New Climber: Hand Pains

Hey everyone, I started climbing just this winter, and I've been progressing fairly well. The only issue I have is that whenever I get done with a day of rather intense climbing, I wake up the next morning and the joints/muscles in my fingers feel stiff and sore. Is there a way to avoid this? Is it something to be worried about? It usually goes away within 15-20 minutes of being awake.

inb4 "Yer gonna die"

but yeah, that sounds pretty typical. I recall many mornings of waking up and barely being able to make a fist my first few months. Good times.

I actually have almost the same thing. After about 2 months of it being an issue I went to the Doctor and they drew some blood and did x-rays to rule out arthritis. Ultimately I've been taking sodium naproxen (Aleve) each night (not during the day) for 2 weeks. This has helped some, as the inflammation and the stiffness are noticeably reduced in the morning. I also backed off climbing some, limiting myself to about 2 outings. As best I can tell this is simply an overuse injury. It will likely respond to being iced as well.

If you just started this winter, you really haven't developed the tendon diameter and forearm strength yet. Try

- backing off the small hold, crimpy stuff for a while. Alternate your crimpy days with easy route/ slab days to give your body time to recover. Give your forearm muscles and all those distal tendons time to catch up with your bigger pull muscles.

- Try stretching as you climb: As your hand comes off a hold, try extending your wrist and fingers back as far as you can with muscle power. To some degree, it will cause your flexors to relax, allowing you to "recover" as you climb.

- Iron Hand liniment/ Dit Ja Dow liniment. It might help

- Anti inflammatory drugs, like Ibuprofen or aspirin. Willow bark if you want to go alt med. Be very careful with this stuff, especially anything containing acetaminophen (Tylenol, Aleve etc), which works but can do liver damage.

- Get a set of Metolius Grip Saver training balls... they have a "spider web" that loops onto your fingers, to train the extensor muscles, which will help balance out the flexors that are giving you problems. Long term, it's this tool that's probably going to be the life saver.

- Climbing or Rock n Ice magazne had an article about forearm stretching/ massage techniques (years ago). See if you can get a copy. Climbing magazine has been very helpful to me in the past with sending copies of out-of-print articles.

- Ginger and niacin are both capillary dilators. Increasing the circulation through your fingers, especially while sleeping, should aid recovery. Caffeine and nicotine are capillary constrictors, so they would slow your recovery

- Ice. Try doing a "contrast bath" at the end of your climbing day: Ice water for a minute, then hottish (105 degrees max?) for a minute, ice, hot, ice. Do an odd number of dips, starting and ending with the ice water.

Disclaimer - I don't know what the drug interactions of Dit Ja Dow, Ibuprofen, and ginger are going to be. Check with a doctor who can speak to the interactions of herbs as well as drugs if you decide to add alternative medicine to the mix.

Warm up before the activity by creating metabolic heat on something easy. Flex the muscles in between routes to continue pushing a steady stream of blood though the worked tissues to irrigate the waste material exhausted by the muscle (i.e. lactic acid, one thing that causes muscle soreness). Most climbers experience the pain and/or discomfort early on in their experience with the activity. Listen to your body. Trying to tough through it will realistically sever what's being pulled and torn. Muscle burn is an accomplishment for athletes, something tearing or cracking or popping--any average person knows that feeling they get "something ain't right." Your brain works for you! Train smart!

mountainproject.com/v/does-…

You're not the only one with pain. Try searching for the topic before starting a new thread that Joe Shmo started last week, even though Joe Lo started one the week before that.

I've been sport climbing for nearly 5 years. I jumped on a 7B+ overhang in Sicily yesterday to test my limit. I woke up with sore skin on my fingers and felt great about it! You should, too!

Trying warming up your hands, and then doing 50 or so finger "flicks" right before you start your first climb. Imaging you are "flicking" water droplets off your fingertips opening and closing the hand repeatedly. I've been told that this helps create sinovial fluid in between your joints, lubricating them for use. I'm not a doctor and I really don't know anything about it, that's just what I've heard and what I do.

Enjoy!