All the training in the world isn’t going to get you up your project if you are always injured.  While it is important to keep up with your injury prevention and mobility work, this isn’t going to prevent injuries altogether.  To really be proactive in trying to prevent injuries, it is also important to try and correct the dangerous and stressful movement patterns that lead to injuries in the first place.  Nowhere is this more important than with rotator cuff strains.

To help you avoid these debilitating shoulder injuries, here’s an article by Dr. Jared Vagy in which he identifies the movement patterns that put your rotator cuffs at risk and then shows you how to correct them.

“The shoulder is made up of four rotator cuff muscles. These muscles connect the shoulder blade to the arm bone. The rotator cuff muscles act together as a unit to control shoulder motion. The rotator cuff is weaker than the large muscles that attach the shoulder blade bone to the spine. When you climb with poor posture and pull excessively with your arms instead of climbing with your shoulder blades engaged, you increase the strain on the rotator cuff muscles in your shoulder.” – Dr. Jared Vagy

Change Your Movement Patterns:

In his article, Dr. Vagy doesn’t give you a series of injury prevention exercises.  Instead, this article is all about learning to eliminate the stresses that cause these injuries.  To do so, Dr. Vagy shows you the movement patterns and examples of poor climbing posture that are most responsible for causing these injuries.  Then, by using a series of photos and video, he shows you exactly how to correct these movement patterns so you can minimize the stress climbing places on your rotator cuff.

Click through below to see the full article and watch the video.  Your shoulders will thank you!

More from Dr. Jared Vagy:

If you like what you see here from Dr. Vagy, be sure to check out the Injury Prevention Guide he wrote for us.  It is full of detailed information and practical advice about how to prevent all kinds of climbing injuries.

Full Article: Avoid Rotator Cuff Strains by Changing Movement Patterns

(photo courtesy of theclimbingdoctor.com)

Other Articles You Might Like:

• The Climbing Doctor Shoulder Exercises
• TBP 014 :: Physical Therapist Jared Vagy on Injury Prevention and Treatment
• Balanced Climbing Shoulders
• Hang Just Right: Shoulder Maintenance for Climbers