Newbie

[language_escapes]

Hi! I'm a complete newbie to climbing, having only started it about a month ago. My husband and I top rope, and we've recently purchased an annual membership to our local rock climbing gym so that we can go whenever we want and work on getting better. However, I'm having some small issues, and I'm hoping someone could offer some tips?

I'm a fat woman and am hauling a lot of weight up the rope (which is not the issue!), and have a history of rheumatoid arthritis which is, thankfully, in remission. Just to give you a sense of what I'm working with. I've been having trouble with my left elbow being in quite a bit of pain after climbing, even if I only do a little bit and spend the rest of the time belaying. From what I can tell from reading, I probably have either tennis elbow or climber's elbow, and I've found some PT exercises that I can do to help strengthen the muscles and stretch out the tendons.

However, I was wondering if other people have had trouble with this, and if they have any tips or advice on how to deal with it? I'm finding it frustrating that I can really only approach a wall three times before needing to stop for the day, especially since, being so new, three times does not necessarily mean three full climbs. I'm trying really hard not to push, because I don't want to give myself an injury, but... really frustrated with myself.

I appreciate any tips or advice, and thank you in advance!

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Elbow tendonitis is super-common among people getting started -- climbing can be a lot of load on connective tissues which aren't used to it. Have you found the invaluable Dodgy Elbows pdf?

http://drjuliansaunders.com/dodgy-elbows/

The exercises cleared up my newbie bout of tendonitis brilliantly.

Some people also swear by Tom Randall's stretch:

https://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/golfers-elbow-a-possible-solution/

[language_escapes]

Thank you for these resources, and thank you for the knowledge that other people deal with this regularly too! It's good to know that these exercises have worked for others in the past, too.

[wpadmirer]

I started climbing at 55 and I was 40 pounds heavier than I am now. I had problems with my elbows. I found icing them helped, and I did forearm strengthening exercises that didn't stress my elbows. I put a weight on a rope and tied it to a broomstick (cut short enough to hold in both hands). I would roll the rope up and down. It didn't take much to make my forearms burn, and it really helped in the long run with not straining my tendons in my elbow. (By the way, stop when it becomes too hard. You don't need to do it a lot of times, but doing it a little every day will help.)

I have osteoarthritis (bone on bone in both thumbs), so these days I have to tape the hell out of my hands to climb, but I don't have trouble with my elbows.

[language_escapes]

Thank you for the advice!