The Self Rehabbed Climber
Andrew McVittie’s new book ‘The Self Rehabbed Climber - Everything you need to treat climbing injuries with confidence’ is certainly one that should be on all climbers bookshelves, as well as therapists who work with climbers.
Doing any form of sport involves pushing yourself close to your limits, and occasionally you will slip the wrong side resulting in a niggle or minor injury. Climbing is no different. This book by Physiotherapist Andy McVittie empowers you to be more aware of your body and how to manage common minor injuries or niggles yourself. Anything more complicated or serious you are of course advised to seek professional help.
Importantly for a book on rehab, Andy focusses on the big rocks first; nutrition, recovery, training load balance, rather than jumping straight into exercises and protocols. There are additionally sections to educate the reader on the latest understanding regarding tissue healing, how to manage acute injuries (out with RICE and in with PEACE & LOVE), improved terminology around tendon injuries, and how the concept of ‘pain’ should be viewed in training, injuries and rehab.
The book then goes through many of the common injuries experienced by climbers, educating the reader on what the injury is, why is likely to have happened, how to determine the severity (and thus if it can be managed on your own of if you need to seek help), then a series of exercises you can use to progressively rehab’ back to full training. These include the likes of; pulley injuries, wrist injuries, golfers elbow (medial epicondylosis), shoulder pain, upper back pain, as well as hamstring strains from heel hooking. Each of these problem areas has it’s own chapter with example exercises and progressive routines to follow.
Obviously this doesn’t replace getting personalised care from a health professional, but for the vast majority of minor injuries you will encounter climbing, this resource will help you self manage, making you more aware of your training, and dealing with minor niggles before they become a full blown injury which sidelines you for weeks or months!
