About me
Hello!
I’m Dr. Natasha Barnes, DC.
I’m a rehab and strength coach for climbers like you who want to learn how to overcome injury and climbing plateaus, so you can get back on the wall, train smart, and climb to your full potential.
As a former competitive climber with over 25 years of experience, and one of the few rehab professionals in the world who climbs and also specializes in treating and training climbers, I’m here to support you with specialized strength training and rehab.
Whether we’re working together with 1:1 coaching, one-off custom programming, or one of my DIY training guides, all of my services and offers are built on the foundation of education and empowerment to help you build resilience, on and off the wall.
With my coaching and programs, it’s always my top priority to teach you how to think smarter with your training and recovery so you can feel comfortable and capable of making the best decisions for you, your goals, and your body.
Having a coach by your side to hold you accountable for your goals, while also supporting you through different phases in your training and educating you on decisions we’ll make together along the way is an invaluable experience.
As your coach, I’m here to help you recover and break any training plateaus safely and more effectively than navigating it completely on your own, or with a coach who isn’t experienced working with climbers.
Resilience is something that’s built by overcoming tough moments. It’s hardly ever easy, but it doesn’t have to be done alone.
You can feel comfortable in the gym.
You can build strength without hindering your climbing capabilities.
You can still climb or lift while rehabbing an injury.
You can get back on the wall pain-free and make the progress you’re striving for.
School
I graduated from a 4-year doctorate program at Palmer West Chiropractic School in San Jose, CA in 2012 with a specialty in rehabilitation, orthopedic sports medicine, and physiotherapy.
I own my own private practice in San Francisco, California.
I have been a ClinicalAthlete provider since 2015.
Climbing & Sport Accomplishments
I have been climbing since 1999.
I am a Touchstone Climbing Athlete.
I am also a former National Bouldering Champion and Teva Games gold medalist (now GoPro Mountain Games/IFSC Vail World Cup).
I have bouldered multiple V10’s and V11’s and climbed 5.13d/14a outdoors.
I have been featured in several climbing films, interviewed or featured in climbing magazines and podcasts, and have been highly active in the community for 20 years.
I’m also a competitive powerlifter with an elite total and multiple State Records in the USPA and WRPF.
I am the 2019 Sub Masters National Champion (75 kg weight class).
My best squat is 331, bench press 187, deadlift 380.
Building Resilience (my philosophy)
Resilience is believed by many to be something we’re inherently born with or not.
Sure, maybe some folks are born into a situation that sets them up to be more naturally resilient than others—but ultimately, I believe that resilience isn’t a quality we’re either born with or not.
Resilience can be learned. Like any muscle or skill, it can be strengthened with practice and translated into different areas of your life.
One of the most accessible ways for folks to build resiliency is through movement or sport. Sports can hold so much power in the transformation of a human, well beyond our appearance.
When you pour so much of your time, energy, and passion into a sport, it can bring a ton of fulfillment to your life. But when injuries arise, or progress comes to a plateau, that sense of fulfillment can quickly turn to frustration.
This is especially common within specialized sports, like climbing. And it’s where resilience comes to the test.
Some of the most resilient humans I’ve ever known are climbers, but there’s work that has to go into building that resilience: patience with rehabbing injury, willingness to scale back to heal, and seeking support from others to break through a plateau or reach our goals faster.
If you’re a climber who’s dealt with an injury, a plateau in your climbing performance, or both, then you’ve probably experienced one or more of the following...
Feeling unsure how you’d be able to get back to climbing without pain or injuring yourself further
Been told by a healthcare provider that you should stop climbing
Scoured the internet for injury advice and come up with nothing useful
Received so many suggestions from friends or online forums that you don’t know what to do
Tried a lot of treatments but nothing seemed to work
Felt like your healthcare provider doesn’t understand climbing
Because climbing is a specialized sport, climbers should get specialized attention from someone with climbing experience themselves, and working with other individuals who climb.
I believe you don’t have to give up climbing altogether to heal or prevent further injury. And, despite what you’ve probably been told, I also believe the research that shows strength training is extremely beneficial to breaking through climbing plateaus, as well as preventing and even lessening the burden of injury in climbers.