UKC

After a pretty heavy campus session last friday i woke up with a small pain in my left forearm about half way down on the inside, I didn't climb sat or sunday and by today it was fine, no pain at all.

Went back to the wall and after 10 mins of warming up it was back with a vengeance, it especially hurts when I clench my ring finger although the pain is not so bad.

Anyone familiar with something like this? I've injured fingers before, but the pain was 'in the finger' rather than halfway down the forearm... so its kinda hard to hold it in a pan of water (as dave mac suggests).... Hoping its just a mild tendon strain and rest + pizza will cure it as I'm unsure of how to treat it otherwise.

In reply to samoflak: can you locate the point of pain in the forearm by pressing. I did something similar had it diagnosed as muscle/tendon insertion point strain.

Deep tissue massage of the forearm and contrast baths helped a lot, still took a while to get back to full form. Good luck!

In reply to alx: Vaguely, if i press really hard... but its definitely a more generalised pain than a sharp pin point area - its really weird, I wrote my initial post maybe an hour or two after getting back from the wall and it really really hurt, sat down.. watched a film and the pain is still there, but really not that bad ( i can make a fist with ease and could prob dead hang with no probs - i wont)...

Perhaps its wishful thinking but this kinda leads me to believe that it may just be a strain and that climbing really aggravated it... Were your symptoms similar? When I injured my finger it hurt for 24 hours a day.

It wasn't that long ago either and took 8 weeks before i could climb properly again and another 4 before i was back to my regular level... it was just starting to come together again can't bare going through that again

In reply to samoflak: A few days rest from strenuous activity may help and prevent a small injury becoming chronic. Lots of stretching (without pain) should also help recovery. Build up gradually doing easy activities and if you get pain after you have stopped exercising (or the next day) then you will probably have done too much. Muscle strains can take from a few days up to 6 weeks to repair depending on how bad they are.

In reply to GeoffRadcliffe: thanks for the advice, i am hoping its just a small thing that I probably did on friday then due to not climbing at all over the weekend didn't notice.... current plan is to stay completely off of it till saturday, then try to dead hang some jugs / warm up very very slowly and see if any pain develops, if it does leave it and take another week off. Currently holding an ice pack to it, any other tips would be really appreciated.

Thanks

In reply to samoflak: Use ice for 15 minutes (to help reduce any swelling) and then heat for 15 minutes (which encourages blood flow around the injury site) and keep on alternating.