Are your fingers sore after training?

My fingers are always sore after I train in the gym and usually for 1-2 more days.  If it's a common thing, no one seems to talk about it.  Googling for "sore fingers climbing" just gets you 10,000 articles on injuries (synovitis and pulley ruptures, mostly).  But nothing on just soreness and stiffness.

My hands are pain-free, except when I massage the DIP joint of my middle fingers which are tender (from closed crimps).  Also, if I try and make a fist, my fingers feel sore and tight as if they are too thick to fully curl into a fist.  The closest thing I've read is where climbers talk about "claw hands" in the morning where they have a hard time straightening their fingers, but my soreness is the opposite: I have a hard time clenching.

Is this common?  Anything to worry about?

Nivel Egres wrote:

Does it interfere with your regular activities?

I can't type as fast when my fingers are fat and stiff after training.  So spraying about the 5.7 I just top-roped takes a little longer... but other than this, all is well.

My right index finger got sore in the gym after I dropped a 35-lb plate on it.

You have arthritis take some ibuprofen.

When I train or climb hard my fingers are often mildly sore and feel swollen. 

Doesn't seem to interfere with anything and doesn't seem to be getting worse, so I don't worry about it. 

You could try icing after climbing and see if that helps if it bothers you. 

I doubt it is arrhritis. 

Frequent ibuprofen is far more likely to harm you than help. 

Did you ever send your Eldo project?

Yeah, I get that as well.  Actually ended up having to buy a new wedding ring (silicone) because it hurt so badly to take my old one on and off (it was Tungsten-Carbide, which does not stretch at all).  How old are you?  I'm 34 and attribute it to early-onset Old Man's Disease, although I'm also double-jointed, which makes me especially susceptible.

The only activity I've noticed it impacts is percussion.  Doumbeks and Djembes are fine, but Congas are brutal.  Also, if somebody gives me a try-hard handshake, that sucks as well.  Someone once described Alex Honnold as a "somewhat normal looking guy, except his hands appeared as though they had been repeatedly slammed in a door," so I think it just comes with the territory.

Hard to tell based on your symptoms if it's bone, tendon, or muscle related.  If you're worried about it, it's worth it to see a specialist.

However, training hard 2 days in a row is probably not the greatest idea.  For such small muscle groups, the fingers take a long time to recover from climbing stimuli when compared to the rest of your body.  I usually go 2-3 days between climbing TRAINING.  I'll go "just climbing" back-to-back days and be ok if I'm wise with route selection.

Answering questions from above: I'm 55.  (I used to climb a lot from age 28-40 but I don't remember if my fingers felt this way back then.)

And, @Mark E Dixon: no, and doubtful I will for a few reasons.  But we'll see... I have a few years left before my body breaks down (hopefully).

John RB 

And, @Mark E Dixon: no, and doubtful I will for a few reasons.  But we'll see... I have a few years left before my body breaks down (hopefully).

Never say never!

I get this all the time too now, mainly middle fingers. Only gym climbing though. Climbing outside doesn't make my joints stiff/sore. I never close crimp at the gym but half crimp with thumb press and I exclusively boulder/moon board.

My fingers take a while to warm up to those dynamic moves to small holds (even though my feet don't cut) and they're the main reason my fingers get sore I think. I'm going to experience with easy dead hangs before jumping on the moon board to see if it helps warming them up.

Voodoo flossing my fingers really helps loosening them up to the point they feel fine but I have to do it everyday, couple of times a day at least.

Hey John. I've experienced similar tenderness/stiffness. It usually happens after I've increased stress on my fingers during training, either through increased load or volume. Is this a new development? Does it correspond with any increase in training load?

A few thoughts: 

• Full/closed crimp puts a lot of stress on your fingers and increases your risk for injury. Consider practicing a half crimp or open hand grip and see if that changes any of your symptoms. 
• Age, along with other factors, has a impact on recovery time. Adding an extra day of rest to your program may allow for your fingers to recover more fully. 

Fingers don't get a ton of blood flow, which is key to recovery. Self massage can be helpful to increase circulation. I've also found that high reps squeezing a super low resistance stress ball can help increase blood flow to the fingers without adding stress to the tendons. 

Mark E Dixon wrote:

Never say never!

True. 

But pick your battles. Save crimps for when you really want them. 

Older means recovery takes longer, gains take longer, everything....is simply less cooperative.

I'm 60, and have diagnosed arthritis in my knees, and hands are starting to get  bitchy too, especially my right. What has helped the most, by far, is moving. I bike commute, take stairs, climb whenever I can...

That said, first thing rolling out in the morning I can barely stand up and walk, my knees are so stiff, but it only takes half a minute of lurching around and I'm fine. It's a good reminder of how high the stakes are. Move or lose it, literally. Weight really matters, too.

Hands feel better, when I remember to stretch them outwards regularly. It also helped everything when I got an ergonomics guy in to tweak my work station. 

I was taking various things, but now I'm down to some simple vitamins, because they're cheap, do no harm, so what the heck. I'll probably go back to fish oil, and glucosamine, when I remember to, lol!

Ibu does diddly squat for me, and is a scary thing to mess around with, if you don't have to. Mr. Bubble in a really hot bath is great. Throw some company in there, and your hands will work jusssst fine!

;-) OLH

This is weird and probably won't work for everyone so use it at your own discretion, but...I actually find that hangboarding helps.  For me, it's dynamic/Shock loading that really causes damage, and the predictable and controllable nature of hangboarding has actually helped my fingers.  Obviously not something to do when you're already sore or swollen, but a good alternative to hard training, especially if you take the time to focus on building open-handed crimp technique and strength.  I also am much better disciplined about doing oppositional training after a hangboardjng session, so that probably contributes.

Ted Pinson wrote:

Yeah, I get that as well.  Actually ended up having to buy a new wedding ring (silicone) because it hurt so badly to take my old one on and off (it was Tungsten-Carbide, which does not stretch at all).  How old are you?  I'm 34 and attribute it to early-onset Old Man's Disease, although I'm also double-jointed, which makes me especially susceptible.

The only activity I've noticed it impacts is percussion.  Doumbeks and Djembes are fine, but Congas are brutal.  Also, if somebody gives me a try-hard handshake, that sucks as well.  Someone once described Alex Honnold as a "somewhat normal looking guy, except his hands appeared as though they had been repeatedly slammed in a door," so I think it just comes with the territory.

Forgot to say, ditto on the silicone rings. I simply purchased the set of inexpensive ones, so they would stretch right off the bat. The wedding rings have been off our fingers for lots longer than I've been climbing.

And, OP, that's about how my right hand is. The three main fingers don't fold up as tight as they used to, but I never paid any attention, so they may have been that way for ages! 

Anyway, it does feel like they're too fat, and my skin too tight, when I try to fold them really tight. It hadn't affected a darn thing though. Handling books for seventeen years means I've got great grip strength.

Pain, more than just sorta sore, is where I would start thinking injury. What I have now? Just decades of use.

Best, H.