Wrist mobility and stability are crucial to helping prevent injury for rock climbers. The joint between the radius and the carpal bones (the wrist) is a common site for stiffness, especially considering the demands that climbers place on their wrists and fingers. Stiffness to the wrist joint can lead to pain at the elbow, wrist,...
How many times have you seen someone whose posture looks like this while belaying? Neck pain is a common in rock climbers. Although climbing itself can lead to neck pain, the most common cause is spending prolonged periods belaying. We refer to this as “belayer’s neck”. Belayer’s neck is a colloquial term to describe a...
The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles that coordinate movement and provide dynamic stability of the shoulder joint. These muscles are crucial for rock climbers who put extreme stresses through their shoulders, often in awkward positions that can cause bone structures to rub or impinge on the rotator cuff muscles. Because of this,...
Normal movement at the shoulder is distributed between motion at the shoulder (glenohumeral) joint and movement of the scapula. Although there is variability with how shoulders move, normal arm movement is made up of a ratio of glenohumeral joint movement to scapular movement that is between 2:1 and 2.4:1. A normal shoulder will move 180o...
Most climbers are aware of the importance of finger flexor strength. But how strong are your finger EXTENSORS? Finger extensors are the antagonist muscle group to the finger flexors and are critical to providing support and stability. Strengthening this muscle group is key component to a finger rehabilitation program, particularly in rock climbers who put...
The most common injury among competitive youth climbers is an injury to a finger growth plate. However, this type of injury is not as well-known as other types of injuries and therefore is under-reported by youth climbers. A large percentage of finger injuries go un-reported in elite youth climbing, especially among climbers who perform at...
There are few clinical examples that remind me of how far we have come in orthopedic Physical Therapy practice than assessing bony SI landmarks. As the popular clinical pendulum swung these landmarks were assessed in patients presenting with low back pain to hip pain and even to distant regions such as ankle and neck. Thankfully,...
Sports injuries will always be a part of practice and competition, but our goal as Physical Therapists is to reduce this risk in athletes. Risk reduction strategies can be placed into two categories including sport specific training programs (ex. FIFA 11) and pre participation screenings. Physical Therapists aim to identify limitations in an athlete’s mobility,...
Injuries presenting to our Boulder Physical Therapy practice fall into two broad categories including acute, traumatic (sprains, strains, fractures) and microtrauma or overuse injuries (tendinopathy). This latter category is the most common, but may also be more preventable. Overuse injuries are created when a participant performs too much activity, too soon and the forces of...
Hip impingement (FAI) is one of the fastest growing orthopedic surgeries, but much of this growth has outpaced our current understanding of this condition. A key question involves the additional bone development (cam and pincer lesions) found among athletes. Many of these athletes remain asymptomatic despite having positive findings of impingement on x ray and...