attention to or you don’t have time for! …such as:
Transform your weaknesses into assets
Have you ever wondered if there is something valuable to learn from an injury?
Whether it’s physical, mental, or emotional, an injury can provide insights and lessons that we may not have otherwise discovered. Believe it or not, I came to be grateful for all the injuries I had. Through them, I learned to understand my weaknesses, be more patient, accept things I cannot change, work around a tricky situation, and learn the importance of having a core.
Thanks to all of that I feel overall a stronger and more resilient climber. Of course, it wasn’t easy – most of the worthwhile things aren’t!
Try something different
Apart from understanding to what extent I loved climbing (the best thing in the world!), it was only when I got into competition trail running that I realised how much time climbing actually consumes!
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to make you quit climbing but I am kindly suggesting that sometimes taking a break (wanted or not) from something you love can help you shift perspective and come back with a fresh one. We can move mountains as soon as we break the mental barriers that hold us back.
As far as I’m concerned running allowed me to have more time to:
- Unload daily stress and energy
- Reflect on my own and be independent because running can easily be done alone
- Have more time to do the stuff I never found time for because I was climbing
- I returned to climbing with a warrior mindset, open mind, AND amazing cardio. Not to mention muscular tonus
So try exploring different sports and honing your skills in whatever other ways you can.
Avoid comparing yourself with others or your past self
It’s common to compare ourselves with others or even our past selves, but it can be discouraging. Instead of comparing, how about looking at the glass from a different perspective and replacing “comparing” with “aiming for” or “admiring” X and Y?
Embracing your own journey will not only keep you motivated but it will also give you peace of mind.
How to reduce the risk of getting injured
During my experience with pulley injuries, I realised that my impatience was the main reason behind it.
However, when I suffered from a partial shoulder tear injury, I discovered that the root cause was a combination of too much mobility in the joints and lack of core. Trying hard in overhangs without having a prepped body for it didn’t help either!
Therefore, my recovery process included exercises that focused on strengthening my abs, core, and shoulders.
Do you want to avoid common mistakes beginner climbers make when they get into core training? Then check out this video:
Check out the video below to choose by yourself which core exercises are suitable for you. And remember to take breaks!
Be good and patient with yourself
Last but not least: Be good and patient with yourself!
Each time I sent my hardest grades was soon after recovering from a climbing injury.
Depending on what your injury is, you may indeed lose some of your fitness and finger strength but your skills don’t just go away. As you could read so far there is always something you can do for a faster and more pleasant recovery and the best part is that your body will get back super well-rested. Most of the time we do come back stronger from an injury and this is not a myth.
As well as Gwyneth Uttley whose video below I came across and I found to be very practical and insightful. Her experience is relatable to any climber, as she points out the emotional and physical challenges that one experiences when going through a healing process. Her down-to-earth approach to this topic makes her video a must-watch for anyone looking to bounce back from an injury.
How do pro climbers deal with injuries
Svana Bjarnason is a part French, part Icelandic pro climber. She has been struggling with injuries quite a lot during her career but has always found a way to overcome them and come back stronger.
However, dealing with injuries hasn’t been easy for her, especially since she started competing on plastic again after many years of exclusive rock climbing. Svana is a true fighter, and I highly recommend watching her latest EpicTV series which presents how she got into comps again, her race for the Olympics as well as her struggles with both injuries while needing to climb hard.
Below is what Svana had to tell us about dealing with inuries as a pro climber.
Q. Could you please tell me more about your injuries in the past year?
Pulley injury A2:
Not broken but it was I quote the doctor “extremely inflamed”. I decided not to stop climbing because I thought I could control it by not climbing on small holds.
Also, I was trying to send my project at the time and luckily it was one of the only routes in Oliana (Spain) that you could climb on with a pulley injury. Out of 120 moves maybe you have 3 crimps so it was ok for me to climb on it with tape, 3 fingers extended.
