Occurrence of motor system injuries in sport climbers

Introduction. Sport climbing becomes more and more popular in Poland and all over the world. It is a relatively safe discipline, contrary to a popular, erroneous opinion. The term ‘sport climbing’ refers to climbing on natural and artificial walls secured in permanent bolts, protecting against fall. The popularization of sport climbing led to the creation of numerous artificial climbing walls, where competitors can train the whole year round. Each year, climbers overcome more difficult ways, and the new generation of sportspeople is predisposed to obtain the best ones. Unfortunately, in climbing, as in other disciplines, intensive training and constant increase of training exertion often lead to serious injuries of motor organs. Due to the specificity of the trainings, most injuries are located within the upper limb. Objective of the work: define the prevalence rate of injuries in sport climbers, and describe the most frequent types and mechanisms of the trauma. Material and methods. The research included 188 climbers, out of whom 169 men aged 17 to 57 (x= 27,56 ± 6,46) and 19 women aged 18 – 32 (x= 25,71 ± 3,78). Those polled differed among others by the training experience, that is why we divided them into two groups – group A included 93 people with a 1 to 4 year training experience; group B included 95 climbers with a 5 to 10 year climbing experience. The research was carried out with an original questionnaire consisting of 48 questions. Results. In the examined group, each polled had at least one injury of the motor organ related to sport climbing. Climbers from group A had between 1 and 7 injuries (x= 2,98 ± 1,26) whereas those polled in group B between 1 and 10 injuries (x= 4,27 ± 1,71). In both groups, most of the injuries were located within the upper limb (86% in group A and 80% in group B) and most often included fingers (71% in group A and 64% in group B). Injuries of the lower limb occurred significantly less often – 10% in group A and 15% in group B. Injuries within the torso and the head constituted 4% in group A and 5% in group B. Conclusions. In sport climbers, most injuries were located within the upper limb – most often however in the area around the fingers. Injuries of lower limbs most often occur during rock climbing and concern the pelvic bone and the knee joint. Climbers with a shorter training experience undergo injuries of the motor organs more frequently than others.