Post by MarkAnderson on Jan 22, 2015 9:55:16 GMT -7
The discussion of "Pockets vs Edges" in the strength forum got me thinking about pocket injuries. Here is one quick observation from my own personal experience. I have never gotten a pocket injury from trying a move one time that was too hard for me. Generally, I can tell it's too hard and my neurological system is clever enough not to pull harder than my connective tissue can tolerate (YMMV!).
However, on multiple occasions I have injured myself trying a move for the Nth time that was initially within my strength capacity. It seems that your connective tissue stretches as you load it, and with repetitive loading, it stretches more and more, and presumably weakens after some amount of stretching*. For example, your neurological system learns after seasons of hangboarding that it can apply X pounds of force to tendon Y without causing injury. But it's not as good at tracking fatigue-induced weakening of your connective tissue. So when you go to do a tweaky move, it will allow you to apply up to X pounds of force. That might keep you safe (assuming proper warmup) for the first 5 or so contractions, while the connective tissue is still relatively fresh, but it may not after 10 or 15 contractions, once the tissue is stretched and weakened. So the moral of the story is, don't rehearse a tweaky move too many times in one session or day. Move on to other sections of the route long before you start to feel tweaked.
*Incidentally, in the material science world, plastic is known to deform/stretch under load. As the plastic stretches, the STRESS (as in, pounds per square inch) in the plastic increases (even if the load stays the same), because the cross-sectional area of the plastic under load becomes smaller as the plastic elongates. I don't know if connective tissue behaves the same way, but it seems a reasonable theory.
Furthermore, up to a certain point (the "yield point"), plastic will return to its original shape after the load is removed. If it is loaded beyond the Yield Point, the plastic will be permanently deformed. If you load it even more, it will eventually break. I think of pulley/tendon/ligament strains the same way. You have a certain Yield Point, and if you stay within that, your connective tissue will recover during normal rest periods. If you cross the yield point, you will have a serious strain, or perhaps even a tear, on your hands.
