UKC

Hi all,

My fingers hurt for 3 days now, since I climbed last sunday. The pain is roughly on 2 fingers on each hand, around the Distal interphalangean joint and Proximal phalanx (looked up these names!).
This has not happened before, if I grip something it hurts or if I press the area.
Is this something to be worried about?
I have been climbing for a month now, regularly 3 times a week (2 days bouldering, one top-rope), 2-3 hours each time.
I have been working on technique and I don't feel that I am over using my fingers, I might be guilty of crimping, could this be the problem?

I am thinking of climbing this friday, that would be 4 days rest, if they still hurt a bit would that be foolish?

Any thoughts? I would not like to get an injury that would prevent me from climbing, so any advice is appreciated, thanks.

In reply to mumrikken:

sounds to me like it might be overuse, you're doing quite a lot of climbing for a beginner and haven't had a chance to build up a solid basis of muscle and tendon strength. I had a similar thing a while ago when I started climbing more and I backed off a bit, including taking a break for around 5days. It sorted itself after a few weeks.

you can still climb but take it easy and stop if it hurts and before you get too tired - avoiding over-crimping is also a good idea for lots of reasons

caveat: I have no specialist knowledge in this area and you might not have the same thing I had! you could always go to a doctor if it gets worse or doesn't go away

In reply to mumrikken:

I agree with David - sounds like you need to work up slowly. Personally I'd not do any more full crimping until your fingers have stopped hurting. Maybe focus on the slabs and slopers for a while.

Sounds like too much too soon. Pain is often your body's way of telling you that something is wrong. Take longer rest periods and let your tendons strengthen before you work them too hard too early and cause some serious damage.

When climbing concentrate on your footwork, spending time on slabs is very good for this. It's likely that you are over gripping, concentrate on holding the hand holds with the least amount of pressure you need to stay on the wall and drive the movement from your feet.

Don't be fooled into thinking the only way to get better is to get onto the hardest thing you can just about do and drag yourself up it, you're more likely to learn bad habits and injure yourself. Instead work on climbing lower grades really well, efficiently and with style, if it seems easy climb the route more than once (back to back) to work on endurance. Try to climb it better each repeat.

Thanks for all your responses! There is some good advice there,
I agree that I should take it more easy and will let the fingers rest for a week and then keep a lookout to not overdo again.

In reply to SenzuBean:
Maybe focus on the slabs and slopers for a while.



- I definitely do not spend enough time on slopers, but slabs? Do you mean inclined walls? If so, I don't know any climbing gyms that have that, only vertical and hangs

In reply to mumrikken:
Haven't come across a wall without slabs yet, round where I am.....

In fact, if you've got a wall with a gentle 30 degree slab (which *is* less common), you can climb the easier routes "no-hands". That's definitely good for footwork.

In reply to climbwhenready:

Maybe I haven't paid enough attention, so the angle of the slabs are quite small I imagine?
Either way I will have a better look next time I go climbing

In reply to mumrikken:
10 degrees off the vertical is quite common. Although it "feels quite vertical", it moves a lot of weight off your arms (and also your fingers).

It's worth identifying what the climb is, because good slab technique is different to vertical or overhanging technique. On vertical or overhanging walls, you're often trying to keep your arms straight and hips in, to direct as much weight as possible onto your feet without tiring out your arm muscles. On a slab, you're often leaning in as far as you can so your arms end up bent. Trying to achieve the same objective - using your arms as little as possible - but in completely opposite ways.

In reply to mumrikken:

Sounds good.
Another option is to practice back and footing in corners, where you do not pull on any holds, but pres down onto holds, and sometimes smearing.
If your wall has any cracks, you can practice jamming - a highly, highly useful skill.

In reply to mumrikken:

Yeah, you definitely need to ease off, but that doesn't mean you need to stop for long. Perhaps have a full week off, but when you come back to it your aim can be to get a lot of climbing done without much force on your fingers. Don't go for steep stuff on the bouldering wall, but you could do stuff that feels quite sustained in a top-rope.

After an injury (sounds like you have a minor one), warm up slowly. Sometimes I spend more time warming up than really trying with an injury. Then listen to your fingers. If it feels painful or wrong, let go.