wanted to hear some of your guys best tips for healing tendons and pulleys, aside from not climbing on them.

also the average rest period before climbing again

http://mountainproject.com/v/injuries_and_accidents/those_da>>>>>

I have had some success with ice. If you ice after climbing and a few minutes each night it seems to help the tendons heal. Otherwise, my finger injuries tend to last forever. Avoiding the climbing gym also helps.

Hot/cold treatments seem to speed the recovery time.

Place a hot pad over your injury for 5-10 minuets then remove it. Wait a few minuets and then place a cold compress on it for 5-10 minuets. Repeat this several times through the day.

If you don't have a hot pad; fill up a sock with some rice, knot the sock, then microwave the it for a few minuets. You can reuse this home made hot sock for a long time.

The book "one Move Too Many", written by two Dr.'s in Germany who can pull down REALLY hard, has the most up to date info on this subject. It is put out by Petzl.
This is self promo cus I was the editor. However, I know no one who has not enjoyed the book and found it very useful.
These type of finger injuries are super common in the Frankenjura where the authors live. Some of the techniques to repair them have even been named after these two.

So we've covered the healing, what about re-strengthening. Things like chinesse exercise balls, would those help while still in the healing process or make matters much worse. I've also heard of people using a large tub of rice to put there hands in as deep as they need depending on the resistance they want... good idea, bad idea HELP

my experience:
No climbing 2-4 weeks.
physical therapy: ultrasound, massage, cortisone patches, electroshock, heat, etc..
light climbing, conditioning exercise, stretching 2-4 weeks.

then you should be good to go. It mostly depends on how strict you are with not using the injured limb in the beginning. The quicker you cessate activity, the quicker you heal.

exercises:
power putty- pulling and stretching activities. get a big blob and hold it in your fist and squeeze it with all fingers and then each finger individually. take turns hooking each finger around it and pulling it through and stretching out the putty.

rubberbands- wrap several rubber bands around your fingers around the middle to the very tip and open and close them sideways

grip stregthener device- do the pinch thing with your whole fist and each finger individually

dumbell- sit down and hold it in one hand by the finger tips and rollit upwards closing your fist, like going from an open hand grip to a closed fist.

I had a friend once training iron palm using a tub of mung beans, don't know hwo well it would do for rock climbing.

===

I honestly think massage is one of the best things to do! just get a creme/lotion with menthol or something like that for sports injuries and rub the injured finger vigorousely.

Of course these are what I have done, don't take this as medical advice!

Rule of Thumb, If it hurts don't mess with it. When I injured myself I buddy taped my finger for about month and a half. One of the best things to do is immobilize so it can start healing. This also depends on the severity of the injury. If there is any bowstringing get to a doctor, as if it is serious you will end up doing permanent damage that you might not recover from. If you decide to go to a doctor go see a hand specialist. Preferably one with an emphases on sports medicine. One thing I feel helped a lot during the healing process was acupuncture. As far as strengthening went Rule of Thumb still applies. Go out and buy some Theraputty (glorified Silly Putty). Make sure you start out light. But the BEST thing you can do is rest. It sucks but if you want to get back to climbing hard it's a short wait in the grand-scheme of things. Shoot me an email thru the site and I'll get you some more info. Good luck

hey thanks a lot guys for all of the tips. you never realize how important those tendons are until they go "POP"