Strained Palm Muscle from Jamming

Hey folks,

So a couple years ago, I was overgripped on a tight handjam strained the meat of my palm!  At the time it felt like a hot fire strain - no pops.

Basically, it's the palm muscle under the thumb - kind of a half-moon meaty feature of your hands between the wrist and the start of the thumb...if that makes any sense? (Clearly I am not a doctor.) I tried to search through past forums, but failed to find any discussion on this part.

So my right palm strain flares up on a regular basis when I try (too) hard crankin on hand/tight hand cracks.  It usually goes away after about a week or two, but does always flare up. It feels like a strain, I think? It's a strain-y, hot, kind of creaky sensation when I pick things up or use my hand. Definitely can feel it more if I'm jamming on it. Bleh.

Thought I'd try to do something more proactive about it and ask the community.  Anyone have this issue in the past, and know of any remedies?  PT to heal / injury prevention?

More importantly, I'd like to know what this injury might be called, so I can move beyond "I strained my fuckin palm meat again!" to somewhere more medically sophisticated, jaja.

Cheers!

Give it the ‘ol 127 hours. You’ll never feel gripped again. 

You can do as Artem recommends, certainly.  You may want to do some research on your own though.  This graphic should get you started.  Pick the body(s) of tissue that is/are most affected and then Google "_______ pain & rehab" and see what you come up with.  Before you take action on recommendations, do a little sub-layer research on the source of the recommendation for pt/rehab and see if they're at least somewhat qualified.  Give it a few weeks/a month of trying that, and if there's still no change, then go see a PT/specialist.  Odds are you'll be able to work it out on your own, especially if it's still in the annoyance/intermittent phase and not really debilitating.

Sweet, thanks all. That graphic is super helpful.  A PT friend hit me up and ID'ed the palm meat zone as the "thenar eminence"!   Now to figure out which policis or brevis is actually injured to rehab & strengthen.

Cheers and happy climbing

Hi,
From your description it sounds like you initially partially tore the opponens or flexor pollicus brevus or even the adductor muscles of your thumb.  Now you have scar tissue and every time you over use it or grip too hard( in particular a pinch grip and/ or jamming) you are causing micro tears. Thus the hot sensation you get. I would find a PT that does Graston technique which will help manage the scarring and improvecollagen alignment and blood flow along with proper stretches and strengthening.
Good luck to you!
Annie Rubright,PT, CCRT

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