PIP Joint Synovitis

Does anyone have experience with PIP synovitis? I'm going to book an appointment with a specialist as soon as I can, but I suspect that I have this based off of internet self diagnosis. The middle joint on my middle finger is (and has been) swollen for probably at least a year or two now with absolutely zero pain no matter how hard I pull. I kinda just figured that this is just something that happens to most long time climbers and that it wasn't a big deal, but I bent my finger in a weird way and now the swelling seems to be worse, so, in an effort to be proactive about it ahead of booking a doctor, I wanted to see if anyone had any helpful info or tips on how they recovered or rehab tips or if it effected their climbing etc. etc. Thanks in advance!

Evan S wrote:

I kinda just figured that this is just something that happens to most long time climbers and that it wasn't a big deal, but I bent my finger in a weird way and now the swelling seems to be worse, so, in an effort to be proactive about it ahead of booking a doctor, I wanted to see if anyone had any helpful info or tips on how they recovered or rehab tips or if it effected their climbing etc. etc. Thanks in advance!

Seems like maybe you injured something else when you bent your finger in a weird way? Sounds like two different issues/injuries. (Synovitis+excess finger bending)

Max Tepfer wrote:

Seems like maybe you injured something else when you bent your finger in a weird way? Sounds like two different issues/injuries. (Synovitis+excess finger bending)

True. That’s what I thought initially as well, but even after that, which made the swelling look worse, still I have zero pain so I just feel stumped.

Do you crimp often?

I suffered PIP synovitis for ~1 year and found this helped:

Day 0-7: Rest 2-7 days (depending on severity) for swelling to subside
Day 7-14: Warm up fingers (massage forearms 3x, 10s each; grab towels, etc.). Then do 2-3x half-crimp hangs on 20mm for 4-5s with 3-4 min in between. Depending on your base finger strength, do this with toes touching ground so you're hanging 50-80% body weight (if you haven't hangboarded). Or warm up to bodyweight hangs (if you had regularly hangboarded). Do this every other day for 7 days. You can VERY SLOWLY progress to longer duration hangs or have toes touch ground less. Assess your joint pain the morning after hangboarding (leave fingers outside blanket to keep cold so you are more sensitive and aware of joint pain). Your finger should be slightly sore but not hurting or have sharp pains. If you're hurting, then you re-injured it and must restart. Thus, be very careful with your hangs. DO NOT CLIMB during this phase. Sorry, this it he most painful part, but it's worth it.
Day 14-28: Just very slowly progress to 5x 8-10s bodyweight hangs (~4min rest in between). If you're baseline was bodyweight hangs, you can add weight (5-10lb per week), not exceeding ~130% bodyweight. YOU CAN START CLIMBING JUGS HERE.

After Day 28, you should be cured. Above is my protocol. But, it will be different for everyone. The key are max hang sessions (again, which are 8-10s half crimp hangs,~4min rest between hangs, only 2-10 reps, so extremely low volume). DO NOT REINJURE YOURSELF.

Prevent injury: Maintain strong fingers by incorporating these max hangs. Maybe I do 2x max hang sessions (5x 8-10s hangs with progressive loads) per week, including some but not a lot crimp climbing. After you can do many bodyweight hangs, consider 15mm edges. And consider 7/3 (60s total) repeaters. But repeaters are extremely intensive and high volume, so be careful. Climb very little on repeater days. What will re-injure your finger is too many hard crimps per session (high intensity, high volume). Slowly build volume and intensity.

Good luck!

Evan S wrote:

Does anyone have experience with PIP synovitis? I'm going to book an appointment with a specialist as soon as I can, but I suspect that I have this based off of internet self diagnosis. The middle joint on my middle finger is (and has been) swollen for probably at least a year or two now with absolutely zero pain no matter how hard I pull. I kinda just figured that this is just something that happens to most long time climbers and that it wasn't a big deal, but I bent my finger in a weird way and now the swelling seems to be worse, so, in an effort to be proactive about it ahead of booking a doctor, I wanted to see if anyone had any helpful info or tips on how they recovered or rehab tips or if it effected their climbing etc. etc. Thanks in advance!

Could this be an acute injury that happened to a finger that has a chronic condition? Two different issues?