UKC

I dropped a piece of wood on my big toe the other day and am going to loose the nail has anyone else done this and how long did it stop you from climbing? I was climbing well before I did it so want to try to keep my climbing fitness up with some hang boarding, does anyone else have any ideas of how to keep my climbing fitness up?

In reply to timmyhobby:

Core workouts - tons on youtube - are murder at first, but you'll notice the difference when you get back on those overhangs. Wishing your big toe a speedy recovery! 

In reply to timmyhobby:

I pulled a large flake off a route which smashed my big toe, resulting in an open fracture. Effectively burst the toe open, lost the nail too. It inevitably became infected so I spent 4 days in hospital getting that sorted out. The underside looks like frostbite, where the skin has died and the hope is that this skin will regenerate. I've now done nothing for 6 weeks now other than those elbow exercises with a lump hammer. I've been told it's important to keep it elevated and minimise moving around so that's what I've been trying to do.

Anyway not that comparable with your situation, but story told in the spirit of solidarity. There's always somebody worse off!

In reply to timmyhobby:

The answer would depend on how bad it is, but if its just a lost toe nail then you should be able to carry on climbing. 

I would cut the nail back as far as you can, and tape it to stop movement until it drops off.

Depending on how tight you wear your shoes, you might want to get some non aggressive ones until things improve.  You could always ebay some second hand ones then sell them later?

You may find climbing harder in the short term, but you'll see a big jump once you get your good shoes back on. 

In reply to nikoid:

Oh no, that sounds horrible! Good luck with the recovery! 

In reply to timmyhobby:

Cheers, at least my elbows are getting a rest! Hope you're back out soon, too.

In reply to nikoid:

Have done this to both of my big toes a couple of times (being trod on whilst playing footie).

Really wasn’t too bad at all any time, the new nail that forms underneath the one that drops of is surprisingly good, and it didn’t hurt a bit when the nail did drop off. 

Might be a bit tender for a wee bit, but hopefully it’s bot as bad as it initially seems. 
 

In reply to timmyhobby:

with a recent toe injury of mine, once it was ok enough I would climb easy routes with one climbing shoe and one approach shoe trying to coddle the bad toe as much as possible. If your moving your improving. 

In reply to timmyhobby:

I would echo what Steve says about avoiding aggressive climbing shoes for a good while.  I don't know how badly you hurt your toe, but you may have caused some damage to the joint or even a small fracture.  Compressing your toe into shoes whilst this is still healing can cause long term damage.  

O.

In reply to timmyhobby:

Not sure how badly damaged your toe is but I’ve lost a few nails through running and this in itself hasn’t stopped me from climbing at all but the other pain in your toe could.

In reply to timmyhobby:

I've lost a couple of big toe nails as a result of frontpointing in boots that are probably a bit small, they grow back in about 6 months or so. Silicone toe protectors may be useful during the regrowth period.

In reply to timmyhobby:a lot of the problems come from the ‘claw ring’  of the big toe, almost like a trigger toe: this happens because most of the foot pressure transfers through the big toe, which is the same on the running process, which I, as a podiatrist, have done on research test of foot pressures in rock climbing and happens to help reduce pressure during ‘over-prontation’ in running where you claw the toe to help stabilise the foot before the supination stage of the gait process: to help protect the toe in your boot, try some ‘Silipos’ silicone ring covers but do not remove the nail, which is the essential protection of the nail bed, rather cover it with a simple strip of zinc oxide plaster to secure it: you can buy false nail coverings but in practice, which I was in  podiatry practice for well over 30 years, don’t work: If you want any other advice, email me at sportsclimbs@btinternet.com or via these pages