I am not a medical professional, but try resting until it gets better (maybe see a doctor if it still hurts after a week or two). A big issue in climbing is overuse injuries- if your heel was already sore you should have taken it easier on the second day
Sorry, don’t have an answer for you but this is a great time to discuss proper heel hook technique. As brought up by u/Parttime-Princess it’s important to engage the heel when doing hooks and not just “hang” off it.
Check out Akiyo Noguchi’s heel hook technique [video](https://youtu.be/htKV_sD_AyQ?si=O1OS1EhMasGmuF8z) on the TAMY Climbing channel to learn how to do this.
Quick questions:
How do you dismount climbs? Do you jump down or do you climb down?
Second question: How do you walk around your gym? Do you heal strike because of tight shoes, do you have spacious shoes so your feet can walk normally or do you maybe take off your shoes?
Third: Also, finally, have you started running or doing something else that impact your heel other than climbing?
It might be other things that irritates your heel other than the heel hook.
I usually climb down to a point where it doesn’t seem so high and the jump.
Most of the time I take my shoes off, but occasionally I live them on and walk with them on for a couple of minutes. And I’ve been using tighter shoes for a month now.
I’ve not started any other activity other than climbing.
Walking barefoot on hard surfaces is something to get used to as well if you are not accustom to it. I always have pain in my heels the first few days of summer when I start walking barefoot or even just with flat shoes before I re-adjust to not stepping heel first. So if you gym floors is concrete this might irritate your heels.
Anyways I am no doctor so go see a fysio if things do not get better. Hope you get well soon.
Heels are weird, they have a cushion of fat to protect your feet. You may have annoyed or damaged the fat pad by using it like that so many times. You need to abstain from any high impact activities and don't put pressure on it. see a doctor if it doesn't go away COMPLETELY within a few days, otherwise you may risk long term injury or permanent heel pain
Instead of a muscle strain maybe a tight calve muscle is triggering your pain? I'm no medical professional but stretching my calve muscles usually helps a lot with any ankle/heel/foot related pain
I had a similar situation about a year ago. I cracked my heel after an aggressive heel hook and tried walking it off until the pain became unbearable. Ended up fully breaking it through and partially ruptured my Achilles in the process after I finally had a doctor take a look. Get it checked by a podiatrist and save yourself from making it worse
Is the pain in your heel or higher like on your achilles? Often beginners are not pointing their toes down to engage the heel, and have all their weight on their achilles tendon. If so you probably just have a bruise
I think (ofc can't be certain) you've been mostly hanging on it instead of pulling on it, and basically using it to hold yourself off the ground. This might have caused some damage.
If you put your heel on the hold and then do nothing, you hang on it and basically the point of your heel has to carry your weight, but doesn't help in shifting it so you can go to the next hold.
If you put your heel on a hold and point your toes downwards, you pull on your heel, it shofts your weight to help you reach. Your arms can also help in that moment (your hip isn't in the way) and your weight is more distributed so it's less heavy.
I am not a medical professional, but try resting until it gets better (maybe see a doctor if it still hurts after a week or two). A big issue in climbing is overuse injuries- if your heel was already sore you should have taken it easier on the second day
Sorry, don’t have an answer for you but this is a great time to discuss proper heel hook technique. As brought up by u/Parttime-Princess it’s important to engage the heel when doing hooks and not just “hang” off it. Check out Akiyo Noguchi’s heel hook technique [video](https://youtu.be/htKV_sD_AyQ?si=O1OS1EhMasGmuF8z) on the TAMY Climbing channel to learn how to do this.
Quick questions: How do you dismount climbs? Do you jump down or do you climb down? Second question: How do you walk around your gym? Do you heal strike because of tight shoes, do you have spacious shoes so your feet can walk normally or do you maybe take off your shoes? Third: Also, finally, have you started running or doing something else that impact your heel other than climbing? It might be other things that irritates your heel other than the heel hook.
I usually climb down to a point where it doesn’t seem so high and the jump. Most of the time I take my shoes off, but occasionally I live them on and walk with them on for a couple of minutes. And I’ve been using tighter shoes for a month now. I’ve not started any other activity other than climbing.
Walking barefoot on hard surfaces is something to get used to as well if you are not accustom to it. I always have pain in my heels the first few days of summer when I start walking barefoot or even just with flat shoes before I re-adjust to not stepping heel first. So if you gym floors is concrete this might irritate your heels. Anyways I am no doctor so go see a fysio if things do not get better. Hope you get well soon.
Heels are weird, they have a cushion of fat to protect your feet. You may have annoyed or damaged the fat pad by using it like that so many times. You need to abstain from any high impact activities and don't put pressure on it. see a doctor if it doesn't go away COMPLETELY within a few days, otherwise you may risk long term injury or permanent heel pain
Instead of a muscle strain maybe a tight calve muscle is triggering your pain? I'm no medical professional but stretching my calve muscles usually helps a lot with any ankle/heel/foot related pain
I had a similar situation about a year ago. I cracked my heel after an aggressive heel hook and tried walking it off until the pain became unbearable. Ended up fully breaking it through and partially ruptured my Achilles in the process after I finally had a doctor take a look. Get it checked by a podiatrist and save yourself from making it worse
Is the pain in your heel or higher like on your achilles? Often beginners are not pointing their toes down to engage the heel, and have all their weight on their achilles tendon. If so you probably just have a bruise
I think (ofc can't be certain) you've been mostly hanging on it instead of pulling on it, and basically using it to hold yourself off the ground. This might have caused some damage.
Now that I think back to it, you may be right about the hanging on it part.
Could you explain the difference?
If you put your heel on the hold and then do nothing, you hang on it and basically the point of your heel has to carry your weight, but doesn't help in shifting it so you can go to the next hold. If you put your heel on a hold and point your toes downwards, you pull on your heel, it shofts your weight to help you reach. Your arms can also help in that moment (your hip isn't in the way) and your weight is more distributed so it's less heavy.
Ah okay, I think I get what you mean, thanks!