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cuud th different muscle groups be reacting tu th climber's belief that thea are categorized as endurance or power? Was th classification made pre- or post- stimulation? Just curious...[/quote]



We didn't catagorize the subjects that way at first. When we were analyzing the data, a trend showed up that suggests that power climbers rely heavily on FDS while the endurance climbers had a more equal burden share.

Won't any climber who climbs too much or too hard (for them) within a given time period get medial epicondylitis? Is there a group of climbers who don't get medial epicondylitis when pushing their bodies past a certain point? Are you accounting for people who do opposition exercises?

Saxman wrote:Won't any climber who climbs too much or too hard (for them) within a given time period get medial epicondylitis? Is there a group of climbers who don't get medial epicondylitis when pushing their bodies past a certain point? Are you accounting for people who do opposition exercises?

Those type of questions would be a answered a few studies out, but anecdotally from what I have observed, the primary population that develops medial epicondylitis are the people that are pulling down hard for their specific ability level (i.e. V3 might be hard for me, but not for you).

When we as climbers get rehabed for ME, it gets treated exactly like golfer's elbow, when mechanically our sport has little to do with golf. We hypothesized that the main muscle that causes ME in climbers is FDS, since it is a finger flexor (one of two) and attaches at the same place that the other "golfer" muscles do. If you are looking specifically at muscle activity, then in "power" climbers, FDS shows a lot of activity, while the others that we looked at were significantly quiter. The "endurance" climbers we looked at showed a near equal recruitment of the other muscles.

This could lead to the question, "Since it looks like power climbers might recruit FDS more heavily than endurance climbers, then do power climbers get ME more frequently?"

Those type of questions would be a answered a few studies out, but anecdotally from what I have observed, the primary population that develops medial epicondylitis are the people that are pulling down hard for their specific ability level (i.e. V3 might be hard for me, but not for you).

anecdotally, one very good example of this is when enduro master Chris Martin (who could lap all day on the Undertow Wall) tried a strong man feat of lifting two 25 lb plates that where pressed together, smooth side out (ala Iron Mind training, if you are familiar with the hand grippers). Basically a very powerful open hand grip (isolating the FDS?). Whammo, insti ME, with several months of hand therapy with Greg Pitts.

My biomechanics may be off here, but it seems like FDS would hold the majory of a load for a climber while PT and FCR would be performing more of a stabilization role.