UKC

Hi,

I've recently had a tendon injury. Had some advice from a doctor ( who was a climber! ) I had 2 weeks completely of climbing. I've since gone back doing some fairly easy bouldering.

The day after the hand is aching and a bit sore. Is this to be expected on the mend or am I doing more harm than good?

In reply to dale__n:
I read something by a climbing physio where he was talking about the difference between inflammation sore and general soreness sore, but I don't know how easily anybody online could tell you whether it's the kind of sore not to be worried about or not.

The first steps back into activity are always a bit exploratory I think, and you possibly won't know until after 2 or 3 weeks whether something is feeling 'right' or not (though you'll probably more easily tell if something is wrong). It is a sense which you can develop though, of being in tune with how things should feel.

In reply to dale__n:

Hi Dale,

I may be some help,
Unfortunately, when you injure a tendon you are generally looking at quite a painfully long period of time before it is completely fine again. This is because the blood flow to tendon is extremely limited and therefore natural healing responses are not that good.
You may need to give it some more time, but you can help to very GENTLY speed up the process by doing some general range of motion exercises every day and some very very light resisted movements (elastic bands etc) to work the injured area.
Make sure there are no other areas of weakness or tightness that could be contributing to the problem, maybe get someone to massage the entire arm and locate points of tightness or soreness that may need some work.
Joe

In reply to dale__n:

Thanks for the advise guys

In reply to dale__n:
Best advice would probably be to see a physio for some exercises if you're at all unsure.

In reply to dale__n:

For unsure read worried.

In reply to Timmd:

On that note, I've had a friend who injured their wrist. Went to a private physio, and was told "oh yeah, you can keep climbing on it - don't worry". Well he did, and it didn't get better and it has become 6 months of injury, still feeling pain (poor guy) from light wrist loading - whether or not it will heal after so long is a good question.
I suspect that if you repeatedly aggravate a tendon injury, it will not heal as well as if you followed an optimal healing plan (the ends of the wound that need to meet, after repeated damage, would mesh less completely - bit like trying to re-attach a limb after the stub has been healing for a few months, it won't mesh) - and that's what happened.