So recently I tore my annular pulley in my ring finger. And now I'm subjected to playing the waiting game. I was just wondering if anybody knows of some good exercises to help with the rehab.
Any suggestions/ideas will be much appreciated.

-Sean

My buddy had a cool device given to him by his doctor. It was like a wristbrace with a plastic arch that rose above his finger extending from the wrist brace (if that makes sense) . A rubberband was attached to the end the arch and your finger would pull down on the rubberband like making a fist. It was very light resistance at first, then increased over time. He wore it while he was driving all the time. Maybe your doctor knows of such devices. Also John Bacher wrote on supertopo.com that soaking in hot water and squeeze putty (you can find it online) really helped his blown tendons. Let me know if you need more info. Good Luck

When you're not actually exercising it, keep it taped to the adjacent middle finger. Place the tape loops on both sides of the first knuckle. Keep it like this at all times for 2-3 weeks.

If you look for the book "One Move Too Many", published by Petzl, it will help you out. I'm plugging my own thing here as I was the editor, but the book has a chart for determining the extent of the ring pulley injury and the rehab time. The doc who wrote the chart is a German ortheopedic surgeon (Volker Schoeffl) who has been climbing 13+ in the Frankenjura for 10 years, so he knows a thing or two about finger injuries.

I've been rehabilitating my finger for the past two weeks. For the first week or so I soaked my finger (actually fingers) in hot water while gently moving the joints. I also massaged and am continuing to massage the finger fairly frequently.

I ordered some therapy putty and have been using it for the past two days (since it arrived - 1st day: XX soft, today: X soft). The motion and exercise seem to help. Basically, I've just been squeezing the putty numerous times during the day, sometimes concentrating on just my index finger (the primary injury), but usually making a fist with all fingers.

Thus far I've gone from no finger motion without experiencing sharp pain to almost normal motion with some minor pain at the extremes of motion. In addition the tenderness and pain from pressure on the sides of the finger joints is essentially gone.

In sum, hot water, massage, and expensive silly putty seem to be doing it for me (my psyche however, is suffering from having to refrain from climbing during the absolutely beautiful weather we are currently having - I need silly putty for the mind).

Hey Guys,
Thanks for all the advice. I'll definitely will be checking out the book. Thanks Sam. Perin, are you recovering from the same kind of injury?

I think so.

I haven't been to a doctor but my symptoms are of pulley damage. I don't think I fully ruptured anything, but I suspect I badly strained or partially ruptured a couple on my right index finger and did some lesser damage to my right middle finger.

I didn't do it by crimping, however. I was kinda dumb and forgot to "uncam" my two fingers from a crack as I started climbing past. Crunch.