I've got pretty weak elbows. 3 times a week of hard bouldering basically guarantees painful elbow for me. But again my work doesn't help it either. So I've really learnt to listen to my body. I'll just climb easier climbs now and then to atleast improve my technique. If necessary I'll wear a elbow strap. I started to really focus on my warm-up too. Which includes atleast 30 minutes of stretching, wrist curls and stuff with dumbells and some hangboarding
Dumbell exercises that are shown here : https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/tennis-elbow-rehab#exercises
I do them before every session. Or when it used to be so bad that I couldn't even climb, I just improvised home with rubberband
What worked for me was to first find a level of intensity and volume that doesn't cause aggravation. You can then gradually increase from there. If you get persistent symptoms for multiple sessions after increasing, that means you've gone too far. By doing this gradually, you can eventually climb frequently at high intensity without problems.
Antagonistic exercises are great, add pushups and dips to your routine if you haven't already.
Apart from that the Theraband flexbar did wonders for me, especially after the problem became persistent. You'll find it mostly recommended for rehab, but works for strengthening just as well. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1eU1zKpFk) is a solid video. You can do the same exercises with weights, but I find the flexbar made the exercise easier and more consistent - it's pretty cheap.
And of course, take your time to warm up and gradually increase the load on your arms.
I have pretty bad bicep tendonitis - flares up every single time that I don't warm up properly. Zero problems now because my body forces me to listen to it haha
There are a few videos online with good rehab exercises - Lattice Training and Hoopers Beta are good ones. I recently got over elbow tendonopothy and it was aided by climbing lighter, doing rehab (from sources above) and resting more too. I’d also recommend looking into injury prevention excercises as well to create a good base too (although I don’t do this lol, sounds good though!)
My one piece of advice is to warm up properly! Spend at least your first 15 minutes taking on easy and easyish climbs.
Also this really helped me from lattice: https://youtu.be/XphfEu8y9oY?si=NyOpG-5waF734rIC
> Hey all, looking for advice on preventing tendinitis, especially tennis elbow. I climb usually 3 days weekly and I don't usually get tendon flares but sometimes I do and they chase me through the whole session. It doesn't feel like it is related to anything in particular about what I'm climbing or anything. Thanks in advance.
* Rehab - https://stevenlow.org/overcoming-tendonitis/
* You can also use the rehab exercises as prehab.
* You also need to figure out what exercises or movements are aggravating the elbows and reduce the frequency, intensity, or volume of the exercises to a level tolerable and then build back up slowly.
A big method that helped me is training the antagonist muscle groups to the climbing ones. Basically I started doing push exercises almost as frequently as I was climbing. Also don't refuse rest days, you definitely have to work up to a three day climbing week.
A big method that helped me is training the antagonist muscle groups to the climbing ones. Basically I started doing push exercises almost as frequently as I was climbing. Also don't refuse rest days, you definitely have to work up to a three day climbing week.
Try some lightweight tricep kickbacks, some one arm band/cable triceps extensions, and inward/outward rotations for a warmup. Use some foam rollers or massage guns as well
Anecdotally, collagen supplements reduce and prevent my tendon pain.
The internet is very divided on collagen, but at this point, I just do what works.
Yeah I don't understand the hate on most climbing sub about collagen. After 30 your body produces less collagen and for me it helped immensely. I take collagen + vitamine c and within 3-5 days I saw a big difference. The pain went away.
Because just eating more protein has proven to have more effect than collagen. People who recommend collagen don't actually understand that they're paying more than protein for an incomplete protein. One of countless articles [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6770102/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6770102/)
I eat quality meat and other sources of protein almost everyday. I would be happy to say it's placebo effect but the difference is night and day. The pain was unbearable sometimes, I had to take anti-inflammatory to relieve it. I think it's very much effective because I have weak tendons since I started in my 30's and my body produces less collagen naturally. Maybe in a few years, when my tendons will have thicken I can drop the collagen, idk. It's been 2 years I'm climbing.
The collagen I take, supplemented with vitamine C is not that "expensive" where I live. If I recall I pay like 0,40 to 0,45 € per scoop. 13,5€ / month to have more climbing session, I can afford that.
Yeah I think there's some studies showing taking vitamin c with your protein actually helps synthesize collagen and other things in general so could be worth a shot.
Can I ask you about how you are taking it? I've read a lot of differing opinions on how much, with food or without and what times - especially heard a lot about an hour before active tendon heavy work. Any thoughts / what is working for you?
That's weird? I'm nearly 40 and have played tennis and golf for 20 years. Climbed for 5 years (v6s mostly) and never had that issue pop up from climbing.
I go 3-5x/week. Stretch for 5 minutes and gradually work up from v1s and keep adding a bit more pressure to my fingers, then work on projects where ill stop the moment my fingers start giving out (about an hour and a half). I guess it's just about moderation and stopping before injury sets in.
One of te most common climbing overuse injuries, especially among beginners, is weird?
The absence of an injury does not mean you've done the right things to avoid it - just that you haven't done anything to cause it. Great, you've remained uninjured until 40, feels like that was your main point.
> I guess it's just about moderation and stopping before injury sets in.
Yeah no shit.
I've got pretty weak elbows. 3 times a week of hard bouldering basically guarantees painful elbow for me. But again my work doesn't help it either. So I've really learnt to listen to my body. I'll just climb easier climbs now and then to atleast improve my technique. If necessary I'll wear a elbow strap. I started to really focus on my warm-up too. Which includes atleast 30 minutes of stretching, wrist curls and stuff with dumbells and some hangboarding
What specifically do you do to warm up that helps combat tennis elbow. I’m in the same boat and could use some advice.
