UKC

Hi all,

I boulder indoors usually about twice a week, I climb V1-V4. I keep pulling tendons in my fingers and having to take weeks off to get them to recover, so I want to know why this happens? and how can I stop this?

I will be climbing and get a sharp but moderate pain in one finger all of a sudden, the the tendon will loose its strength and is painful to touch. The injury usually occurs when I am climbing on small holds (no shit). At this point I instantly stop climbing and then rest and recover the finger to full strength slowly before I start climbing again. Full recovery and my return to climbing varies from 3/4 weeks to 2 or more months (my current injury). Its happening to different fingers so its not a reoccurring injury in that sense. Its frustrating because I feel as though continuing to climb on a injured finger would be bad, and yet how is everyone else managing to climb 3-4 times a week injury free??? Time off sucks!!

The things I am already doing to minimize injury:
-Warming up, starting easy and then warming down and stretching
-Taking a minimum on 2 days rest between climbing sessions
-Not climbing anything out of my relative capability (nothing I won't have a reasonable chance of ascending)
-Easing back into climbing following an injury, starting only with the easiest climbs and building up.

In reply to Bigfloppyfinger:

Firstly I'd recommend buying this - http://davemacleod.com/shop/makeorbreak.html - it's a brilliant book and invaluable for all sorts of climbing injuries

Next, stop taking time off - finger injuries tend to heal much better with active rest. It's tough and you have to be really disciplined about what and how you climb but your fingers will thank you.

Thirdly, stop crimping! Work on your open handed technique - it will allow you to climb on it while you're rehabilitating it and also help you avoid injuries in the future.

Finally try cold water treatment. Once the finger is past the inflamed stage I found this helped to promote blood flow - http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/pulley-injuries-article.h...

I partially ruptured one of my pulleys at the start of April. It was so painful I struggled with the handbrake of my car!! I had a week off climbing completely (well, apart from a bit of super easy trad bimbling at Stanage) but was back at the wall being very very careful after that. Dropping my grade, disciplined open handed climbing (I taped the middle knuckle of my finger to stop myself from crimping accidentally), dropping off anything that hurt, cold water treatment once or twice a day - it was tough and demoralising but it's well on the mend now and I've managed to maintain my fitness and stay climbing at a similar level.

In reply to Bigfloppyfinger:

I know your pain I'm going though a middle finger pull at the moment.it's been two months now and it's starting to piss me off now

In reply to Bigfloppyfinger:

Possibly other things are making you prone to these injuries, e.g. nerve impingement, tight pecs, poor posture, too much time using laptops, genetic predisposition due to weird bone shapes, smoking, muscle imbalance are some options.

In reply to Bigfloppyfinger:

I suffer from a similar issue. It's definitely worth going to a doctor about if you haven't already, but go armed with information as doctors who aren’t used to dealing with climbing injuries may not give the best advice for your situation. In any case, rest, icing and anti-inflamatories are the way to go. There are more powerful anti-inflamatories than ibuprofen (such as Naproxen) available on prescription, which may be more suited to your injury (hence the see the doctor).

Hope this helps!

In reply to Bigfloppyfinger:

Thanks very much for the help everyone.

In reply to Bigfloppyfinger:

Dave McLeod , who knows as much about this area as anyone, says that climbing in warm/humid conditions is a big risk factor.
Certainly my experience would back this up. Since changing to a wall with better ventilation after a strong of injuries I have so far remained injury free.

In reply to Removed UserArdverikie2: String not "strong"