Quote:
Originally Posted by cottonseed1
Are you able to do light to moderate climbing without your shoulders or fingers bothering you? How often are you full crimping on harder climbs?
On a hard boulder that takes more than 5-6 tries how often would you say you are latching holds with your COG still moving around? Do you often lunge at holds but still snag them violently?
Yeah, moderate climbing is fine, as long as I wait long enough for my shoulder to stop being sore from the previous session. I mostly half crimp on climbs unless there is somewhere to put my thumb (other than on top of the other fingers). I rarely ever open crimp and am not sure I even know how. Any climbs that are mostly/all crimps cause some finger pain basically every time, but it quickly dissipates. It's just two fingers right now, one an old strain that's barely still there, and the other more recent, resulting from full crimping on a V5 most likely.
The right shoulder doesn't hurt when I climb as long as I don't do any crazy shouldery moves, but gets hella sore the next 2-3 days. The left shoulder is normally OK but last Weds a big Gaston move caused some pain. I climbed for like an hour on Monday and did PT/pushups 3 days before that and it hurt to use my steering wheel today.
I haven't done a hard boulder that took more than 5-6 tries since I hurt the shoulder. Well, I think I've worked individual moves on a V5 for 8-10 attempts on one occasion the last several sessions, apart from that if I can't climb it in 4-5 attempts I just move on. I climb almost entirely statically, and very slowly, pretty much the opposite of Spenda. I only do moves dynamically when there's no other option, so I'm pretty rarely swinging around or cutting feet. I've stayed pretty much in my comfort zone this month besides occasional burns on higher level problems. I've also mostly given up lunging at holds because its too dangerous and I don't have the contact strength to stick the moves anyway, but it obviously happens sometimes. I can grab a V6 crimp statically but a dynamic move to a V4 crimp is hard as hell for me, the last time I can think of trying a move like that it took 15+ tries to stick and tore the hell out of my hands. Basically I'm climbing as conservatively as I can right now, and have done so for a while due to nagging injuries. The occasional attempts at V5-6 could be what's causing problems. Like I sent that V5 crimp climb with a closed crimp crux a couple weeks ago, but I've paid the price for it. This is often what happens when I push my limit and try 5's and 6's, it seems. Now that I think about it my first injury was a right thumb strain that happened from smashing the rail over a year ago while trying to send a 4 that I now realize was obviously a 5.
I'm thinking I just need to avoid crimp climbs and have long breaks between climbs + therapeutic exercises in the gym. Hanging from pockets as outlined by Esther Smith seems like a good strategy to rehab the 3+ month tendon strain
Last edited by TTGL; 08-29-2018 at 05:59 PM.