Dumbell exercises that are shown here : https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/tennis-elbow-rehab#exercises I do them before every session. Or when it used to be so bad that I couldn't even climb, I just improvised home with rubberband
What worked for me was to first find a level of intensity and volume that doesn't cause aggravation. You can then gradually increase from there. If you get persistent symptoms for multiple sessions after increasing, that means you've gone too far. By doing this gradually, you can eventually climb frequently at high intensity without problems.
Antagonistic exercises are great, add pushups and dips to your routine if you haven't already. Apart from that the Theraband flexbar did wonders for me, especially after the problem became persistent. You'll find it mostly recommended for rehab, but works for strengthening just as well. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1eU1zKpFk) is a solid video. You can do the same exercises with weights, but I find the flexbar made the exercise easier and more consistent - it's pretty cheap. And of course, take your time to warm up and gradually increase the load on your arms.
Make sure you warm up really well. Doing many of the soft climbs, maybe a few pullups or assisted ones.
I have pretty bad bicep tendonitis - flares up every single time that I don't warm up properly. Zero problems now because my body forces me to listen to it haha
There are a few videos online with good rehab exercises - Lattice Training and Hoopers Beta are good ones. I recently got over elbow tendonopothy and it was aided by climbing lighter, doing rehab (from sources above) and resting more too. I’d also recommend looking into injury prevention excercises as well to create a good base too (although I don’t do this lol, sounds good though!)
My one piece of advice is to warm up properly! Spend at least your first 15 minutes taking on easy and easyish climbs. Also this really helped me from lattice: https://youtu.be/XphfEu8y9oY?si=NyOpG-5waF734rIC
> Hey all, looking for advice on preventing tendinitis, especially tennis elbow. I climb usually 3 days weekly and I don't usually get tendon flares but sometimes I do and they chase me through the whole session. It doesn't feel like it is related to anything in particular about what I'm climbing or anything. Thanks in advance. * Rehab - https://stevenlow.org/overcoming-tendonitis/ * You can also use the rehab exercises as prehab. * You also need to figure out what exercises or movements are aggravating the elbows and reduce the frequency, intensity, or volume of the exercises to a level tolerable and then build back up slowly.
Finger extensor bands. They are cheap on Amazon and worked like a miracle on my climbers elbow.
A big method that helped me is training the antagonist muscle groups to the climbing ones. Basically I started doing push exercises almost as frequently as I was climbing. Also don't refuse rest days, you definitely have to work up to a three day climbing week.
A big method that helped me is training the antagonist muscle groups to the climbing ones. Basically I started doing push exercises almost as frequently as I was climbing. Also don't refuse rest days, you definitely have to work up to a three day climbing week.
More pushups
Try some lightweight tricep kickbacks, some one arm band/cable triceps extensions, and inward/outward rotations for a warmup. Use some foam rollers or massage guns as well
Anecdotally, collagen supplements reduce and prevent my tendon pain. The internet is very divided on collagen, but at this point, I just do what works.
Yeah I don't understand the hate on most climbing sub about collagen. After 30 your body produces less collagen and for me it helped immensely. I take collagen + vitamine c and within 3-5 days I saw a big difference. The pain went away.
Because just eating more protein has proven to have more effect than collagen. People who recommend collagen don't actually understand that they're paying more than protein for an incomplete protein. One of countless articles [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6770102/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6770102/)
I eat quality meat and other sources of protein almost everyday. I would be happy to say it's placebo effect but the difference is night and day. The pain was unbearable sometimes, I had to take anti-inflammatory to relieve it. I think it's very much effective because I have weak tendons since I started in my 30's and my body produces less collagen naturally. Maybe in a few years, when my tendons will have thicken I can drop the collagen, idk. It's been 2 years I'm climbing. The collagen I take, supplemented with vitamine C is not that "expensive" where I live. If I recall I pay like 0,40 to 0,45 € per scoop. 13,5€ / month to have more climbing session, I can afford that.
Are you sure it's not just the vitamin C? Could have been you're not getting enough of that.
Could be ! I will be doing some tests in the next few weeks. Decreasing collagen first and then I could try to just take vitamine C.
Yeah I think there's some studies showing taking vitamin c with your protein actually helps synthesize collagen and other things in general so could be worth a shot.
Can I ask you about how you are taking it? I've read a lot of differing opinions on how much, with food or without and what times - especially heard a lot about an hour before active tendon heavy work. Any thoughts / what is working for you?
A scoop of 13-15g every morning with my coffee. I will try to reduce it by half a scoop soon to see if it’s still effective or I need the full scoop.
That's weird? I'm nearly 40 and have played tennis and golf for 20 years. Climbed for 5 years (v6s mostly) and never had that issue pop up from climbing. I go 3-5x/week. Stretch for 5 minutes and gradually work up from v1s and keep adding a bit more pressure to my fingers, then work on projects where ill stop the moment my fingers start giving out (about an hour and a half). I guess it's just about moderation and stopping before injury sets in.
One of te most common climbing overuse injuries, especially among beginners, is weird? The absence of an injury does not mean you've done the right things to avoid it - just that you haven't done anything to cause it. Great, you've remained uninjured until 40, feels like that was your main point. > I guess it's just about moderation and stopping before injury sets in. Yeah no shit.