Lesson's learned - staying injury free

Fritz started a great thread about climbing goals in 2026. Most posters commented one of their goals was to stay injury free in 2026 which inspired me to ask the general question: what are your mantras, lesson's learned, BKM's, techniques, tips, and rules for preventing injury?

What do you do for warm up? What doesn't work for warming up?
Hydration

Nutrition lesson's??  

For me, barring a traumatic incident, I think I do a good job of always riding the no more than a tweak line. My mantra is that I am not getting paid, this is ultimately for fun, so if my performance increase isn’t dramatic, that’s fine. Generally, I will avoid high end stuff when I have more acute pains and focus on accessory things (lifting, mobility, work capacity/volume). If it is a more dull overuse vibe, then I will switch to maybe cardio for a bit or more spaced out sessions and work on resting.

I used to be on the “any rest is getting weaker” train, but now I can pretty easily take a week or more out if I think it will prevent injury. Non-optimal training for 1-2 weeks is better than a big injury that takes you out for 2-3 months with a long ramp back up time at the end.

I did myself a lot of damage in my running years that guided how I react to different pains and “listen” to my body. Glad i learned that young when recovery was fast and easy. Would be harder to learn as an older person i think

Generally chickening out has helped me stay injury free 

Personal rules (age 45):

• Don't climb hard or at all sick 
• Avoid dehydration 
• No more than two hard (limit) days a week
• Back off at the first sign of tweaks or soreness lasting a few days
• Back off after 4-6wks of hard training or rapid gains or an obvious peak

Long term over use and random Injuries are going to happen. There isn’t a whole lot you can do to prevent them, other than climb less and at lower grades. For me, that was never an option. So it’s been more injury management and working around them. That doesn’t mean don’t listen to your body and train like you’re 25 again.

At 46 and climbing for 26 years, here are a few things I learned to do.

1. Stretch, every day. Stay limber, it only takes 5 minutes a day.

2. Climb around your injuries. I’ve had torn ligaments, rotator cuffs, tennis elbow, tendinitis in my fingers and toes (worse) and knee issues. When I tweaked a finger, I started climbing offwidths. When I hurt a shoulder or knee, I’d get on slabs, finger pain, hand and fist cracks etc. This also made me a well rounded climber. Depending on what injury I had at the time, I could usually climb 5.12 anything.

3. Ditch the overly tight shoes. Snug is one thing, but cramped doesn’t help you one bit, and leads to all kinds of issues with your feet.

4. Shop only the perimeter of the grocery store. The perimeter is the only place where you’ll find real food. I don’t know about inflammation, seed oils, bad nutrition and all that. But I do know eating crap makes you fat. And even a pound or two extra leads to injury. 

For elbows and shoulders: Avoid moves that put (excessive) torque on joints.

Come home alive and not wheelchair bound is my highest priority at 65. The rest is all preperation for the season i plan to have. And that has become a year round thing.

Good luck boys and girls. God Speed on the rock and ice.

The best thing I did to stop all my aches was stop going to the climbing gym. This happened because I moved to place with no gym. I definitely can’t crimp like I used to, but my elbows are much happier.

I just turned 50, been climbing nonstop since 1999. Like Salamanizer above, I've had injuries but always climbed around them. I tore my rotator in 2003 and never got surgery - I just did all the PT and chiro/accupuncture, and climbed trad routes under 5.8 where I rarely had to use my arms with any real intensity. I got better at stemming and weighting my legs, engaging my core, and placing gear from good stances. I also kept the rest of my body moving, the idea being that if you never stop climbing, you never really lose too much strength or flexibility, or your lead head. 

I mainly have younger partners and when we hit the gym I make a point of doing a few 5.8 and 5.9 routes before moving up, even as they like to get right on pumpy 5.10s. I don't get my ego involved and feel the need to keep up with these 30-35 year old versions of my younger self. 

I also don't try problems or sequences more than a few times. By now I have a pretty accurate sense of what I can and can't do in the present moment. I'll try my hardest a couple/few times, but after that I'll move on. That's not to say I have no new skills to learn, or can't try different beta, but straining at my limit repeatedly is exactly how I have given myself shouler, elbow or finger injuries in the past.

Finally, I think it was Stevie Haston who said "the first rule of training is don't get hurt. The second rule of training is don't get hurt. Get the picture?" 

How about alcohol? (Including beer). I'm convinced it weakens my tendons/ligaments. 

grug gwrote:

How about alcohol? (Including beer). I'm convinced it weakens my tendons/ligaments. 

Necessary lubricants!!!!

No mantra protected me from myself. I was a reckless child, a reckless teenager, and a reckless adult. I'm now a reckless senior. I've got the scar tissue and skeletal issues to prove it.

Know what? I wouldn't change a thing. Well, that's not true I'd change a lot, but I'd do it in a reckless fashion, hah!

1 on 1 off

“I’m just gonna down climb and think about my life choices”

It breaks the tension. My belayer inevitably gets a laugh, and once I’m back at a rest stance I can more objectively assess gear quality, risk of hitting a ledge, plan the next moves, or retreat.

Injuries are part of the game.  At 66 I just try to minimize their duration. NSAIDs when I tweak something and before heading downhill on big days. Joint pain needs to be avoided, muscle pain can be worked thru and tendons are somewhere in between. 2 coldpaks in the freezer unless I’m using one!

grug gwrote:

How about alcohol? (Including beer). I'm convinced it weakens my tendons/ligaments. 

I've enjoyed 7-10 beers a week the past 20 plus years. I recently cut that consumption to about half - 33 beers in 43 days, I track it with pen and paper - once I weighed 200 pounds for the first time in my life. To my own amazement I've lost 6 or 7 pounds in those 6 weeks, with no other changes to diet or exercise. I'm sure my tendons/ligaments are thanking me, even if that's not exactly how you meant your question to be answered

In bouldering, every fall is a ground fall.

If your symptoms are from the neck up, you can train. If symptoms are below the neck, lay off.

grug gwrote:

How about alcohol? (Including beer). I'm convinced it weakens my tendons/ligaments. 

start monitoring your sleep and watch what alcohol does to it....  short of the occasional dinner/drinks out or celebratory events I found myself abstaining from alcohol completely  

grug gwrote:

How about alcohol? (Including beer). I'm convinced it weakens my tendons/ligaments. 

I don't know about that. But when I'm climbing many days in a row, one beer negatively affects my recovery. If I want to climb well the next day I can't have a beer. 

This is what works for me. 

1. Three strikes. If I fall on the same move three times I move on. It's easy for me to tweak something by straining on the same move more than that. 

2. Chocolate milk is a great recovery drink to enjoy after a day of climbing while I'm driving to camp or making a meal.

3. Long multipitch: eat 100 calories every time I'm bringing my partner up. Cragging: snack all the time. A sandwich doesn't need to be eaten at lunch time, a few bites evey half hour works best for me. 

4. Stretching is good. Stretching with bodyweight exercises is better. Downward dog combined with pushups of any variety, for example. 

5. Weed helped me eat enough and I told myself it helped me sleep. This year I'm experimenting with sobriety. Results tbd

Collin Hwrote:

For elbows and shoulders: Avoid moves that put (excessive) torque on joints.

Sooo is crack climbing out then? I will say a majority of my injuries have been from crack climbing. Bummer, it's my favorite.