Wrist Injury

9 days ago I was doing some pull-ups on my hangboard (45° sloper) on my third set I felt a pop in my left wrist. Started hurting pinky side. From some of the research I've done it appears to be a TFCC tear/strain. Doesn't appear like I lost strength in the wrist, and currently (day 9) can do push-ups with only mild discomfort. How long can I expect for this to heal before I can resume full workouts again?

Well I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out there are lots of forums covering this..
but from experience the TFCC is a tricky injury, prone to flare ups. If you have any discomfort, I’d dial it back, work on rehabbing the wrist.
There’s also a brace called the wrist widget that many climbers swear by, although my wrist healed enough with PT and being choosy about problems, so I’ve never tried it.
Slopers are the enemy in my experience.
Do you do any form of accessory work?

I appreciate that information. I normally do quite a bit of accessory type workouts during my upper body workouts 3x a week. But with this whole outbreak I've been limited on the workouts I'm able to do without the gym. I ordered some resistance bands to hopefully PT my wrist a bit. Is it okay to start doing resistance work on my wrist 9 days in?

If it hurts stop. Best advice for tfcc tear. It'll come back...

Kelley Gilleran wrote: If it hurts stop. Best advice for tfcc tear. It'll come back...

Yup. I’m no PT, but it really depends on factors like severity of the injury, how your body handles inflammation etc. so law of specificity. 9 days seems quick, if it still hurts rest more. The goal is to rehab the wrist to above the stability you had b4, or close to it if it’s really bad. Don’t play with it if it’s not healed, it will just take longer or likely become worse.

I pushed myself, and would enter situations like topping out, where I couldn’t just hop off and stop, had to push through the popping to get off.. bad idea.

Anyone that is curious my wrist is about 85% two weeks in. Healing very well!

Seth, I hope things continue to get better for you.  I use two rules to follow when working with clients.  The first is "the stoplight "and the second is  "Goldilocks".

Stoplight - Green light is the activity feels fine ; yellow light the activity is a little uncomfortable but, calms down quickly once stopped ; red light is significant discomfort that takes longer to calm down

Goldilocks - ultimately loading (exercising) is what tells the tissues to adapt and what they need to be able to tolerate.  We want to find the "just right" amount.  If you don't do enough the tissues don't get the stimulus to regenerate how they need to.  If you do too much, you risk injury and slow down healing.  In the early stages after injury, slowly nudge your loading up each day.

If you use the stoplight to be a gauge of what you can tolerate in the moment and Goldilocks to see how it responded the next day, you will be recovering at the fastest rate that your body will tolerate.

Keep up the great work!

Dan Crusoe wrote: Seth, I hope things continue to get better for you.  I use two rules to follow when working with clients.  The first is "the stoplight "and the second is  "Goldilocks".

Stoplight - Green light is the activity feels fine ; yellow light the activity is a little uncomfortable but, calms down quickly once stopped ; red light is significant discomfort that takes longer to calm down

Goldilocks - ultimately loading (exercising) is what tells the tissues to adapt and what they need to be able to tolerate.  We want to find the "just right" amount.  If you don't do enough the tissues don't get the stimulus to regenerate how they need to.  If you do too much, you risk injury and slow down healing.  In the early stages after injury, slowly nudge your loading up each day.

If you use the stoplight to be a gauge of what you can tolerate in the moment and Goldilocks to see how it responded the next day, you will be recovering at the fastest rate that your body will tolerate.

Keep up the great work!

Dan, this helps so much, thank you!!!!

Got a TFCC tear myself. Doctor likened it to a rock in your shoe...annoying, but not the end of the world. It flares up from time to time, but it’s been pretty manageable. Definitely not the worst of my nagging injuries.