Hooper’s Beta Ep. 113

Anatomy of the Climb Ep. 8

INTRODUCTION

Welcome back to another episode of Anatomy of the Climb! We focused again on system board climbs this week and have a few amazing tips from Dan about movement! Be sure to check out the full length video for all the details!

Climb: For big 7a+

Climber: Gustav Larsen

Specific Notes (Anatomy) from Jason: 

• Gustav was nice enough to upload a few videos so we just choose one. The one imparticular was helpful as it showed some interesting scapular positions

  • This climb involves a few huge, spanning moves for him, and he hits them quite dynamically. The one I want to focus on is when the hands are on 14-C and 10H. 

  •  This is your essential wide face pull position. But you can see the inferior angle of the scapular elevating off the rib cage. You can see a feint outline of the middle and lower traps working but there’s certainly a bit more upward rotation than expected in this position. There’s also more scapular forward tilting so the anterior muscles (pec minor) are definitely engaged. I would venture that a bit more serratus anterior strengthening and some lower trapezius strengthening would benefit him because this current position over and over could definitely lead to some impingement. 

• It does look like he does his external rotator cuff strengthening, though!

• Another tip that Dan first introduced to during this serious would be overshooting the hold a bit. He is fully extended so perhaps a bit of a risky position for the right arm. THe supraspinatus is going to be really active trying to help stabilize the shoulder in this position and the space is a bit reduced so could irritate / damage the supraspinatus or impinge it. 

Climb: Vanilla V7

Climber: Bethany Eehn

Specific Notes (Anatomy) from Jason: 

• The first wide gaston is a great demonstration of the shoulder stability required from climbing, but slightly different than your typical scap retraction. In this position she is actually resisted abduction so she is engaging the adductors. The main one for that? The lats. But, the lat’s are stretched out, so the mid back muscles play a role, but believe it or not, so does the infraspinatus! In this position it is still an external rotator but it also helps to adduct. 

  • So, good inraspinatus strength and lats, and midback, what accomplishes that? Oh yeah, wide pull ups :P 

• Speaking of types of pull ups, the next position where she rotates her body in is essentially in the neutral grip position. SO…. I guess all pull ups have some purpose?

Climb: Mikkemus 7C

Climber: Alexis Limozin

Specific Notes (Anatomy) from Jason: 

• Is that a double undercling on pockets start??? 

• All those resisted rows finally paid off. 

  • Also, have any of you thought of doing your rows whether they are normal or inverted rows with a couple of climbing holds? Think about when you’re in the gym but you have a couple metolius rock rings that you attach to the cable instead of the handles…. 2 for 1. Not saying that’s what I do…. But I might do some very similar activities with my cross training ;) 

• Dan can comment on this but just overall wonderful tension and body control during the more dynamic movements

Climb: Dayshift - 6B

Climber: Jacob Hoy

Specific Notes (Anatomy) from Jason: 

• Good hop mobility in the opening sequence - frogger pose for sure 

• Doesn’t do a good job of keeping the left foot digging into the wall as you can see he almost doesn’t grab the left hand because his body is falling away

  • Good practice to work on keeping tension in the hamstrings and adductors while creating movement such as with exercises like deadlifts or inverted rows 

Climb: Linus Undder Schwingquarz 7C+

Climber: Kyan Delaney

Specific Notes (Anatomy) from Jason: 

• First left hand move is that class should stability position where working the external rotators pays off otherwise it can be semi risky position 

• It almost looked like he undershot the left hand but then quickly pulls into it 

• Great use and opposition of the feet on this allow him to move quickly smoothly to the various holds 

DISCLAIMER

As always, exercises are to be performed assuming your own risk and should not be done if you feel you are at risk for injury. See a medical professional if you have concerns before starting new exercises.

Written and Presented by Jason Hooper, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, CAFS

IG: @hoopersbetaofficial

Filming and Editing by Emile Modesitt

www.emilemodesitt.com

IG: @emile166