Another Finger Injury Post

Hey friends,

So over the last few months I have experienced a number of finger injuries. Nothing too serious, just a series of nagging tendon strains that take a few weeks to heal and inhibit my ability to climb at my normal grade. All of these injuries have been a result of bouldering (who would have guessed?).

My question is do you have any advice on how to limit these types of injuries? Should I only be projecting at the gym once a week? Only bouldering in general once a week? Climbing below my redpoint for a while so that my tendons can catch up with my finger strength? (I read somewhere that finger muscles develop more quickly than tendon strength, and that if you jump grades quickly this can cause these types of injuries).

Any constructive input would be great.

Thanks!

Make sure to warm up properly.

And avoid them crimps, especially dynamic movement into or out of a crimp. I just had a minor one moving right big off a little left hand crimp and the movement transferred much of the force to my left pinky, causing it to pop.

Better yet, just change your climbing style:

youtube.com/watch?v=gB-makV…

Kev V wrote:Make sure to warm up properly. And avoid them crimps, especially dynamic movement into or out of a crimp. I just had a minor one moving right big off a little left hand crimp and the movement transferred much of the force to my left pinky, causing it to pop. Better yet, just change your climbing style: youtube.com/watch?v=gB-makV…

My finger ends up hurting I think more to overuse than anything else its just hurts out of nowhere not anything specific just climbing a lot and wont go away for month unless I rest completely. if climbing inside I would say use a watch or timer to make sure you take enough time off in between routes its so easy to go from one to the next that its easy to get hurt. I never seem to get hurt outside because I have usually at least 30 minutes between climbs. Spend more days climbing easier stuff than hard. warm up like kev said don't miss it, I did and i'm hurt because of it. avoid the crimps if possible try to climb open handed it might drop you down some grades but it is a good habit to get into. I found that when first starting I crimp everything even unconsciously doing it on jugs! work antagonist this is like brushing teeth must be done or you will break down and get hurt. this is my experience I am waiting to come back from a finger injury and will make damn sure I slow down warm up stretch and work antagonist and take it easy more often.

In my experience:

Whole hand + Bucket of ice water + climbing videos

10 minutes each hand a couple times a week, or after hard sessions, will greatly reduce injury and that "hurts to close my hand" feeling. Helps you recover faster too.

avoid crimps, i would think reducing the amount of time your projecting at the gym, if your gym has cracks maybe start learning cracks it uses very different tendons and will give the other ones a break.

Then ice water thearpy and get like a rice bag to use as a hot pad. The extra blood flow really helps tendons heal, and I would guess would do wonders for your fingers.

Time- take some, work on a new hobby and let that shit heal!
Strength- even if you can't train your fingers keep the rest of your body strong, problems from one injury tend to branch out and effect other body parts, especially if they aren't good and strong/resilient.
Therapy- the ice water soak is a true standard, not sure that it helps a huge amount, but I doubt it is a waste of time. Message and or a finger ring can help to move blood etc and break up scar tissue around the injury as it heals.
Prevention - crimps are the culprit in general, work to only crimp when absolutely necessary. Train the open-handed grip religiously and you will see improvements in your climbing as well as keeping those precious pulleys safe. You can crimp, just warm it up and start slow and keep a keen eye on the pain levels and be ready to stop at a moments notice.
I have a partial rupture that is, only now 4yrs later, finally feeling near 100%. Granted a couple days of hard crimping in a row and it will puff up real fat and I can't bend my finger for a month.
Basically your fingers are generally the main link to the rock, they are beyond important and you should look at your injury in the long term. If you never heard a pop, you just felt the pain later, your injury isn't that bad, but it's weak, and still in the danger zone. Take care and get back to 100%, then go back to projecting.

I have experienced similar tendon issues while bouldering in the gym in the winter months during the last few years. Once I get back to climbing outside they mostly go away, not surprisingly. What I have found works for me:

-when getting back into the gym after a long period without, take it slow and build a base. It's hard not to get right onto problems at my limit since I can do the moves, but my fingers aren't ready! Take a month or more working through the grades.
-limiting hard bouldering efforts to once or twice a week. On other days I will do lower intensity/climb routes/ARC for endurance. I have found setting a weekly schedule and sticking to it helps, and I never climb in the gym on consecutive days just to be safe.
-work your extensors. This has made a huge difference for me; do you ever feel like your hands are turning into claws from squeezing plastic grips all the time? On alternating days I do a simple routine with rubber bands "opening" my fingers, starting with the whole hand then girth hitching a band to my thumb and going through extending fingers in pairs then one at a time. A variety pack of rubber bands is like $1 and if you do this consistently you will notice gains. There are also therapy tools like powerfingers or putty for this purpose. I have also started doing more for my pushing muscles and shoulders hoping to stay balanced and injury free
-I'll echo the other comments of warming up (half an hour before any hard problems or crimps), training the open hand grip, and listening to your body

Good luck!

Another good practice to help protect fingers (and just good practice in general) is to use the legs as much as possible for movement. Yarding on a small hold should be avoided if you can use your legs for upward movement and your hands to keep you into the wall.

+1 to avoiding climbing consecutively, although this is not always possible (I am guilty of the sat & sun marathon when work is crazy and I'm too tired to climb during the week). If you do, make sure to vary the activity and aim for a light second day. Never boulder two days in a row...I generally feel completely destroyed after a good bouldering session, lol. Look for overhangs (usually bigger/juggler holds) or slopers/pinches; you should be able to find plenty of challenging stuff that doesn't involve crimps. Stay off technical slabs (anything over 10c is going to be mostly crimps)...pretty much every time I've injured a tendon has been on tweaky slabs.

There was a recent article on icing that found it to be largely ineffective for treating injuries. Icing will reduce swelling and pain, but this comes at a cost of less blood flow and therefore slower recovery. Use it sparingly for pain management, but don't go crazy.