Finger injury: questions and possible plan...

lucander wrote: Take a month off and avoid a serious injury. All of your soft tissues will repair and come back stronger... ...fix this thing...for good.

Probably the best advice so far.

Jon Zucco wrote: Probably the best advice so far.

I agree. You can't stay at 100% 100% of the time, so embrace and enjoy the time off and come back way more motivated in Fall. Don't worry about not improving. You definitely will continue to improve.

However, if you refuse to listen to this advice, you could plan a trip to the Frankenjura... It's famous for the two- and one-finger pockets! ;-)

Just climb ow's or slab for the next month.

In 21 years of climbing I've had 11 of these injuries. Twice each in middle and ring, once in each pinky, and one more in a ring.

Time to pain-free has ranged from 3 weeks to 18 months.

What has worked best for me, and keep in mind this is just one person's experience, is this:

Rest a week or two until the pain is dulled. Still present, but not as sharp, hot, etc. During this rest time, I use the 20min ice baths (hand in a coffee can full of icewater), usually once a day, sometimes twice. I gently massage and stretch it throughout the day.

Then, I will sometimes tape it so it precludes getting into a crimp, sometimes not. But in either case, I start climbing on it again, being mindful not to load it too much or at funny angles, etc. No dynamic moves onto it. Within a month or two, the pain is basically gone and most strength is still there.

In the early ones, I tried the "take time off until it doesn't hurt" approach. Never worked well or quickly. Climbing on it, once it's past the initial inflammation response, and gradually increasing how hard you are climbing on it, has worked best for me.

Good luck to you. Play this game long enough and you'll probably rack up a few of these injuries unless you are geneticall disposed to having especially tough or oversized pulleys.

Will S. is on the right track here. The idea of extensive rest for these kinds of injuries is outdated and is probably the cause of the multi-month recovery times.

The most recent trends in physical therapy are toward much quicker return to activity and extensive "active recovery." The idea is that the right amount of stress will facilitate scar tissue restructuring into healthy tendon more effectively.

The key here is the right amount of stress. Finger injury recovery should look something like this:

- Rest until there is no inflammation and full range of motion with no pain (usually 5-14 days). Lots of ice, no meds.
- Begin with gentle active range of motion, like squeezing putty or very light eccentric finger extensions (this is using your other hand to straighten your finger while gently resisting it). Your finger should start out feeling aggravated with the exercise but consistently get better with more reps. You can also do eccentric finger flexion to strengthen your extensor muscles. Do these a lot, like three times a day. Also do something to increase blood flow - heat, ice, contrast baths, whatever you think works best.
- When you can do tons of eccentric exercises with pretty high resistance (maybe like another week or so), you should start loading it by climbing. The key here is to be controlled and scientific. Hangboarding might be a good way to start for the first few days at the very least so that it is very static and consistent. But, gradually over a few weeks, keep increasing the loads as long as you have the same pattern: initial aggravation with stress that improves through the work out and doesn't cause more than diffuse soreness/stiffness afterward.

I actually prefer bouldering as my first step back to real climbing as it is easier to maintain good control and let go if I have to pull too hard or in a weird way. It seems best at first to increase volume and maintaining low loads (like lots of easy, static moves on friendly holds). Then, increase the load by doing harder moves on smaller holds but doing much fewer moves total. Keep those first hard days short and take at least two days off after to let the tissue recover. Eventually, you'll forget which finger you hurt in the first place.

All told, unless you've really wrecked your finger (meaning you probably need surgery), you shouldn't take more than a week or two away from climbing-like activity and should only need three to four weeks until you're back to trying as hard as you want.

There are several other threads that have addressed this as well as other resources in the interwebs. Go here: mountainproject.com/v/recur…, and on that post I reference several other threads. Best of luck healing.

dave wave wrote:Just climb ow's or slab for the next month.

Not much of that by me lol.