As for training – I continued and simply avoided crimps. Therefore I stopped Moonboarding and Kilternoarding and just climbed on big holds.
Sprained finger:
Soon after I sent my project I started training indoors, preparing for the Olympics. I hit my finger pretty badly while doing a dynamic move. Very avoidable but it happened. It twisted, got bruised and it hurt but because I had to compete in the World Cups, I decided not to stop training and focus instead on a way to work around it by adapting to holds that I climb on.
I taped my 2 fingers together, didn’t do any lead for some time, nor climbed on any small holds, and continued to train indoors.
Severe sprain of the foot with severe fracture:
It happened while competing and because I could still walk I decided to keep climbing – which wasn’t a good idea but back then I did not know it.
As a result, I had to wear a boot for 6 weeks and wasn’t allowed to move my foot. It took 5 months to recover but I continued climbing and training indoors with one leg, working on my core and upper body, training my balance.
Q. How do you practically deal with all these injuries?
I must say it is stressful. For me is always the same pattern: I know I built my whole life around climbing so at first, I feel devasted and I think it’s the end of the world.
After a few days, I realise I can still do many things for training even though I am injured and one can always adapt. I’ve been there too many times not to know I always come back stronger – even if there is hard work. But it’s not obvious to always keep that in mind.
When I start climbing again after coming back from an injury at first I am happy but at some point, I get annoyed. The fact that I cannot give 100% in training and climbing because one part of my body is not healthy gets me really frustrated and pissed. So at this point, I lose confidence in myself and I feel not so happy anymore. Luckily it doesn’t last long because it’s always ups and downs with these things.
Whenever I feel like I got injured right away I call my doctors. I am lucky enough to have medical staff supporting me as well as my coach and I can set a game plan for recovery and training while being injured.
Q. How did you manage to train while being injured?
I did not really have the option of not training. I can’t afford to lose a day of training because I need to qualify for the Olympics and I know I have a lot to catch up on since I wasn’t a competitor for such a long time.
With almost every injury there are ways to train. Even if you can’t climb you will find something to do: work on your upper body, core, flexibility.
And the opposite: if it’s a finger you can work on your legs and shoulders. There’s always something you can do except if you broke everything. And you can also work on the mental part if you think you need it.
Anyway, for me not climbing is not an option even when I am injured. I love it, it’s my life and it’s what keeps me happy.
Q. What is the thing you struggle with most when you are injured?
I find that staying motivated when I am not able to give my max is challenging. The mental part has always been the hardest thing every time I got injured. Learning to trust again my unhealthy body parts when I get back to climbing. Especially when doing again that one type of move that got you injured in the first place. And this scares me. By far is the worst part.
It’s not easy to handle ups and downs. Sometimes it’s hard to accept you are not able to climb and the best thing you can do is to just let go and take a break. On one hand, you see other climbers sending projects and winning comps, and on the other, you are spending 3 hours per day at the physio. It’s hard to appreciate the little things when you know you are not training as hard as you should. Sometimes I can feel like giving up.
That’s why it’s sane to take a break from social media and quiet your own mind.
Inspirational journey back from injury of Solène Amoros
Solène Amoros is another professional French climber who has faced several unfortunate injuries throughout her career. Recently, she opened up about her most devastating injury – a serious knee injury. I find Solene an inspiring person and climber and she has been documenting her journey back to the sport in a series. I highly recommend watching it.
What I learnt from my injuries
Throughout my professional hobby climber’s “career”, I have had two pulleys and a SLAP partial tear.
My very first pulley rupture and climbing injury
It happened “out of the blew” right when I had just started to feel like I was back in the game – after a long year of on-and-off climbing because of recurrent pneumonia.
I remember I was at the gym, trying several times the same boulder problem that involved a few crimps and an overhang sit start. It began with a sort of sharp pain in my middle finger and although I got a bit scared in the beginning I didn’t stop. I refused to accept what my body was trying to tell me and why not, take a break.
