Are You Injured and Spiraling? Here’s How to Handle It Like a Pro.

When four-time Boulder World Cup Champion Natalia Grossman struggled with an LCL and popliteus tear before the Paris 2024 Olympics, she put on a brave face in keeping with her ‘smile and fight’ motto. “I tried to convince myself that I was fine and that I would be ready for the Olympics, even though I couldn’t use my leg for a while and wasn’t even bouldering,” she says. “Lying to myself was pretty hard, but I couldn’t face what was really happening.”

Injured climbers usually have two questions in mind: “How long will it take to heal?” and “When can I get back on the wall?” Frustration with injuries isn’t just the preserve of pros who rely on climbing for their career—amateurs and weekend warriors can struggle with the mental impact of not being able to do the sport they love and enjoy the lifestyle it brings.

Whether you’re suffering from a minor finger injury or a major bone break, here are some tips and strategies from pro climbers and a sports psychologist to keep your mental health intact.

Managing the injury aftermath

When Tommy Caldwell lost half of his left index finger in a table saw accident in 2001, climbing was “basically everything” to him. He was young and progressing quickly with what looked set to be a successful climbing career ahead of him. “It all seemed in jeopardy, so I jumped back in it with all I had,” he says.

Most climbers, however, struggle to find that same fire for recovery. Sport psychologist and climber Jana Unterholzner of Unblocd, an online platform providing mental skills training, says that many injured climbers effectively go through a grieving process.

“Athletes can experience injury as a loss and they actually follow the stages of grief, which are first denying the injury, then being angry, facing frustration, bargaining and then acceptance,” she says. As a result, an injured sportsperson can experience a variety of psychological changes, from low mood and irritability to depression.

Identity loss: If I can’t climb, who am I?

Compared to other sports, climbing can be a significant part of our identity and a forced break inevitably threatens it. The routines we build as climbers—centered around going to the gym, getting outside, meeting friends and reaching goals—get shaken up and we can lose sight of our purpose.

“From a psychological perspective, I think climbing is more than an identity per se—it is also our way of living and our way of connecting with the world, connecting with ourselves and regulating emotions,” says Unterholzner. “When you’re injured and you can’t let stress out on the wall or rock, suddenly that emotion regulation element falls away and brings challenges.”

Are some injuries easier to deal with mentally?

Climbing may be a whole-body sport, but one of the most common climbing ailments affects the fingers. Although objectively minor in terms of overall wellbeing, finger tweaks are no less frustrating. “They’re not necessarily easier to deal with psychologically, because when you have a broken bone, you simply can’t climb,” says Unterholzner. “But if you have a pulley strain or something else relatively minor, it can be harder to accept and easier to keep climbing, potentially delaying recovery.”

Likewise, if there’s a clear timeline such as healing from an acute bone break, the process can involve less uncertainty and mental struggle than the open-ended comeback from chronic injuries to tendons or ligaments. The circumstances leading to injury can also complicate mental recovery, such as a fall or accident. If trauma symptoms such as anxiety, flashbacks or avoidance persist, Unterholzner advises seeking professional psychological support.

Grossman experienced greater acceptance after tearing her ACL and meniscus in February. “Compared to my previous injuries, this one was just so severe that as soon as I had a diagnosis, I thought: OK, there’s no point in even trying to be ready— there is no season this season!” she says.

Occasionally, though, the outcome is better than anticipated. Caldwell—who healed from his finger amputation and went on to make the first ascent of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall in 2015—remembers surprising himself. “The injury seemed really bad from afar, but the reality was less severe than I thought,” he says. “I was therefore able to exceed my own expectations day after day and ultimately make the biggest progression I’ve ever had in climbing.”

Strategies for mental recovery

Work on your mindset while resting and rehabilitating

While there’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution, Unterholzner encourages shifting from a threat mindset to a challenge mindset. “You can reframe the injury recovery process as an opportunity for growth,” she says.

Caldwell’s experience reflects this philosophy: “There’s something liberating about starting again at the bottom and feeling that improvement day after day. If you’re super hungry, injury has a way of resetting the progression flywheel.”

Take it slow

Secondly, Unterholzner recommends goal-setting to reduce uncertainty. “Break the goals down into hope goals and realistic goals,” she says. “Taking smaller steps is really helpful, because recovery can be so uncertain and if you miss a high goal, you might think “I failed”. Reevaluating goals helps build self-trust to support a gradual recovery.

