Swollen For 1 Year

I have had swollen knuckles middle fingers on both my hands for the past year. I have been climbing for about 3 years and I have never had any traumatic finger injury. But I think the swelling is due to only full crimping for my first two years of climbing. I am curious if I can do anything to make the swelling go down or if its permanent because it has been there for so long. I am also worried that this may cause an injury in the future. Does anyone have experience with this or any advice? Thanks!

Emil A. No Hangs Protocol + stop full crimping everything for a bit 

John Clark wrote:

Emil A. No Hangs Protocol + stop full crimping everything for a bit 

That’s your answer to everything nowadays!

Chris Heiny wrote:

I have had swollen knuckles middle fingers on both my hands for the past year. I have been climbing for about 3 years and I have never had any traumatic finger injury. But I think the swelling is due to only full crimping for my first two years of climbing. I am curious if I can do anything to make the swelling go down or if its permanent because it has been there for so long. I am also worried that this may cause an injury in the future. Does anyone have experience with this or any advice? Thanks!

I wouldn't worry too much about it (I've had the same thing for probably close to 10 years now). If you want to do something about it, try:

1) massaging it with lotion that has arnica in it every night and 

2) try to stretch your fingers regularly (a couple to 4 times a day). 

I dont do either super often because my fingers dont bother enough to stop me from climbing but if I'm training a ton and the fingers feel stiff I'll do both and it does seem to help. 

Chris Heiny wrote:

I have had swollen knuckles middle fingers on both my hands for the past year. I have been climbing for about 3 years and I have never had any traumatic finger injury. But I think the swelling is due to only full crimping for my first two years of climbing. I am curious if I can do anything to make the swelling go down or if its permanent because it has been there for so long. I am also worried that this may cause an injury in the future. Does anyone have experience with this or any advice? Thanks!

Mine started out like yours a few years ago. I'm sorry to report that they only got worse. I now have perpetually swollen (and even crooked) DIP and PIP joints in middle and ring fingers in both hands and they look way worse than yours. Opening jars and tight bottle caps can be difficult. Doctor filed it under osteoarthritis and suggested local injection to relieve pain, which I didn't do. I tend to believe that maybe it's somewhat dictated by genetics as I got deformities in other joints/bones too (mostly around my toes and heels), but I also believe that climbing on them made it worse, although I'm not willing to give up climbing just yet.

Open hand or large pinches agitate the PIP joints the most contrary to the common belief that full crimping is to blame, although some crimpy holds do hurt the DIP joints. Dynamic or dead point moves can cause pain due to shock loading the joints. I try to avoid them, which unfortunately became harder with route setting of modern styles. I tape/wrap my fingers very tightly (figure 8/x method) every time I climb to help redistribute the load (similar to how runners wearing compression calf sleeves to prevent shin splints), which does help to some extent. 

Again, I'm sorry that I do not have optimistic message for you based on my own experience, even though I hope yours turns out more positive than mine. 

Looks exactly like my hands. Never bothered me one bit.

I work with my hands, I've climbed for more than ten years. Colleagues and other climbers around me have similar looking hands.

I've been to a climbing physio for a pulley injury. The physio said that my hands look pretty normal for a climber. Fingers are a bit on the stiffer side, but nothing to worry about.

If you want to do something for your finger health and continue climbing I would also recommend regular fingerboarding. Build it up slowly, and I mean very slowly, to maintain a good base finger strength and keep your fingers healthy.

Tradiban wrote:

That’s your answer to everything nowadays!

If it works it works

Mei pronounced as May wrote:

Mine started out like yours a few years ago. I'm sorry to report that they only got worse. I now have perpetually swollen (and even crooked) DIP and PIP joints in middle and ring fingers in both hands and they look way worse than yours. Opening jars and tight bottle caps can be difficult. Doctor filed it under osteoarthritis and suggested local injection to relieve pain, which I didn't do. I tend to believe that maybe it's somewhat dictated by genetics as I got deformities in other joints/bones too (mostly around my toes and heels), but I also believe that climbing on them made it worse, although I'm not willing to give up climbing just yet.

Open hand or large pinches agitate the PIP joints the most contrary to the common belief that full crimping is to blame, although some crimpy holds do hurt the DIP joints. Dynamic or dead point moves can cause pain due to shock loading the joints. I try to avoid them, which unfortunately became harder with route setting of modern styles. I tape/wrap my fingers very tightly (figure 8/x method) every time I climb to help redistribute the load (similar to how runners wearing compression calf sleeves to prevent shin splints), which does help to some extent. 

Again, I'm sorry that I do not have optimistic message for you based on my own experience, even though I hope yours turns out more positive than mine. 

I’m sorry to hear that the post author and you have been managing these issues. I have a healing story to share. In December 2023 I lifted a 10’ ladder in attempt to stand it upright and open the legs to use it. It was incredibly heavy and awkward and after fighting to get it upright I noticed a bruise on the side of my left ring finger. Every time I climbed the knuckle began to swell and the finger got worse to the point I stopped climbing. Got an X-ray and MRI and MRI showed arthritis and swelling, no other injury. The doctor was baffled at why it wasn’t getting better with 4 weeks of no climbing, he wanted to inject me with steroids which I declined because they kill the pain AND the tissues. He then opted to send my to hand therapy which made it worse. I had a conversation with my body to see what it needed to heal. The answer I got was no more PT, more time AND help in the form of PRP and Prolozone injections. I had wanted to do this from the beginning but it’s expensive and I assumed that my finger would heal so I waited. I got the injections several weeks ago and my finger is almost back to normal and the whole healing process for those injections takes 3 months and it’s almost healed in 2 weeks. Most people know what PRP is so  I’ll explain Prolozone. It is all natural and combines specific vitamins and healing compounds as well as ozone( oxygen). The combination of all of those and the PRP causes your body to mount a new healing response to an older injury and aided your body by supercharging the healing response with all of those supportive and beneficial compounds we makes less of as we age. I have done this treatment in other areas of my body and had a lot of people I know try it because of how they saw it help me and they all had amazing results from it as well. 

I was swollen for many years, then I finally got a girlfriend.