Leg Injury Prevention Exercises

I have strained my knee a little bit doing some bouldering moves recently (climbing, not falling) and I am worried about blowing something out doing an aggressive heel hook or drop knee.  I also had a friend who had his ankle roll on a route (again, climbing, not falling) completely tearing something to the point of needing surgery. What leg exercises does everyone do to try and reduce the risk of injury?  I already do half-pistol squats down to a bench as a warmup (First: down with one leg, up with two.  Second: down with two legs, up with one) as well as a hamstring warmup.  I also do goblet squats and ankle lifts and pulls.  But it seems like it's not enough...

Im guessing flexibility and mobility stretching/workout. 

Do you incorporate any flexibility work into your climbing warmup?  Yoga, dynamic stretching?  

No, I never stretch before climbing - it makes me much weaker.

Cocoapuffs 1000 wrote:

No, I never stretch before climbing - it makes me much weaker.

I don’t know if you’re just trolling now, but on the off chance that you are not:  adding more strength training to a climbing routine with zero flexibility work is, umm…unlikely to lower your risk of injury. 

Sorry if my reply came off as snarky, but I was being serious.  Just to clarify, I do stretch.... just not before climbing.  Same for Yoga.  All my ability to hold body tension goes out the window.  I honestly feel like I am more prone to injury because I am not able to move with the same level of control.  When my climbing gym started holding yoga classes I was shocked at my drop in strength if I climbed afterward.

If there are specific leg stretches to try before climbing I am open to trying them, but overall I have not had success stretching beforehand.

It didn’t seem snarky, it was just so far out that I wasn’t sure if you were serious.  I’m not a DPT so I’m definitely no expert, but the idea that flexibility is somehow the enemy of body tension is a new one to me.  As far as I know, tension comes from engaging your core and thoughtful positioning, not from just generally being stiff.  I guess I could see how a full yoga class before climbing might leave you with less in the tank (depending on how long and what kind of yoga), but generally across sport flexibility work before full exertion is seen as reducing injury risk.  That is why you see basically all pro athletes including flexibility in their pre-competition warm up.  

ymmv  

In general, any cross-training you can do for legs is useful for injury prevention. Squats, leg press, Leg extension, leg curl, calf raises, lunges. 

I sprained my ankle real badly a bunch of years back. The doc explained that repeat rolling of the ankle is highly likely after spraining and "prescribed" an ankle strengthening exercise: stand on one leg. The balancing act activates muscles around the ankle and makes it less likely to repeat sprain. I found it helping for climbing as well and have (semi)diligently continued since. For more advanced, do it with closed eyes. The next step; raise your heel half an inch for that burning calf pleasure. And the "pro" version: raise your heel up and down repeatedly (without going fully down). Excellent exercise while brushing your teeth or waiting in line.

William K wrote:

I don’t know if you’re just trolling now, but on the off chance that you are not:  adding more strength training to a climbing routine with zero flexibility work is, umm…unlikely to lower your risk of injury. 

Systematic reviews of sports injury prevention consistently conclude strength training is the most effective strategy for injury reduction. 'Motor control' exercises like balance and coordination can be helpful in some sports. Dynamic flexibility and stretching are much less clearly protective. (Many prevention programmes bundle a whole bunch of exercises so it's sometimes difficult to determine the active ingredient). 

Lower limb dynamic flexibility and stretching exercises may improve your climbing performance, especially in bouldering, and that's a good reason to incorporate them in a climbing warm-up.

To the OP: much the most important factor in an exercise programme is doing it consistently, so choose a small number of exercises you can do regularly without needing to go to a gym. It helps if you find them enjoyable or satisfying. Some people find encouragement from someone else (a PT or instructor) or group dynamics helpful, you'll know if this applies to you. Your exercises sound fine to me, mainly you need to stick at them for a few years. 

To keep my elderly hips and knees fit for rock climbing I've done single leg squats and box-steps for the last decade. Both are specific to climbing, are a mix of strength and balance work, and require minimal or no equipment. I spend around 15 minutes or so and a similar time on my shoulder and elbow conditioning most days. If I had weak ankles or did a lot of walking in mountain environments I might add another balance or tip-toe exercise like Patrik but I consider those two exercises have enough ankle stability challenge in them for my purposes.

William K wrote:

It didn’t seem snarky, it was just so far out that I wasn’t sure if you were serious.  I’m not a DPT so I’m definitely no expert, but the idea that flexibility is somehow the enemy of body tension is a new one to me.  As far as I know, tension comes from engaging your core and thoughtful positioning, not from just generally being stiff.  I guess I could see how a full yoga class before climbing might leave you with less in the tank (depending on how long and what kind of yoga), but generally across sport flexibility work before full exertion is seen as reducing injury risk.  That is why you see basically all pro athletes including flexibility in their pre-competition warm up.  

ymmv  

Stretching after a workout, rather than before, is recommended for some other sports, although I don't know the 'rule' for climbing.  But I mentioned how stretching affects me to a (non climbing) physical therapist and they did not seem surprised.  During Covid lockdown I actually worked a lot on my shoulder flexibility, which for me is very poor.  After returning to climbing, I was frustrated that I didn't seem to be getting my strength back - I didn't draw the connection between stretching and strength and actually thought I had gotten mild Covid or something.  Only after I stopped stretching for a couple weeks (for unrelated reasons) and immediately saw massive improvement, did I make the connection.  Of course I think the right answer in that case is to deal with the weakness and exercise to recover strength... I just need the patience to do it.

duncan... wrote:

To keep my elderly hips and knees fit for rock climbing I've done single leg squats and box-steps for the last decade. Both are specific to climbing, are a mix of strength and balance work, and require minimal or no equipment. I spend around 15 minutes or so and a similar time on my shoulder and elbow conditioning most days. If I had weak ankles or did a lot of walking in mountain environments I might add another balance or tip-toe exercise like Patrik but I consider those two exercises have enough ankle stability challenge in them for my purposes.

I actually tried box steps last night and I think that will help a lot.  I forgot how much that works knee and ankle stability vs squats.  I also wonder if the single leg squats as a 'warmup' is too much for me right now - I started doing regular squats as a pre-warmup so we will see if that helps.

FRC is probably a good methodology to improve mobility/strength at a joint level.  I have a hard time being consistent with it but it's worth looking into.