How to not get injured climbing - Warm up

With lockdown soon coming to an end, we’ll once again be free to pursue the activities and things we love. For me, that means one thing. Climbing! I’ve been a climber for close to 20 years now. There’s something indefinably magical about the way problem solving, mental focus and physical challenge comes together that makes it highly addictive (as I’m sure a lot of you know!)! Plus it makes you feel good, what’s not to love? 

Well, actually there is one thing. Getting injured. 

Getting injured is no fun at all, it means you can’t climb, often for weeks or months. Not to mention injuries are painful. If you’re a Melbourne climber like me, lockdown has kept you off the wall for a long time. With things opening again, we’ll soon be back, but are our bodies ready for it? For many of us, our climbing muscles and joints have languished unused for months. This means they’ll be less able to cope with the demands of climbing once we’re on the wall again, which unfortunately increases our risk of a post lockdown injury!

In an attempt to mitigate a sudden epidemic of finger pulley ruptures, sore elbows and shoulder explosions amongst Melbourne’s climbing community over the coming months, in the “How to not get injured climbing” series we’ll look at some strategies you can use to minimise your risk of getting injured on the wall. Starting with...

THE WARM UP

Everybody knows they should warm up. We’ve heard it a million times, but I feel you my people, I know what it’s like. You get to the gym after a long day’s work, the crew’s on the new set, you’re late so they’re warm and crushing already. You’re psyched as hell and think to yourself, “warm up? More like schmorm up, to hell with it.” 

You change quickly, do a couple of pull-ups, haul on your shoes and swing your arms a few times, then jump straight on the proj. You huck for that crimp, it’s an awkward catch and those feet are mighty thin. Before you know it your foot pops, and OUCH! Finger, shoulder, elbow, whatever it is that goes is always bad news. Now you’re out for weeks or months, and all because you didn’t warm up properly. 

Too real? I’ve been there too, I feel your pain. 

The nature of our lives these days means we’re often sitting at a desk or in the car not using our bodies before a climbing session. It’s a recipe for disaster if we get straight on the wall and try to pull hard, as our body and mind simply won’t be prepared for the sudden stress. This is even more important now given the effect lockdown induced inactivity has had on our climbing muscles and joints, not to mention technique. 

A focused, consistent warm up functions as a way to get the body working right for hard activity. It will help you get the most out of your session by increasing blood flow, respiration, body temperature, muscle recruitment (meaning you’ll be able to pull harder), joint mobility, and your nervous system’s awareness of the body. It will also improve mental alertness, getting your mind in the right place to try hard for the session. Finally and perhaps most importantly, warming up also gives you the chance to check in with your body for any aches or pains, and assess how you’re feeling energywise. This is valuable information on how hard you should expect to safely push things that session, and whether you might need to avoid certain movements, hold types, or otherwise tailor the session to avoid an injury. 

HOW TO WARM UP

There are a million ways to warm up, with the most important thing to remember being that anything is better than nothing! Typically, younger climbers need (and do) less warming up, while older crushers sometimes joke that warming up is all they do.  However you warm up, it should be individualised to your own needs. What works for somebody else most likely will not work for you. We are all different, and a good warm up should take this into account. If you take a little more than time to feel your fingers are loosey goosey before pulling hard, that’s fine. If you have an injury or weakness you know you need to give a little extra warm up love to, that’s fine, take the time. It might be frustrating, but it will pay off in the long run.  

Keep your warm up specific to the session to come. A long, pumpy route will help you get warm for long pumpy routes, but won’t be ideal if your project requires a lot of power. Likewise, a couple of max hangs on a hangboard won’t be the best choice for an endurance route. Keep it specific! 

Try to warm up gradually in a consistent and semi structured manner. If you have a familiar approach, this will help your mind and body transition to your fighting best more efficiently. You’ll be able to focus faster and switch on sooner. 

So what exactly should a good warm up look like? Some people choose to warm up simply by starting on easier climbs and building the difficulty. If you are doing this, make sure you listen carefully to your body to know when you’re actually ready to try hard. Spend plenty of time gradually building to this stage, don’t be hasty little hobbits. I’m talking at least 20-30 minutes here or roughly 120 moves of increasingly challenging climbing per hand. This will ensure ligaments and tendons in your hands, forearms and shoulders (the regions we climbers injure most often) are fully primed. While easier climbing might sound boring, it’s actually a great opportunity to focus on technique and footwork, accentuating the movements (FEEL that drop knee) and really trying to understand climbing movement. Believe, this practice will pay off on more difficult terrain. 

There are also certain science backed, more structured approaches you might want to consider. These can take less time, and are especially useful for sessions where you'll be trying routes or boulders at your limit. One reason for this is because simply climbing might fail to effectively mobilise and recruit your body where it needs to be mobilised and recruited for said hard climbs (remember specificity people!). A more organised warm up will ensure you’re hitting everywhere you need to.

Most organised warm ups consist of both general and specific components that begin broadly, then gradually becoming specific to whatever you’re doing that session. For the general component, a favourite method of mine is called the ‘RAMP’ protocol, meaning  ‘Raise, Activate, Mobilise and Potentiate’. Here is a brief description of what these mean and suggested exercises:

Raise: your body temperature, heart rate, respiration rate and blood flow to muscles with lighter aerobic exercise. For example a quick jog, star jumps, skipping, walking to the crag, etc. You should be breathing harder and maybe even sweating a little by the end of this. How long you spend here depends how fit you are. I’m a boulderer and pretty unfit so it only takes me a few minutes to get puffed. If you’re a distance runner, etc (ew?) you’ll need longer.

Activate: key muscle groups specific to your session. Think the large pulling and stabilising muscles of your back and core plus those in your shoulders and arms. Pull ups, scapular pull ups, theraband exercises, push ups, core exercises, etc are appropriate here. The key is maintaining good form and keeping the repetitions/ time relatively low to avoid lactic build up (i.e. a pump) in your muscles. 

Mobilise: key joints and ranges of motion you’ll be needing. This is a really valuable stage to help with injury prevention and a great place to perform active stretches/ exercises that also serve as pre-habilitation. I like to include spinal, rib, hip, shoulder and forearm/ wrist/ hand mobility exercises here. Steer clear of static stretches though, save those for after your session. 

**I tend to blend the activate and mobilise phases to be more time efficient. For example mobilisation exercises can be performed in between activation exercises to give the muscles your warming a quick rest to avoid getting pumped. 

Potentiate refers to something called ‘post activation potentiation,’ where your muscles gradually improve their performance with repeated exercise up to a peak state of ‘potentiation’ where they’re at their strongest. This stage must be highly specific to the session to come and involve quick, intense exercises. Think a few finger hangs on a hangboard where you’re trying hard, or some fast powerful pull ups with several minutes rest between. You should feel ‘on’ and ready to try hard by the end of this.

A proper RAMP warm up will usually take 15-25 minutes depending on how efficient you are, and at the end you should feel primed and ready to go. I’d recommend also doing a few easier climbs once you’re done instead of getting straight on the proj. This will help get you focused on climbing movement, and give you a chance to practice skills like footwork and route reading. 

Otherwise, it’s time to crush, and your risk of injury will be oh so much lower!

Stay tuned for the next volume in our “How to not get injured climbing” series, where we’ll look at tips and tricks you can use during your sessions to help you dodge dodgey elbows, bypass blown biceps and prevent painful pulleys.

Until then, if you’re suffering from climbing aches and pains please reach out, we are here for you.