Wilderness Medicine Podcast · Wilderness Medical Society

#32: Finger Strength Training and Wilderness Medicine Interviews

·1 hr 16 min·4 clips

Climbers who rapidly increase grades and fingerboard hard get injured more often, while base-builders do better.

Dr. Fred Bossert and the host open by noting the episode’s delay and the trip south that pushed the recording back. The opening grounds the conversation at the Colchagua Glacier in Chile. The first major topic is an article of the month on sports-specific finger strength training and injuries. That leads into climbing training and what the article leaves out. The discussion then widens to supplements and how much extra benefit they really offer, if any. The tone stays practical and a little skeptical. A recurring point is that proper strength training should deliver much bigger gains than the modest boost promised by supplements. The conversation also pushes back on collagen as a miracle fix, with the reminder that protein is broken down during digestion and rebuilt by the body as needed. There is also a blunt joke about expensive supplements and neon urine. From there, the episode shifts to Chile. Drs. Nicholas Mena and Martin Mussi join to talk about the Chile Summer DIMM program. After that, Fred interviews Drs. Jesse Genner and Justin Gardner. They discuss their WMS committee leadership roles, along with their work in graduate medical education and the Wilderness Medicine Fellows program at Virginia Tech Carilion. The episode ends with a familiar sign-off and the reminder that CME credit is available for WMS members who listen to the journal club portion and complete the questions. The show moves between evidence, field logistics, and program work in a direct, grounded way.

As heard by us

Climbing training, supplement skepticism, Chile mountain medicine, and WMS committee leadership in one brisk episode.

The episode moves from sports-specific finger strength training and injuries into a practical look at supplements, then shifts to Chile for the first foundational diploma of mountain medicine in Latin America and on to WMS committee leadership.

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Why you'd press play

Finger-strength training, climbing, and Chile mountain-medicine work in one brisk listen.

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