By Matt PincusPublished On: February 22nd, 2017Categories: Injury prevention0 Comments

An unfortunate reality in climbing is that it puts a lot of strain on our bodies which means there are lots of ways for us to injure ourselves. While finger, elbow, and shoulder injuries are the most common in climbers, wrist pain injuries are often overlooked despite the fact that they can be just as debilitating.

To shed some light on how the wrist can be injured in climbing, here’s an article by physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach Uzo Ehiogu from The Arch Climbing Wall blog. In his article, Ehiogu highlights the wrist’s triangular fibrocartilage complex or TFCC and discusses how this complex is often injured in climbers and how we should go about diagnosing and treating this injury.

“In non climbing populations it is common to injure this complex

[The Triangular Fibrocartilage complex (TFCC)] after a fracture of the radial and ulna bones. In a climbing situation it can be injured after a fall onto an out-stretched hand. However, it is far more common to overuse this complex during repetitive use causing low grade persistent wrist pain and instability. It is often injured when there is either a distraction force at the wrist and forearm, (essentially forces which pull these bones apart) such as when hanging off large slopers. It is also injured when wrist compression is combined with rotation or twisting such as when mantling a hold.” – Uzo Ehiogu