UKC

Had an incident the other day that resulted in a head injury & fractured big toe.

i know i must rest the toe if i want to climb again, but i don't want to lose all my gains also when in signed off as fit do i come back in slowly or hit it hard. How have you done your return to the sport after an injury?

In reply to Os_878:

Look at this rest time as a chance to improve your core strength and flexibility. A broken toe doesn't stop you hitting the fingerboard and other similar activities.

Take the return to climbing gradually and listen to your body. A bit of initial caution can mean a faster overall return, rather than injuring yourself and needing more time to heal again.

In reply to Os_878:

When this happened to me I wore B3 boots and continued to climb. The hobble to the crag was harder than the climbing. I was doing HVS 5a at Milstone after a few sessions. [Milstone is a bit edgey so suits big boots]

In reply to Os_878:

vimeo.com/42893621

In reply to Os_878:
I too have broken my Big Toe. Trust me, it does not matter how slowly or full-on you climb again because your Big Toe will let you know when the time is right.

I only had a hairline fracture and even putting rock shoes on told me when the time was and was not right. The pain was exquisite.

In reply to JimboWizbo:

Thanks that was great fun to watch

In reply to The Lemming:

Ive chip/ fractured the second bone down from the tip of the toe on the inside edge. I guess I will wait & see

In reply to Os_878:

So saw the quack at Stafford hospital fracture clinic & he says the fracture is so small not to worry about that but to worry about the ligament damage & severe brushing in that area... waiting & see.

In reply to The Lemming:

How long were you our of training for? What did you do?

In reply to Os_878:

I fractured my big toe when I was assaulted. Hairline fracture which did not initially present itself, as I was able to carry on working for a week until the pain became unbearable to even stand up let alone walk. At that point I got an x-ray to confirm the hairline fracture.

It took a couple of months before I was able to wear work-boots and return to work. It then took another couple of months before I was able to wear rock-shoes and stand in them pain free.

I can tolerate a lot of pain, but a broken toe in a teeny tiny shoe is quite difficult to ignore.

In reply to Os_878:

just climb on, its only a toe it wont do any damage just stop when it hurts, can you tape it up?

In reply to Os_878:

Sounds like an excellent excuse to get majorly strong in your upper body. Then when your feet are fully functional again you'll be climbing way harder!

In reply to Os_878:

I badly damaged my ankle a couple of years ago and it did my climbing loads of good as I replaced each climbing session with a training session. Did used to get a lot of strange looks heading to the training room on crutches but by the time I was able to put shoes on I was much stronger. Get on the finger board/beastmaker. Speak to your local wall as mine let me in for free as I wasn't using any of the set walls.

In reply to ow arm:


lol.

I've broken two toes over the years. They may seem insignificant hidden away under socks and shoes but once injured you tend to notice them when you want to move about.

I broke the toe, next to my big toe, 27 years ago and to this day if I stub it on anything, I squeal like a baby in pain.

In reply to ow arm:

I injured my big toe last year, although not a break. I thought climbing through it would be easy but it makes quite an impact on your footwork as you don't want to put so much pressure on your toe when edging and you ending relying on your upper body way too much.

It healed fairly rapidly, although i'm now left with a large lump thats grown over the fracture/damaged bit, thats limited my choice of climbing shoe a bit (i can't wear really down turned shoes any more). It took about a month before a climbing session didn't involve an off-putting amount of pain even with floppy rock shoes.

In reply to The Lemming:

Ouch that sounds rather bad... hope mine doesn't keep me out for months!

In reply to iccle_bully:

Go plan & I'm going to try free