Upper Extremity Rehab 4 Climbers

A 2-Day Continuing Education Course for Healthcare Providers

Upper Extremity Rehab 4 Climbers is a two-day, in-person course designed for healthcare professionals who work with rock climbers and want a clearer, more systematic approach to injury assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and rehabilitation.

This course is built for clinicians—physicians, physical therapists, chiropractors, and massage therapists—who already treat musculoskeletal injuries, but want a deeper sport-specific context for climbing. The goal is to help clinicians understand how climbing loads the upper extremity, how common climbing injuries actually present, and how rehabilitation and training modifications can be structured logically and reasonably.

Rock climbing places unusually high and repetitive demands on the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and fingers. Many of the injuries seen in climbers do not fit neatly into traditional orthopedic models, and outcomes often suffer when climbing biomechanics, grip positions, training structure, and exposure history are poorly understood. This course is designed to close that gap.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand climbing-specific biomechanics and how they influence tissue loading and injury risk.

• Identify the most common upper extremity injuries in climbers, including their typical mechanisms, clinical presentation, and expected timelines.

• Perform targeted orthopedic testing and interpret findings in the context of climbing demands.

• Use functional testing (force production, rate of force development, and capacity) to guide rehabilitation and return-to-climb decisions.

• Modify climbing and training plans appropriately, rather than relying solely on rest or generic exercise prescriptions.

• Critically evaluate the role of patient education, passive interventions, splinting/bracing, and imaging within a climbing population.

• Decide when advanced imaging is appropriate, and how imaging findings should (and should not) influence management.

Course Structure

This is a didactic + applied course, with classroom-based teaching paired with hands-on assessment, testing, and programming discussions.

Day 1 — Shoulder & Wrist

Morning (Didactic Focus)

• Injury incidence and epidemiology in climbers

• Shoulder pathology in climbing

  • Rotator cuff pathology

  • Labral involvement

  • Biceps-related pain

  • Overuse vs traumatic mechanisms

• Wrist pathology in climbing

  • TFCC injuries

  • Capsulitis and ligamentous stress

  • Tendinopathies and load-related pain

• The role of climbing biomechanics, grip type, and arm position

• Intake questionnaires and clinical interviewing for climbers

• Utility and limitations of orthopedic special tests

Afternoon (Applied Focus)

• Functional testing for climbers

  • Force production

  • Rate of force development (RFD)

  • Capacity and fatigue tolerance

• Translating test results into rehabilitation decisions

• Training and climbing regressions during injury

• Progression strategies that respect tissue adaptation and exposure history

• Case examples and practical decision-making frameworks

Day 2 — Wrist & Fingers

Morning (Didactic Focus)

• Finger injury patterns in climbers

  • Pulley injuries

  • Capsulitis and synovitis

  • Tendon-related pathology

  • Physeal stress injuries (youth considerations)

• Wrist–finger interaction and load transfer

• When splinting or bracing is appropriate, and when it is not

• Evidence-based discussion of passive interventions

• Indications for imaging and interpretation pitfalls

Afternoon (Applied Focus)

• Finger-specific functional testing

• Load management strategies for finger injuries

• Rehabilitation progressions for grip-specific demands

• Return-to-climb decision-making

• Integrating rehab with ongoing climbing and strength training

• Case walkthroughs from intake to return to performance

Teaching Philosophy

This course emphasizes critical thinking over protocols.

Rather than prescribing one “correct” exercise or progression, the focus is on understanding:

• Why an injury developed

• What tissues are being stressed

• How climbing and training variables can be modified

• When regression and progression is appropriate

Current literature is used throughout the course. Not as rigid rules, but as a framework for better clinical reasoning. Areas of uncertainty, limitations of existing research, and common clinical misconceptions are discussed openly.

Who This Course Is For

• Healthcare providers currently treating climbers

• Clinicians interested in working with climbing populations

• Providers frustrated by poor outcomes using generic upper extremity rehab models

• Professionals who want a clearer, more defensible approach to managing climbing injuries

Course Details

Location: The Climb Clinic. Golden, Colorado, USA

Date: March 28-29, 2026

Available Tickets: 20

If you are a healthcare provider who treats climbers, Upper Extremity Rehab 4 Climbers is designed to walk you through the process of listening, understanding, educating, testing, and programming through the most common upper extremity injuries seen in the sport.