Readers of this blog will of course know that I have been working on a book on climbing injuries for some years. It has turned out to be a much bigger book than I originally envisaged. It has been a huge project, but in a few weeks I will reach the finish line. The book is currently with the printers and some time in the next few weeks, many boxes of copies will arrive at my house. The final stages were a rather exhausting process, but I’m excited to release it and potentially help healthy climbers stay healthy and injured climbers to get back to the fray.
I’ll write a more detailed post about the content of the book when the stock arrives in early February. If you want to make sure you get a copy as soon as you can, we’ve put it up for pre-order in the shop here, and it’ll be in the post to you as soon as it arrives. I’ve also added the table of contents below so you have an idea of the breadth of the areas covered.
My aim was to write the manual on how to stay healthy as a climbing athlete that I wished I’d had when I was 16. The first priority was to base my writing on the cutting edge of sports medicine research, wherever it was available. The second was to include all the diverse aspects of injury prevention and recovery, and then present them in a way that allows you to see them in the whole context of your efforts to stay injury free. As with the world of training, too many injury texts focus on or overplay the importance of just one aspect of sports medicine.
Having spent around 4 years researching, thinking and writing the book, I do feel that if I’d had access to the information contained in it when I was a teenager, my health and climbing achievements over the past 20 years would have been significantly better. I hope the book can make this difference both for both youngsters who have yet to experience injury, and battle scarred climbers like myself.
Below is the table of contents, so you can get idea of the scope of the book. You’ll find the book in the shop here.
Section 1: Make or break
Why the treatments you have tried aren’t working, and what to do about it.
How to use this book
The real reasons you are injured
Stress and injury
The reason you are still injured
The language problem
The practitioner problem
The sports medicine problem
The missing link
Exceptional use: the luxury of doing your sport badly
Prevention
Your visit to the doctor’s
Summary
Section 2: Know pain, or no gain
Pain and how to read it
Seeing the patterns in your pain
What is healthy soreness?
Understanding your pain
Going beyond reading only pain
Summary
Section 3: Removing the causes of injury for prevention and treatment
Are you only treating symptoms?
What was the real cause?
The big four: technique, posture, activity, rest
Correcting technique
Correcting posture
Activity
How to rest
Warm-up and injury
Lifestyle
Nutrition
Section 4: Rehabilitation of climbing injuries - treating both causes and symptoms
Acute rehabilitation
When to move beyond acute care
Goals of mid-late rehabilitation
Modern understanding of tendon injuries and recovery
Therapeutic activity - basic exercises
Therapeutic activity - climbing
Proprioceptive training
Walking the line of rehab ups and downs
Therapeutic modalities
Surgery
Drug and other emerging treatments
When to stop rehab?
Summary
Section 5: Psychology of injuries: dealing with the anguish of injury
Face it: it really is that bad!
Take heart
Finding motivation
Section 6: Young climbers
What young climbers should know
Too much, too young: a warning
What parents and coaches should do
Section 7: The elbow
Golfer’s and tennis elbow
Brachioradialis/brachialis strain
Other elbow injuries
Section 8: The fingers
Different grips in climbing and consequences for injury
Pulley injuries
When and how to tape the fingers
Painful finger joints
Flexor unit strains
Dupuytren’s contracture
Ganglions
Other finger injuries
Section 9: The wrist
Triangular fibrocartilage injury
Carpal tunnel syndrome
De Quervain’s tenosynovitis
Other wrist injuries
Section 10: The shoulder
Shoulder impingement/rotator cuff tears
Biceps tendon insertion tears
Labral tears
Shoulder dislocation
Frozen shoulder
Thoracic outlet syndrome
Shoulder and neck trigger points
Section 11: Lower body injuries
Foot pain in climbers
Plantar fasciitis
Heel pad bruising
Ingrown toenails
Sesamoid injuries
Hallux valgus
Morton’s neuroma
Ankle injuries in climbers
Cartilage/joint injuries
Ankle impingement syndrome
Achilles tendon pain
Knee injuries in climbers
Meniscus tears
Anterior cruciate ligament tears
Medial collateral ligament tears
Hamstrings tear
Hernia
Section 12: Further reading
Further reading and references
Getting access to good care
The author’s tale of woe and hope
Glossary of key terms
Thanks
References
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteAre you doing a digital version of the book?
Cheers,
Dan
This book sounds legit - 9 out of 10 Climbers has been my favorite training book since it came out, and it's what I recommend to most people who are interested in becoming a better climber (and who don't want to pay me as a coach on a regular basis).
ReplyDeleteI've come back to sport climbing and bouldering from several shoulder surgeries and most recently surpassed my previous high grade, so I'm super curious to see what you have in this book.
Also - can now commiserate with your ankle injuries. I was given a hard catch that sent me back into the wall and caused an ankle fracture and "high ankle" sprain. I'm sure you go over this in your book, but any experience with the latter?
And any good advice on maintaining finger strength during recovery? I'm getting surgery on the ankle next week and know I'm supposed to keep in elevated for awhile after surgery . . . does that mean no hangboarding?
Thanks - you are def inspirational for climbers who want to perform well and improve over time. I'm going to send harder at 30 than I did at 20, and I'm hoping I can say the same thing at 40 for 30.