Why It's Okay to Hangboard with Straight Arms | Viewer Questions
Hooper’s Beta Ep. 48
Fun fact of the day: Rats are ticklish. Particularly so on their bellies.
Our first viewer question comes from Alisa S, they ask: Sometimes right when I come of my hangboard, my fingers stay in the half crimp position and I physically can't open them. There's never any pain but I do have to use my other hand to unbend them. This usually happens with the harder hangs where I'm pushing my max
Answer: This is a tough one, but there are a few physiological components that could explain it. When we do our max effort on anything, we are compressing a lot of tissue and sometimes it's a neurovascular response to the compression of our vascular structures. The rapid change from max effort to relaxed creates that binding effect as it slowly responds to the change. It may also be a form of cramping where you are burning through energy stores in the muscle and finally give out but a brief moment of cramping occurs because there is no ATP left to break the bonds of the contraction. Yes, ATP is actually needed to BREAK the bond of a contraction, so it’s possible if that’s momentarily depleted the contraction stays. A third possibility is that it is simply a protective response: you're super engaged, and then all of the sudden you let go / fall off and the tension is no longer on the tissue/tendons so the body responds to that sudden change in a manner to protect itself from shortening or lengthening too quickly, so it sustains that position. I think many of us have experienced this sensation to some degree, Alisa. Think about a hard move your working on, or just watching a friend work on a hard move. If they bust off, you often will look down at your hands because they are often times not moving and then feel pretty stiff after, and of course we look down to inspect our skin if it’s outdoor climbing. Any of those number of components can explain it but it’s hard to pinpoint one exactly. It’s not an abnormal response unless the locked time lasts for an extended duration such as greater than 5-10 seconds.
Our next question comes from a user name that has no spaces so I’’ll just say Al. Al asks, to what extent is the pain of lateral epicondilytis supposed to be localized on the epicondyle? I often feel it rather towards the forearm, or sometimes in the opposite direction - on the olecranon
Answer: So lateral lateral epicondylitis itself is literally referring to an irritation of the tendons that insert at the lateral epicondyle the actual diagnosis of lateral epicondylitis should be direct there but general tendinopathies can absolutely be felt more towards the forearm at the musculotendinous junction. Pain isn’t always super isolated and if there is a dysfunction at the tendon it can affect the function of the muscle and can produce pain over the muscle body. However, to answer the second part of the question if the pain is more towards the olecranon while it could be referred pain, it may just another muscle issue. Proper diagnosis sounds key in your case as there may be more than 1 muscle involved!
Our next question comes from Brian Hardell Brian asks a good question related to a TFCC Extension injury: is it detrimental to do these stretches, specifically the ones that stretch the ulnar side of the wrist like the extensor carpi ulnaris stretch, when recovering from a TFCC extension injury?
Answer: Unfortunately the initial answer to this question is: it depends. It depends on one main factor: If the injury made.you hypermobile (excessive mobility) then you don't want to stretch and increase the mobility further than it already has. That happens more often with more traumatic or severe injuries. If, on the other hand, it was minor or less traumatic injury, gentle stretching can help to keep the joint mobility healthy while your tissue is still healing, in fact gentle stretching can help with healing. By doing it early you don't lose joint mobility by being too conservative which will restore normal functioning earlier.
Our next viewer comment comes from max m. they state hmm, a training video with a shirt on...kinda refreshing
Listen max, I keep trying to get Emile to let me take my shirt off, but he says “no no, be professional, no one wants to see that”, so you can thank Emile for that one.
Next question: this one comes from Eric Metzgar . Eric is asking a question related to the hangboard video. They ask: Are your arms straight on those first warm up hangs? I thought I'd read that you weren't supposed to straighten arms... ? Thanks!, great video!
Answer: Great question Eric! When we look at the elbow, we have to understand that most people say “ don’t keep your arms straight, keep them engaged”. Well, since the elbow normally hyperextends, or, extends beyond neutral, if you’re elbow is actually … “straight” it is engaged, because if it wasn’t, it would be further extended. Now, this will vary for each person because everyone has different mobility. If my arms were not engaged, you would see my elbows hyperextending since I have that mobility, but they are engaged and working. So in short. My elbows are near straight but they are engaged, they are not hyperextended.
Our final question of today comes from ichocked Hope
Their question is: What are recommended ways to strengthen the upper trapezius? It might be anecdotal and not representative, but it seems like a lot of climbers strain, pull, or tear that muscle (I have twice and I know a few other climbers that have). I am interested in strengthening it so I don't re-injure myself, but I'm not sure what exercises I can do to load the muscle properly
Answer: Good question ! OK, so I totally get that. I also often see that strains of the upper trap or just muscles in the cervical spine, and they often come during high tension movements or when trying awkward moves. They typically are a result of compensations or weakness in the deep cervical spine stabilizers. These compensations may occur, as mentioned before, when performing really hard moves that you can't control well, or at the end of training sessions when people allow their form to suffer. The upper trap is an important muscle, and development of it is even more important in contact sports such as football, rugby, wrestling, etc as it adds immensely to cervical stability and may have an impact on preventing concussions in such sports, but in climbing, overtraining it can lead to further compensations as it can be a "go to" for scapular retraction, which may affect your climbing mechanics. I would rather promote good body awareness and strength of the middle trap, lower trap, and deep cervical spine stabilizers (google chin tucks) as possible ways to reduce compensations and injuries.
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
