What are the early signs of overuse injuries, and how can they be prevented?
EARLY SIGNS: Don’t ignore pain and see your doctor! Overuse injuries result in pain – pain either when doing certain moves, intermittent or chronic pain, pain that builds up slowly, or pain occurring soon after climbing. Those who climb frequently and/or at a high ability level are more likely to suffer from overuse injuries. Classically it is pain some time after activity, then pain at the start and then after activity, then pain during and after, then pain all the time. Not all overuse injuries manifest themselves this way but many do. Whatever the case – do not wait until you have pain all the time! Deal with it! AVOIDING OVERUSE INJURIES: Avoiding overuse injuries generally requires a methodical and gradual increases in training so that tendon strength can match the loading on newly formed muscles. Muscles can appear in six to eight weeks of training, but the tendons may take a minimum of two years to adapt to such training. In terms of tendon injuries by the time the pain is showi
