UKC

I took up bouldering a few months ago and keep getting a problem with my left shoulder during and after climbing. The only way I can explain it is a dull ache that lasts for a couple days or so afterwards. It will often kick in about 20 minutes after I start climbing (I've only climbed indoors so far).

I can sometimes avoid it with a formal warm up like this one with a resistance band youtube.com/watch?v=OENxC3bgAEs& (see 4:50). This doesn't work 100% of the time though, but I'm starting to suspect that I need to buy a new band with more resistance then the one I have currently

I also started doing wall extensions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmIvqwXEtww) which feel great and a great way to loosen up my shoulders. I did these last week after some shoulder trouble I'd been having after climbing, and it seemed to really clear things up.

*however* I went climbing again last night and my shoulder is aching again, I've both exercises above since I went climbing and they don't appear to have helped. I imagine it's because I was thinking I wouldn't need a formal warm up when I went climbing last night because I thought the exercises I'd done in recent nights had improved my shoulder mobility and meant I could warm up simply by climbing some easier problems.

The only thing I can think of is for me to make sure that my shoulder is fully warmed up the next time I go climbing. It's wierd though, I don't know anyone else who suffers from this? I'm 29 and I climb with people older than me, and they just warm up by climbing easier problems and don't have any joint issues like me.

Does anyone else have this issue? I don't see it as an 'injury' as such but I'm thinking maybe I need to see a physio about it, incase it turns into something more serious

In reply to olaep68:

I would be extremely careful and warm up thoroughly before attempting any hard problems.

Shoulders should be taken extremely seriously as a serious injury to them could lead to surgery and possibly a year off climbing.

I am certainly no medic and out of personal experience, what usually causes little shoulder tweaks to me are long moves between jugs on overhanging ground. My last little shoulder tweak happened in my warm up where I was messing around climbing up and down a V2/V3 roof problem when my feet cut loose and most of my weight was taken by my left arm/shoulder.

I also encourage you to find the underlying technique reasons which are causing the pain and eliminate them. Is there a specific type of problem or movement which makes the pain feel a bit worse? At the moment, I NEVER cut loose on straight arms but bend them to engage the biceps and try to maintain body tension at all times.

Do your feet slip often which causes a shock load of weight onto your arms? Look at each foot as you place it and take your eyes of your feet and onto the next handhold only when your foot is placed well and you know that it won't slip.

In reply to olaep68:

Shoulder issue or not, you should always warm up carefully before climbing, not just when you think you have an issue! Will save a lot of hassle down the road

In reply to zmv:

Thanks for the tips! okay, thorough warm ups beforehand every time from now on!

I'm not sure it will be down to my technique or specific problems to be honest. I climb with a friend who is significantly better than me so he is always sure to advise me where I'm going wrong. The pain kicks in very gradually over the course of 10–20 minutes so it's hard to pinpoint what would be causing it exactly.

I'm starting to suspect it may be down to a tight pec minor muscle. I've read about something called 'pec minor syndrome' and coincidentally when I went climbing last night my chest was (and still is) quite sore from a chest workout I had the other day.

I've used my foam roller on it which appears to have provided some relief. But who knows, this could be just yet another solution I *think* I've found and then find out further down the line that the pain persists.

In honesty my shoulder hasn't felt quite right for couple years or so. It doesn't bother me most of the time (even in the gym) but since I took up climbing it seems to have become quite an issue, despite not hurting every time I go climbing.

I'm starting to think a visit to the physio may be in order

In reply to olaep68:

Where in your shoulder is the pain? Rotator cuff, deltoids, shoulder blade? There are lots of possibilities.


Those are basically rehab/prehab exercises designed to improve posture, strengthen small muscles, and generally prevent injury in the future.

They're great exercises, but if you've got a current strain or inflammation in your shoulder, they're not going to magically make it heal faster.


It probably just means that they currently haven't tweaked their shoulders. I boulder a lot, and I know plenty of people in their twenties who've had a shoulder problem from climbing at some point; it's really common and not weird at all.

The people you climb with may also have been climbing for longer, so their bodies have had more time to adjust to the stresses of climbing. As a newbie boulderer, you're dumping a lot of intense new demands on your body in a short space of time, and it's really easy to get over-use problems.

In reply to slab_happy:

The pain feels like it is inside my joint, perhaps the RC? (though I'm not 100% sure on where that is!)

