The Injured List

We’ve all been there. At the most inopportune times, injury rears its ugly head. Maybe it’s the middle of the season, right when you feel like you’re strongest. In my case, the beautiful opening days of summer were snatched from me after one of the most harsh, cabin fever-inducing winters in recorded history. When this happens, you have two choices. You can act like this guy or you can make the best of it and push on. I present to you both sides of the coin so the next time this happens to you, you’re armed with the knowledge to keep you from ending up here.

 

First let’s examine what not to do: 

Eat your way out of your injury. Come on. You know where this is going to end. You’re exercising less and eating more. I can’t think of any other way of getting further from sending your project – unless to cut off both your arms and smear Crisco on your rock shoes.

Start climbing before you are healed. After a month of watching climbing videos and memorizing topos on MountainProject, it is going to be hard to resist the urge to get back in the game as soon as you start to feel better. But as much as we think doctors don’t know what they’re talking about, they’ve generally got more knowledge about medicine than you do. Take their advice and avoid doubling your recovery time.

Sulk. This is going to do nothing, but make the injury feel like its lasting that much longer. And what’s worse your friends will hate by the time you’re healed so you won’t have anyone to go climbing with.

 On the flip side, there are plenty of constructive things to do: 

Research areas and routes on your tick list. This one is a double edged sword. It’s a constructive way to spend time so you’re ready to hit the ground running when you’re all healed up, but be careful. Nothing is going to want to make you climb more than reading about it. Stay strong grasshopper.

Rehearse approaches. Assuming you’re still mobile this is a great way to gather beta and still get a taste of the outdoors. It will give you an opportunity to preview the trail, take note of confusing forks in the road, and get a good sense of how long it will take. Sure, compared to climbing, hiking is second rate, but revel in the how prepared you’ll be. Plus you’ll have the opportunity to soak in the hike without the mental distraction of preparing for a day of climbing.

Train the parts that aren’t broken. This also assumes you’ve got parts that are still in operation. For upper body injuries, loading up on cardio or doing core exercises is a great way to get your whole body prepared for intense training after you’re healed. For lower body injuries, the answer is pretty obvious: hit the hangboard, rock rings, etc. A word of caution though. You’ll be spending an inordinate amount of time on certain muscle groups when you would normally be rotating between multiple ones. Don’t over train the healthy parts and injure them as well.

Reintroduce yourself to reality. Remember all those things you used to do before you started climbing? The responsible things like buying groceries, cleaning that pit of an apartment, giving some love to the overly-neglected blog you started? Now’s your opportunity to catch up on what has been falling by the wayside while you’ve had the climbing blinders on. Read a book, write a book, rediscover your old hobbies, and call your mom, she’s worried about you!

However, you decide to pass the time until you can start doing the thing you love again, remember two important rules. And not like you remembered the Pythagorean Theorem for that high school algebra test. Really remember them and take them to heart.

Rule #1:

Listen to your body and give yourself plenty of time to heal. It will avoid unnecessarily prolonging recovery and persistent pain or injuries in the future.

Rule #2:

   You won’t be injured forever (unless you don’t follow Rule #1). Enjoy the rest!

At first injuries can be the most demoralizing moments in your climbing career. For me they’ve always occurred after overtraining or during gym sessions, which coincidentally means that you’re at the end of your training program and are feeling the strongest. But in hindsight, I was usually to the point that my body was screaming for some long term rest, so the injury was a blessing in disguise.