Many climbers know it: pain on the inner elbow when pulling hard. If the pain becomes established, it remains a persistent companion and is difficult to get rid of. Today we are presenting you with an exercise for rehabilitation.
An article by Luca Zeitter and Kathrin Dettling from Startpunkt Physiotraining
What initially starts as pain after a tough workout is often still noticeable one or two days after the workout and expands over time to the point where it is noticeable even in everyday life without any great exertion. But how do you get out of the vicious circle and what helps with elbow pain?
Anti-inflammatory drugs and a break from climbing often do not help. It helps to know which tendon attachments are involved and to maintain a good load dosage/training plan. A sports physiotherapist can help here.
Making tendons more resilient
For example, the Berlin model can be used for rehabilitation. Below we will introduce you to this model using an exercise that integrates many tendon attachments of the inner elbow.
The main goal of the training is to slowly but steadily increase the resilience of the tendon and to build it up again in the long term to withstand higher loads in climbing.
It is important to know that excessive training or tendon overload often does not become apparent immediately during the exercise or bouldering, but only 12-24 hours later. So if you experience increased pain over the course of the day after the exercise presented (or even after climbing), the weight (the climbing level) is still set too high.
To determine the training weight, you should slowly increase the weight for the exercise below so that you can perform the movement once with slight pain. Now calculate 70% of this. Choose the grip position - variant a or b - in which the pain occurs.
For this exercise against elbow pain you need:
- A pin, a climbing rope, ground anchor
- weights, Tindeq (force scale)
- A small training board with 20mm bar
- interval timer
Stand with your legs apart, leaning forward and your knees slightly bent over the pin so that it is between your legs. The affected arm is slightly bent at the elbow, the palm is facing backwards and the shoulder blade should be pulled slightly towards the spine.
Now you grab the 20mm bar in an open hand position in variant a) or in a half-crimp position in variant b). Now lift the pin off the ground for 3 seconds by slightly extending your knees, then take a 3-second break. Repeat this 4 times to complete a series. In total, you now do 5 series with a 2-minute break between series.
Overall, the program should be performed three times a week.
Once you have found a suitable training weight, you can increase the weight by 5% every week. Finally, it should be noted that if symptoms persist for more than two months without improvement, you should consult a doctor/sports physiotherapist. Rehabilitation is generally very individual and usually requires specific therapeutic input.
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Credits: Cover photo Luca Zeitter | Kletterphysio Schweiz