About a month ago, we posted about the new Yoga for Climbers online course being offered by professional climber and yogi Heidi Wirtz and Climbing Magazine.  The idea of the course is to make yoga more accessible to climbers while providing instruction and classes that are targeted to the specific needs of climbers.

Today, we have an excerpt from the online course in which Heidi Wirtz outlines four yoga poses that will help climbers keep their shoulders healthy, strong, and injury free.

“Shoulder injuries are among the top culprits responsible for taking climbers off of the walls. Between tendonitis and tears of the rotator cuffs and labrums, shoulder injuries are frustrating to deal with and often take a long time to heal. The four poses below, adapted from our Yoga for Climbers online course, will help keep your shoulders stable and your posture in check so you can keep climbing injury-free.” – Heidi Wirtz

4 Yoga Poses to Prevent Shoulder Injuries for Climbers:

While doing yoga of any kind will certainly be beneficial for climbers’ balance, flexibility, and strength, these are four poses that will specifically target the shoulders by helping strengthen them while also protecting their mobility.  The poses outlined are:

1. Downward-facing dog
2. Plank pose
3. Side plank pose
4. Seated twist pose

Each one of these poses is accompanied by a picture and step by step instructions to make them easy to incorporate into your climbing training program.

Additionally, Heidi outlines each one of these poses benefits for climbers so that you can understand exactly what each pose is working towards.  This is especially nice for any climbers new to using yoga to help train for climbing as it allows you to grasp why these poses are helpful for climbers specifically.

Click through below to read more about how these 4 poses can help you strengthen your shoulders and keep them injury free.  While you are there, definitely check out the complete course.  We think it’s a great idea and resource and are looking forward to checking it out ourselves.

Full Article: 4 Yoga Poses to Prevent Shoulder Injuries for Climbers

(photo courtesy of climbing.com)

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• The Yoga Warm Up for Climbing
• Ask Kris 004 :: Shoulder Care for Climbers
• Effective Rotator Cuff Exercises
• 1-Year Shoulder Surgery Update for Neely