EP 79: Tyler Nelson — A Deep Dive Into Blood Flow Restriction (BFR), Finger Training, and Doughnut Eating

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Dr. Tyler Nelson is the owner of Camp4 Human Performance and specializes in tendon loading, strengthening, and rehabilitation. We talked about blood flow restriction training (BFR), and how it can be used for injury rehab, active recovery, or getting stronger. We also talked about finger training, and why most hangboard protocols are more similar than different.

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Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/tyler-nelson

Nuggets:

2:18 – Doughnuts and wiffle ball

6:08 – Overview of the conversation, and Tyler’s dad

11:53 – Chiropractic medicine and watching his dad help people as a kid

14:48 – Tyler’s education

16:38 – Starting to climb in college

18:43 – Wanting to work with athletes, and studying tendinopathy

21:06 – Tyler’s path to C4HP (Camp 4 Human Performance) and the work he does now

25:48 – Root cause

28:29 – Tyler’s most common recommendation: more variation

32:33 – How BFR (blood flow restriction) was created

37:31 – What BFR looks like, what’s happening, and why it works

45:41 – How you would use BFR for a shoulder injury, and literal vs. physiological intensity

51:36 – How you would use BRF to rehab a pulley injury

54:18 – Why Tyler underpressurized the cuffs the first time he does BFR with an athlete

56:33 – Should you try BRF at home?

58:43 – A BRF protocol Tyler tried for finger strength training

1:02:40 – How you might use BRF for training (big picture)

1:05:20 – How often should you use BFR?

1:07:03 – Repeaters vs. max hangs, and how to think about long-term finger training

1:12:15 – Why is BRF useful as a short-term recovery tool?

1:15:02 – Using BRF prior to your sessions, and for warming up for hard climbing

1:18:31 – Finger training doesn’t need to be complicated

1:20:09 – Density hangs

1:22:58 – Emil Abrahamsson, Keith Bar, and the “No Hangs” hangboard protocol

1:31:20 – The optimal loading range for tendon pathologies, and why most strength protocols are more similar than they are different

1:34:45 – Tendon stiffness, and how unloading can stiffen the system

1:38:58 – Speculating about physiological explanations for why Emil’s program worked so well

1:40:58 – Don’t get sweaty and tired on the hangboard, and separating hangboard training from our climbing workouts

1:44:58 – Finger anatomy, condiles, bone lengths, customized finger training

1:52:33 – Doughnut eating

1:53:46 – New tattoo

1:55:03 – Guitar riffs

1:57:20 – Tyler’s wife