UKC

Hi all,
about three weeks ago I pulled some muscles in my shoulder. I'm having a good run of improvement with indoor climbing at the moment and I'm keen to stay strong for the start of the summer season. I've always had the "Man up" attitude to injury and carried on climbing, then last Monday the shoulder started feeling better but I noticeably seemed to pull some muscles below the shoulder blade during the session. Thursday night it migrated to the base of the spine and has stayed there all weekend. Sitting or standing still is really painful, I've been on Ibuprofen for 48 hours along with a heat pack and it's still no better. I want to go to my Monday wall session but I'm worried that I'll make it worse (and I know I won't climb very well as I can barely stand up straight).
I don't want to lose the strength and endurance gains I've made over the last few months but is exercising my back and stretching whilst climbing likely to do more harm or more good?

In reply to teflonpete: Get it checked out! I slipped a disc in my neck back in December sending pains down my shoulder and arm The wall's the last thing I want to see, though I'm back to some easy outdoor bouldering.

I actually found climbing helped my back injury.
Turned out I'd slipped a disk in the lower of my back, GP was useless but I got physiotherapist to check it out and she gave me some exercises which had it sorted in a few weeks.
When I asked about climbing with it, I was told it was fine as long as I didn't push it and it didn't make things worse.
I stuck to the ropes (bouldering = falling off and compounding the injury) and I felt much better after every session.

With it being a shoulder injury I'd get it checked out properly and take it from there..

In reply to teflonpete:

Gentle climbing often stretches out and relaxes my otherwise achy back. That said, yours sounds worse than mine gets so be careful.

jk

In reply to teflonpete:

take the long view - the loss of training effect from missing monday's session is miniscule compared to the loss strength/endurance you'll be seeing if you have to take 6 months off.

Get it checked out, ideally by an osteo skeletal specialist. No one on here is qualified to give you a diagnosis.

Or continue to carry on and hope it goes away. Sounds nasty though.

In reply to teflonpete:
Cheers for the responses. I've always found in the past that stretching and taking some upper body weight with my arms whilst climbing provides good therapy for minor back injuries. Went to see my GP yesterday and she reckons a swollen disc and gave me some Diclofenac. Went for an x ray today and get the results next week so I'll see what she says when the results come in. It has improved a bit with rest over the last couple of days but I think I'll give it a bit longer just to be sure.