To stay motivated, Grossman created a “win wall”, where she would note small milestones from managing everyday tasks to making minor progress in physio exercises: “I love updating it as the wins get bigger and bigger— but it comes in waves.”

Write down—and share—your struggles

Another tip is to document your physical and emotional recovery. In one study, Unterholzner explains, athletes who wrote about their emotions recorded an improvement in emotion regulation, happiness—and even improved physical strength.

Following the Olympics, Grossman felt liberated through sharing her struggles openly with coaches, physios, family and friends and on social media. “Feeling your emotions and being honest with yourself, that’s something that I wasn’t able to do before Paris, but I’ve really focused on that now,” she says.

Broaden your horizons outside of climbing

One benefit of time away from climbing is the opportunity to enjoy—and even discover— other interests. Having purpose is key: “It can help to work on other areas at the gym depending on the injury, or do mental work like visualization, but it can also help to find distance and explore other areas of life,” Unterholzner says. “I like to imagine ourselves as a ball with different threads holding us up. Climbing is a really strong thread holding us in place. If that suddenly breaks down, then the other ones become even more important to keep us stable.”

Social support is also vital—something which time away from regular sessions can hinder. Caldwell remembers his late friend Hayden Kennedy musing during an ACL recovery: “I have so much time to learn the guitar, hang out with friends and pursue the things in life that climbing was getting in the way of.”

Returning to climbing

Healing physically is only half of the process. The mental hurdles of getting back on the wall can be even greater.

Trust the process: the ups and the downs

One of the biggest mental barriers when returning to climbing is the fear of re-injury, known as kinesiophobia, which more than half of sportspeople experience. “Lowering expectations is the way to go—as reaching too high too soon, comparing yourself to pre-injury levels, being overly self-critical and losing confidence are all interlinked,” Unterholzner says.

Through her multiple injuries, Grossman has learned to focus on what she can do—and that progress is not linear. “The ups and downs are all a part of it, but it’s hard to keep going when you’re not seeing progress, you’re experiencing pain, or it feels like you’re digressing,” she says.“It’s about trusting the process and celebrating the small wins.” Her latest big win was a victory in the North American Cup finals in August, marking an impressive comeback.

Caldwell’s recent Achilles injury was different to his finger amputation both in terms of the type of injury and his decreasing dependency on climbing due to family commitments. “It seemed comparatively minor at first, but the extended nature of the injury meant that I was rarely meeting my expectations, much less exceeding them,” he says. “I always thought my happiness was dependent on my ability to go climbing consistently, but my Achilles injury showed me it wasn’t. I was excited to return to climbing, but ultimately I was doing just fine without it. That’s my approach now.”

Both injuries helped him realize what he valued at the two different life stages as his priorities shifted. “The finger accident showed me how much hard climbing was important to me, while the Achilles injury showed me that I really miss the experience of big adventure.” As soon as he could, Caldwell cycled to Alaska and climbed the Devils Thumb with his longtime climbing partner Alex Honnold.

Injury struggles: a taboo topic?

Unterholzner believes that the mental impact of injuries is still a taboo topic, partly due to climbers typically harboring stubborn traits and a “mustn’t grumble” philosophy.

Grossman advocates for “holding onto hope” and staying positive. “But you should also feel those hard times, let the emotions out, don’t bottle it up,” she says.

As frustrating as injuries can be, Unterholzner emphasizes that overcoming injury-related adversity can teach resilience: “It’s quite amazing to think of an injury as an opportunity to learn skills that can help you beyond climbing.”

Ultimately, as the saying goes, absence really can make the heart grow fonder. “You sometimes understand how much you value something when you lose it for a time,” Caldwell says.

Practical tips from Unterholzner:

The RULER approach can help you work through difficult feelings during recovery.

• Recognize what you’re feeling (fear, frustration, sadness).
• Understand where it’s coming from (worry about losing strength, feeling left out, slower-than-expected progress).
• Label the emotion more clearly (e.g., “I feel frustrated because I can’t climb yet” instead of just “angry”).
• Express emotions in healthy ways (journaling, talking about it).
• Regulate with mental tools (deep breathing, music, relaxing activity).

Journaling prompts:

• How am I feeling today?
• What’s one small improvement I’ve noticed?
• What’s my biggest challenge right now?
• What’s one thing I’m grateful for in my recovery?

 

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