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Someone who has never been climbing may think “How can you just ignore an injury and act like it never happened?” The short answer is you don’t ignore them you just constantly feel the pain from all of them until it all goes numb. While this is a horrible way to think doctors are expensive and warming up your recently dislocated shoulder for an extra 10 minutes is free. Speaking of a recently dislocated shoulder causing issues mine has been acting up as of late. Now dislocating something does not have to be a serious injury if you can reset the joint properly yourself or with help from others. However, when I dislocated my shoulder, I was waterskiing and had no idea how to properly set it back in place. So, I did my best with the knowledge I had, and it did not go well. Ever since my shoulder mobility and strength has been much worse than it was previously. Although, with the more training that I do I am able to gradually build my strength back up and work through the very avoidable pain.

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Another Injury that I had in the past the greatly affect my climbing for some time were my many clavicle (collarbone) fractures. Throughout my life filled with many bad and dangerous ideas it is surprisingly the only bone I have ever broken, knock on wood. Although it is among the top 5 most painful bones to break and I have broken it on four different occasions. It has always been my right collar bone that has broken which I blame on the fact that I am right handed. When falling I will often prioritize bracing myself with my right arm which is a bad habit to have. When falling ideally one will roll to their back to brace the fall and avoid all the impact going into points like the shoulder, wrists, or elbows. This is something I have always known being a climber, and every time I seem to ignore it I end up with a broken collarbone. These breaks no longer cause me pain when I am climbing, but right after they happened I was unable to climb for about three months each time.

While these injuries were very unfortunate, I try not to let them affect me in my everyday life and in my climbing. I have worked through them in the past and I will continue to work through them in my future. At some point I should probably see a doctor, but I’m going to get the most bang for my buck, if you know what I mean. Every climber I know has some sort of injury that they are working through so that is often a good way to bond with climbers you are just meeting. There are many climbing related injuries that can cause climbers to have to take much more time off than I have, such as a torn tendon. I am just thankful that I am smart enough to remain careful and warm up properly. Otherwise I may be making my trip to the doctor earlier than I expected to.