Know when to say “when.”
I can’t tell you how many of our friends are broken yet continue to climb. How many of you have pushed your body to the breaking point, sickness, or burnout? I’m certainly guilty of this; it’s almost impossible to avoid if you are pushing your body to its limit, which can become the breaking point in the blink of an eye.
As a result of our commitment to climbing, we all have to deal with an injury at some point. The problem is that, for whatever reason, we all think we’re the exception to the rules of recovery. We think we are the ones who can keep going.
Climbing injured does not lead to more fun, just to more rehab.
When you’re hurt, damaged, nursing an injury, sick, on the verge of illness, have a family emergency, or anything that merits mandatory time off … just STOP. Seriously! What are you trying to prove? Don’t be a hero. Don’t push it. You’re just prolonging the pain.
As soon as you get hurt, you need to shift your priorities from climbing to getting better. It’s that simple. Everything you do should be in alignment with this new goal.
I know from my own experience that it’s incredibly hard for an active person to take time away from the activity they love, but better a couple of months now than persistent issues for the next couple of decades. Seriously, do you really want to be nursing that shoulder in 15 years? No? Then use the weeks or months that it takes to heal to get it back in shape with rest and physical therapy, rather than climbing it into a chronic condition.
Injury doesn’t have to be all bad news.
I’m also going to encourage you to consider that the glass may be half full. Depending on what you’ve injured, you may be able to adapt your training to target other goals.
For example, if you have a finger injury and also happen to have weak shoulders, maybe you spend your recovery weeks lifting weights and working to mitigate that weakness. Or you take the opportunity to work on your cardio by running or jumping rope. Or you work on getting some flexibility into your hips with a new stretching or yoga practice.
If you have a lower body injury, maybe you spend a few weeks hangboarding to build your finger strength.
If you’re sick, maybe you sleep.
It can be hard to see, but there’s a lot you can do. It’s important to avoid the pitfall of all-or-nothing. The time spent nursing an injury (read: not climbing) doesn’t have to be a total loss.
Use this time wisely and you’ll be able to come back stronger.
You have to rest and recover the injured part to prevent it from becoming a chronic problem, but don’t lose the forest for the trees. Get creative and look at the bigger picture, look at the long term. When putting a puzzle together, eventually you’re going to have to put every piece in. You’ll have to work on the weak shoulders one day, so make this the day. I’m willing to bet that there is something that you’ve been avoiding that you could work on while you give yourself time to heal.