For the past couple of months, our clinic has been hosting regular workshops on injury prevention for climbers.  This month I got completely swamped with #APTANEXT and life in general so I was super lucky to convince kettlebell badass Paul Corsaro to swing by and give us a little primer on using kettlebells.  Paul has been a regular attendee of our previous workshops and consistently puts out great content on his blog and Instagram and luckily for me just as stoked as I am about building the community of climbers here in Chattanooga.

After the usual banter that occurs before these things start, we got down to business starting with halos.  (For the record, that’s my husbands guns and shiny head in the foreground)

Halos are a great way to work on trunk stabilization and can be a great warm up before your climbing workout, or for any clinicians out there, a great start for trunk control in rehab.  This can then be progressed through half kneeling, standing, single leg stance, etc.

Next up was the arm bar.  As Paul’s fiancé Taylor demonstrated this, both Rebecca and I were too distracted comparing notes about rehab implications for this exercise for me to snap a picture.  Luckily, Paul has created a great video and blog describing this perfectly.

Form was key as Paul discussed the deadlift and had this great little wall trick to help everyone figure out the movement before loading up with KBs.  Everyone stood about a foot or so from the wall and then focused on really reaching back with the bum to touch the wall while keeping the back straight as you hinge at the hips.  I’ve already used this at least three times this week and it has definitely made a difference in how I teach the deadlift to patients who have never performed it before.

And finally, the Turkish Get Up.  I LOVE this movement so stinking much.  As it turns out, I’m not the greatest at these (step 2 involves a tad more thoracic flexibility than I’m blessed with) but Paul helped me to figure out how to push and roll to get through my crux of the movement.  One of the biggest predictors of falls in the elderly is fear of falling, so I like the idea of getting people on the floor and working through variations of the #TGU to get people past that fear.

This was such a fun, interactive workshop and while any of the attendees were stoked on adding some KB work into their normal routine, Rebecca and myself were just as psyched to have some new rehab ideas.  If you want to learn more about training with Paul or implementing kettlebells into your program, check out his website linked above.  Also, Paul co-wrote the ebook Kettlebells for Climbers with owner of Power Company Climbing Kris Hampton and is offering $5 off the usual price with the coupon code ‘peak’.  That’s a 12 week training program to bring your climbing to the next level for just $15!

As always, we are truly grateful to all the climbers that attend these workshops, its the Chattanooga climbing community that keeps programs like this alive.  Keep an eye out on Peak Fitness and Physical Therapy’s facebook page for updates and notifications of our next workshop!  We’ve talked upper extremity injury prevention; we’ve talked lower extremity injury prevention; next month we discuss keeping your spine strong!