EP 284: Four PTs
October 6, 2025
Dr. Jared Vagy returns to the podcast and is joined by three physical therapy students and graduates, Sarah Kremer, Dawson Freeze, and Michael Larson. We talked about three recent articles covering the benefits of seasonality for maximizing climbing performance, rehabbing and preventing common knee injuries while heel hooking, and off-the-wall strength training for climbers. See the show notes for the full articles here.
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Show Notes:
Related Episodes:
EP 256: Stian Christophersen Returns
EP 243: Fundamentals — How to Recover From an Injury
Follow-Up: Matt Heyliger (Pulley Rehab Series)
EP 222: Paul Houghoughi Returns
Articles:
The Case for Taking a Break: The Benefits of Seasonality for Maximizing Climbing Performance and Sustaining Stoke by Sarah Kremer
Common Knee Injuries While Heel Hooking: Diagnosis, Rehab, Prehab, and More by Dawson Freeze
Off-the-Wall Strength Training for Climbers: A Seasonal Framework by Michael Larson
Jared’s Links:
More Articles From Jared’s Website
Climbing Special Interest Group (SIG)
Other References:
Instagram:
@theclimbingdoctor (Jared)
@sarah.c.kremer (Sarah)
@dawsonfreeze (Dawson)
@purplewavept (Michael)
Nuggets:
00:00:00 – Intro
00:04:16 – Overview
00:07:52 – Sarah’s topic (the case for taking a break)
00:10:24 – What Sarah’s research process looked like
00:11:22 – Surprises in Sarah’s research process
00:12:35 – Recommendations on when to take time off
00:15:48 – How to sustain stoke
00:18:04 – How climbing ability solidifies over time
00:20:56 – If Sarah did a follow-up study
00:28:38 – Dawson’s topic (heel hooking and knee injuries)
00:33:22 – Common heel hook injuries
00:35:20 – Go to hip mobility exercises
00:39:00 – Heel hooking warm-ups
00:41:01 – Surprises in Dawson's research
00:43:27 – If Dawson did a follow-up study
00:49:28 – Michael's topic (off the wall strength training)
00:52:10 – How often should climbers weight train
00:55:34 – At what point are you strong enough
01:02:59 – Comparing athletes
01:09:47 – Stability-focused exercises
01:19:18 – Value in taking time off
01:21:19 – Jared's final thoughts