Esther Smith is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, and the owner of Grassroots Physical Therapy in Salt Lake City. She is a 5.13- climber who’s reaped the benefits of her own physical therapy practices, having healed a shoulder injury through exercises, stretches, and alternative therapies.

She works almost exclusively with rock climbers, which is rare for a physical therapist. For a complete bio and list of certifications and qualifications, please visit www.grassrootsphysicaltherapy.com. This is my second of three interviews with Esther, the first one covering shoulder injuries.

This interview is all about elbows. During the interview, you’ll hear Esther talking about the videos she created to help you understand what she’s trying to explain. You’ll find those videos below, as well as the video tutorials she has for sale on her new website, www.selftreatment.com, which very well may make your elbow pain go away without the help of any practitioner.

In this interview, Esther talks about how to know what elbow ailment you’re suffering from, how to treat it, and how to prevent it from happening again.

What We Talked About

• 3 most common reasons for elbow pain

4 Essential Exercises 

Rice Bucket Exercises 

In this video, Esther Smith shows Brittany Griffith how to use the rice bucket properly for elbow, wrist, and finger injuries.

How to Hang Right 

In this video, Esther Smith explains how to hang right on a hangboard, expanding on her article for BD on that topic. 

Esther created two videos to help you treat Tennis Elbow and Golfer’s Elbow (common climber ailments described in the interview) that are each an hour long. You have to pay for these videos, but it’s well worth the investment if you struggle with elbow pain.

• My first interview with Esther about shoulders