Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Climbing, But Were Afraid To Ask

[rydra_wong]

This is a post where you can ask all the questions you're always wanted to ask about climbing, whether you've already started or are just beginning to think about maybe possibly kind of giving this a try.

Or maybe you've been climbing for decades, and have always wondered about that one thing, and by now it would be OMG TOO EMBARASSING to admit you don't know.

No topics are off-limit, no questions too clueless, so let rip and get answers from demi-n00bs experienced climbers.

Comments

[cadenzamuse]

Hi. Talk to me about wrists and hands, please? I have tendonitis issues that are really not that bad compared to lots of people, but considering that sometimes any weight at all is horrible, and that half the time holding hands (the interlaced way) with my SO aggravates my wrists, I am just...skeptical.

(But rydra_wong's post of glee and joy on climbing made me want to try at least enough that I came over here to ask anyway!)

[jumpuphigh]

I sometimes get usage bruises in my wrists (although I get them from mousing on my computer as well so I'm not sure how good of a measure that is). If you already have tendonitis issues, climbing will probably aggravate them. I don't have tendonitis issues and my finger tendons usually hate me after climbing. I tape as a preventative measure. Proper technique reduces problems in the wrists. Also, it helps to just accept that you are going to be where you are at in terms of climbing ability. Adjusting your climbing for your body is a time honored practice. There is someone at my gym who is only able to use one hand. I've worked on climbing without hands. There are ways to challenge yourself when climbing that don't involve harder and harder problems which means that there are ways to adapt climbing for almost everyone.

Climbing hurts. It does. Our fingers are raw. Our knuckles are cranky. Our forearms burn. We end up bruised and bleeding. Yet we still climb because it is worth it.

[rydra_wong]

Okay, that's a tough one. I would say the limiting factor is probably the state of your finger tendons; climbing puts a lot of stress on them, and climbers spend much time in arcane rituals to ward off tendon and pulley injuries. So yeah, that doesn't sound promising.

OTOH, my uneducated impression (based on my own attempts to ward off elbow tendonitis) is that tendon problems are often highly specific, and climbing works muscles and tendons in ways that are quite different from everyday movements.

So it's possible that issues that are badly aggravated by typing (for example) may be relatively okay with the gripping movements in climbing.

[zennish]

My two cents here (as an un-athletic geek whose 'climbing' is more like 'flailing' atm) is that you won't know until you try. Much of climbing is core strength and legs, and until you get to the higher grades with the pinchy little holds, much of the bigger, fatter holds are nice and grippable. That isn't to say that climbing isn't going to hurt your finger tendons - chances are it will, at least a little at first - but there are many more techniques of climbing that involve using your hips, lowering your centre of gravity and leveraging yourself up without having to drag yourself up the wall with your fingers.

I would suggest finding a gym with friendly people and doing a drop-in class when your hands have been feeling happy for a little while. Stretch and warm-up your hands: v. v. important - I look like an idiot when flinging them around, but there you go. Ask the employees there what their absolute easiest routes are, and try it out super-slow. There may be holds that you absolutely cannot use, and hand/grip positions that will make you yelp. There's probably also going to be holds and positions that won't be any trouble at all. You might also find that your strength/skill exceeds your finger strength - in that case, you have to be very careful about not rushing your fingers to match your skill: generally speaking they both have to match or you start hurting.

Climbing may totally not be your sport based on your hands, but it totally might be, too! Like rydra says above, there's a whole bunch of climbing movements that differ from day to day movements.

tl;dr