Climbing injuries - prevention and management with Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

What is it you love about climbing? 

Is it the challenge? The focus it brings on? The thrill of hanging on the edge of your destiny? Being a speck on an ancient weather worn face? 

At some point it must be the flow - the flow of your blood as it saturates your muscles, pushing them to expand and strengthen - the flow of your mind as it follows the rock, envisioning each movement and hold - the flow of your breath as it paces you through your route - all in all, the flow of life creating the rock face over the course of aeons and you on the face at that one particular moment, launching to catch a hold with all the intent you can muster...

Sometimes that moment is glorious!! ...  and other times, well, accidents happen...

So what can you do, besides the oft cited RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) acronym?

Chinese medicine has a number of tools to offer such as tuina massage, application of liniments, cupping therapy and qigong exercises, all of which help to increase blood flow, prevent stagnation and nourish injured tissues. Acupuncture can also be very effective both in aiding a speedy recovery from acute injuries and in working out old problems that may be nagging at the least and downright debilitating at the worst.

One common problem that comes up for climbers is instability of the muscles and attachments around the shoulder. This is due to the nature of climbing in that the climber excessively uses the muscles that pull from the shoulders and comparatively under-uses the muscles that push from the shoulders. A simple preventative measure is to make a habit of doing push-ups and lifting weights above your head (shoulder presses). This will balance out the muscles around the shoulder and strengthen the underused portions of those muscles. Acupuncture, tuina, cupping, etc., as cited above, could help if this is already a problem and therapeutic massage is always wonderful for releasing muscle spasms and in general nourishing and realigning muscle tissue fibers so they can relax, heal and function optimally.

Other common problems for climbers involve strains & sprains of the various muscles, tendons and ligaments of the wrist and hand, and the formation of nodules in the joint capsule areas of the fingers, often due to the stressful and repetitive nature of common grips. Adequate rest and thorough slow stretching of the fingers, hands, wrists and arms are the best preventatives for these problems. Repetitive strain exhausts the energy flow through an area and blood and fluids stop circulating properly. This can result in pain, inflammation, numbness, tingling, even the formation of nodules and the buildup of scar tissue due to repeated small scale trauma. Certain liniments and massage can help to soften scar tissue, disperse nodular accumulation and bring blood and nourishment to tissues, while acupuncture will help to re-integrate and maintain the circulation of blood and fluids and accelerate self-repair of the tissues.

Acupuncture also addresses any underlying health imbalances in the body which may be allowing for an injury to persist without healing properly. In this way acupuncture helps to strengthen the core while at the same time assimilating injured parts back into a healthy whole.

For more information check out this article from the magazine, "Acupuncture Today":

Treating climbing injuries with acupuncture part I

Treating climbing injuries with acupuncture part II

Also, check out the qigong exercises on my previous post to improve your energy and boost your climbing power!