Zach Tuck, 21-year-old student at the University of Oregon spends his free time bouldering the rock walls at the Rec Center. Observing him, he gracefully climbs and lifts himself with immense concentration from one rock on the wall to another. He makes it look easy and appears to be in his element, but it hasn’t always been this way. If you look at his leg you will see a long scar down the front of his shin. Tuck was involved in an ATV accident in June of 2013 where he broke his Fibula and spent a large amount of time in the hospital having two surgeries where a metal rod and four screws were placed in his leg.

Tuck went from being active and rock climbing to not being able to walk at all.  He lost most of the muscle in his leg and was told he would never get all his strength back, due to bone growth. After his surgeries and hospital time the true hardships started. Tuck was determined to get his body and active lifestyle back. He spent grueling hours stretching and working with his physical therapist before he was able to walk again.  After recovering enough to walk, he continued his rehabilitation, working to get any strength he could to his leg; but rehab wasn’t enough, he wanted more. He discussed with his physical therapist alternate forms of exercise and mentioned that he used to rock climb, to which his therapist said that would be an excellent therapy tool in rehabilitating his leg.

Tuck had taken a rock climbing class where he learned how much patience and focus it took. He described having to always think about what his next move would be and the connection between his mind and body. Before the accident, he would get on the wall and climb away, but that wasn’t the case after his broken leg. He described starting to climb again as being “funny in a not so funny way.” His body no longer worked the way it did before the accident. His brain knew what he wanted to do but connecting that to his leg movement took a great deal of trial and error.

Eli Tome, a fellow student climber, described a successful day of rock climbing as, “learning something about yourself… not necessarily pushing yourself to get to the top of a hard climb.”

Tuck fell off the wall multiple times and often felt fatigue. He explained limping home most days from the recreation center, knowing that in the long run the pain would pay off. He had to use a great deal of upper body strength and work to support his leg while bouldering the wall.

Even though his body didn’t want to work the way it had in the past, Tuck found it highly therapeutic and learned how much focus it really took to communicate between his brain and the muscles in his body. He was determined to push himself and found climbing a fun way to get movement back. As the days went by, he found himself being able to climb longer and in ways he hadn’t been able to do before. He developed a passion for rock climbing and started filling his free time with it.  Rock climbing has become a way of life for Tuck.  Not only is it a great physical work out it’s also a mental work out. He had to free his brain and concentrate. He found this to be highly therapeutic and found that it reduced his stress. He was forced to listen to the needs of his body and find something he was passionate about. This helped Tuck cope with his injury.

Seeing the progress he has made on the wall has been a motivation for Tuck to continue to climb as often as he can. Not only has his strength improved enough to be able to boulder again, but climbing has also given him enough strength to do other physical activities, such as weight lifting and basketball. When speaking about climbing he stated, “I used climbing to get back into my former self.” Since his injury, Tuck tries to climb three to four times per week. He describes his recovery as rediscovering his inner strength, instead of just reaching the top.

“It’s almost less about the summit and more about the climb,” Alex Alberti, another student climber, said about the real purpose of climbing. “It’s less about where you’re going and more about the going itself.”