I got angry instead and I continued pulling hard on that boulder. Only a few moments away while trying the crimp move and forcing my finger one more time I heard a snap: my finger was now numb and I couldn’t move it. Even my skin was hurting to the touch. Doctor’s verdict: A2 pulley rupture. Even more frustration now!
Can you guess what my lesson was? It concerned self-love, something I was struggling with in my 20s. Therefore it was a long way for me to accept my role in this one and get over my dwelling sense of injustice that was triggered along – like the universe held something against me and had nothing else better to do.
My second pulley rupture
There I was – in the best shape of my life, roughly a month after I sent my first E7 (8a). This time I understood on the spot exactly what led to my injury.
I had woken up early in the morning to take my car from the mechanic, have a nice breakfast with family and then meet my friends for bouldering.
I was super excited to do everything so I rushed. The truth is, I had gone to sleep late earlier that night so I was already tired from the little sleep and dehydrated from rushing into my day and not taking my time to do anything right.
By the time I got to meet my friends for bouldering, it was already past 12 (so late, I thought!) and instead of thoroughly warming up I just jumped on an “easy” V5. Two seconds later after I put my finger into a pocket, we all heard a woody snap like a branch had broken. It was my A2 again, this time on the ring finger.
Was that a surprise? Not this time. This happened in my 30s so let’s say I was wise enough to understand I played a big part in it but not fast enough in being wise to remember to pay attention to myself.
That day I had done everything like someone was chasing me and the moment I started climbing I wasn’t even present anymore – still in the “catching up” mood. That’s how I learned is imperative not to rush into anything, respect my own rhythm, and even give up on some tasks if it feels like too much pressure.🙏🏻
My SLAP partial tear
Only a few months after fully recovering from my second pulley injury I was enjoying one of my best sessions at the crag. I was “slowly” warming up on my project – a rather steep route in Oliana, Spain. The plan was to stop 2-3 times on it and take it slow but I noticed I felt very good while climbing on it so I told myself: what if this is your chance? So I kept on climbing.
I cruised the crux and then fell from a big jug – moments away from clipping the chain. Obviously I wanted to give it one more try – wouldn’t have you?!
I knew I could do it so in my head nothing could go wrong, especially since I was already “warmed up”, right? Except it did. Because in reality, I skipped my warming-up process and I had pushed my body before it was ready to do familiar moves giving it all.
I’d been projecting that line for some time so I definitely did some repetitive shouldery powerful moves as well. It was a very hot day and I hadn’t realised drinking more water would have probably been a good idea!
On my second go, while exiting the crux I felt my left shoulder popping out. No pain, just a weird sensation of “this shouldn’t be happening”. Even so, I convinced myself to continue climbing and worry about it later. Soon after attempting to make one more move, I understood how bad the situation was: it was a typical situation when your brain gives you a command your body can’t follow: I couldn’t engage myself in the moves anymore so I let myself fall.
I remember I felt like my wings were broken, I couldn’t lift my left arm without supporting it with my other arm, and wondered when and if I be able to climb again. Don’t we all think the worst when injuries happen?
Long story short: recovery from this one took one full year. A year during which I learned how to stay motivated while climbing with a Slap Partial Tear, make my body (and especially shoulders) more resilient, appreciate small progress as well as train my weaknesses. A year later I came back stronger than ever and climbed my first 8a+.
Find your silver lining
The truth is getting injured is never easy news for a climber, whether you’re a pro or not. An injury is not just something that happens to you at a physical level, but it can also take away the confidence in your climbing abilities by bringing out your fear of making things worse.
It becomes a whole new territory where you have to learn to let go of your old self and get to know your new self. Then trust what you discover while trying not to compare yourself with your old self…or worse, with others. This is hard work! Learning to appreciate small wins is a valuable key because it’s what keeps you motivated!
Wherever you find yourself trust that you will always find your silver lining. Even in the dark!
Was there any particularly valuable lesson from your experience with climbing injuries? If so we’d like to know. Do share your secret weapon for coping with your situation.
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