UKC

Hey all, been climbing for 6 years and last month I’ve started having problems with my left ring finger. No pop, just general soreness after climbing one day.. As soon as I originally felt it I followed RICE advice, but still noticeable..

Strange thing is there’s no loss of strength in the fingers, pulling hard on crimps and all small holds feels the same, but it’s on the massive holds and jugs when I feel significant pain. Also painful when holding steering wheel of the car!

The pain is the lowest part of the finger where it connects to the palm, so like A2 pulley area?

Anyone had similar injury and any advice on why it’s only on the jugs/big grip holds when it hurts? What exercises should I try to help with it? Cheers in advance.

I'm no physio but I had something quite similar a long time ago, and occasionally since. It was first caused by violent 3-finger finger jamming, thumbs up, so I'm guessing the lateral stress it put on the joint was the problem, which also explained why it didn't hurt when pulling on most flat holds or crimps, although it did hurt sometimes on high sidepulls. Pain when using jugs I put down to direct pressure on inflamed tissue, although the inflammation wasn't obvious. I found that thin (1cm or less) finger tape as high as I could get on the problem finger helped a lot and I was generally able to climb pretty much as normal - except perhaps on a few awkward holds - until after a few weeks or so I could phase out the taping.

Thanks for the reply John. Sounds pretty familiar. I've been taping up the whole of the a2 area but I'll try using a thinner strip and get it as close to the palm as possible. Aye it doesn't show any visible signs of inflammation but the direct pressure pain is very noticeable when trying to simulate juggy holds...

I've had a very similar issue. What I think happened was that the tendon has gouged a groove into the pulley, and the pulley is unable to heal because the site is constantly being re-gouged, and a lot of the overnight healing was wasted on connections between the tendon and the pulley which upon basic usage - obviously breaks as it's between two moving parts.
Based on this hypothesis, I found that pulling the finger out until the joint clicks, and then gently hyperextending the finger (i.e. what you imagine would remove the tendon from the pulley gouge) eventually helped this, combined with a lot of extensor exercises, and open-hand climbing. The current issue has resolved itself within the last 2 weeks. I've had a similar injury before, and it wasn't until I brought in the gentle hyperextending (multiple times a day) that it began to rapidly heal - the extensor exercises weren't enough.

Do you have a bump in the area?

In my (n=1) experience, the A2 pulley being sensitive to direct pressure was a sign that it was already unhealthy/inflamed, and started to be noticeable a few days before I actually tore it.

Hi Rebecca, Yes I do.

Sorry slow reply. Briefly... Mine is similar and because I've been lame at doing my physio it's still there 6 months on. It was probably sustained by repeated crimping (no pop or acute crisis point) but only really hurts when the bump comes into pressure contact with something ie jugs and some larger pinches, bar and rings, steering wheel etc. At its worst I couldn't bend my finger which was swollen and aching to the point it was keeping me awake. 

Physio advice was that rest was ideal but not essential as long as exercises and careful climbing maintained. Priority on all the forearm ag/antag balancing work with increasingly weighted wrist and finger curls, plus some self-care massage and icing. This was working well but then I got busy and lapsed the rehab meaning, although it has dulled and no longer hurts (unless provoked by jugs), I still have a bump and I tend to rely on taping when climbing a.) as compression and support and b.) to remind me my finger is there and not to launch it at any irritating holds. Objectively I am getting away with climbing most things at the moment, but am sure it is not sustainable.

So I guess all that I can say is if you want to do it properly and actually heal, listen to an expert and do your physio, and warn you that being impatient/not paying it enough attention risks sub-par climbing purgatory. But that is a common story and I'm sure you already knew that!

That's a fantastic reply Rebecca, thank you very much for the info Will try my best to take it easy for a bit....