Thanks for your advice, that all makes sense!

As per one of my responses above, I am becoming increasingly certain that my shoulder pain may be down to tension in my pec minor muscle. I've read up on this article and the symptoms sound so familiar http://www.triggerpointtherapist.com/blog/pectoralis-minor-pain/pectoralis-...

Especially where it talks about the pain travelling to the inside of the elbow and tingling down the arm / hand. The tingling has only happened once or twice, but still recently and I was pretty sure it was somehow related to my shoulder when it did happen.

Of course I'm not saying I'm comfortable diagnosing myself online as I'm no medical expert (I've self-diagnosed all kinds of conditions in the past and been completely wrong!) but it would be reassuring to at least have an idea. I think I'll pass all this info on to the physio anyway

I'll continue foam rolling my pec-minor and see how I get on, aswell as booking a physio appointment

In reply to olaep68:


That can definitely contribute to shoulder problems, and is a common issue for climbers. It's really hard to stretch the pec minor or get rid of knots in it, though (speaking from personal experience).

As I mentioned in a previous thread, since you're training hard in the gym you might want to keep any gym workouts involving your shoulders as far away from your climbing sessions as possible; the risk of over-use stuff is pretty high.

I highly, highly recommend getting a copy of "Make or Break" by Dave MacLeod; it's the state-of-the-art guide to climbing injuries, how to treat them and how to (hopefully) avoid getting them in the first place. And if you like reading up on these things, it's a geek-fest of info.


If you've got the option of seeing a physio conveniently, then yeah, sounds like it's past time to see them.

In reply to olaep68:


Could easily be rotator cuff -- N.B. I am not a doctor or physio and do not play one on the internet, but I know enough to know that the rotator cuff muscles are really easily strained.

And the problem is that some of them have to fit through rather tight spaces in the shoulder joint, so if they're inflamed and swell up, they start rubbing against or being pinched by the bone. So it can be bit tricky (but do-able!) to let it heal and rehab them without aggravating things.

Pec minor tightness is one of the factors in climbers' posture problems (the classic hunch with rounded shoulders) which can contribute to the shoulder being in a bad position and more easily strained. So, could all be part of the same picture.


Sounds like a good plan.

In the mean time, the important info to hang onto is that this doesn't sound like a weird mystery injury; this sounds like exactly the kind of shoulder tweakiness that affects a lot of climbers. And whether it's rotator cuff or something else, the odds are that it's very treatable and manageable.

At worst, you may always have to be careful with making sure your shoulders are properly warmed up, but that's not an insuperable burden.

In reply to slab_happy:

Thanks for all this! All sounds good and quite reassuring. I do find myself hunched at my computer a lot (funnily I was hunched as I was reading the article I linked to above, whist it was discussing being hunched at a computer desk being an aggravating factor!)

Hopefully I can avoid any long term injuries then

In reply to olaep68:

I've just started some physiotherapy for an ongoing shoulder problem/pain I've had for 2-3 months now. The physio reckoned it was due to my long term posture at my workstation, ie hunching forward to type and use the mouse. This could be exacerbated by climbing +/ bouldering. She reckoned it was an RC impingement and has given me some thera-band exercises to do, which will be followed up by hands-on manipulation. The main thing however is correct postural alignment, so I'm working on that. Even though my first session was only last Friday I can already feel the benefit of a few exercises to pull my shoulders back, and better posture while sitting & standing.

I'm not necessarily saying it's what you have too, but the symptoms sound similar. Good luck.

In reply to Fraser:

Thanks yeah that does sound very similar! I work at a desk all day and find myself hunching forward all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if that is what started my shoulder problems and then the climbing has made it more apparent.

We will see anyway!

In reply to olaep68:

Another vote for poor work posture. I've had a lot of shoulder problems that my doctor sent me to a consultant for. They considered operating but thank goodness did not as they couldn't work out which of the many age-related problems in the joint might be causing the trouble. Then it was decided that steroid injections might help so I've had 5 years of these which have helped but it comes back in the end. Then the other day, my wife who happens to be a physio, said that she thought it was probably a trapped nerve in my neck that was causing the problem. She treated it for 5 minutes every other day for 3 weeks and bingo, cured!

So all you have to do is marry a physio...!

In reply to Fraser:


Yeah, climbing and computer use both seem to do exactly the same thing to posture, so I suspect if you do a lot of both (as so many of us do), it's a high-risk combination.