Pain in wrist and back of hand from pinching?

[mcd]

I have been experiencing sharp pain starting at the Ulnar side of my wrist and then extending up the back of my hand, particularly while using pinches or open hand grips on the hangboard. Has anyone experienced something similar to this?

[jetjackson]

Sound like it could it be a TFCC injury? Google that and check your symptoms.

Usually open hand slopers and pinches can aggravate that kind of injury.

[mcd]

Thanks, but I don't think this is a TFCC injury. I have had that before. The strange part here is the pain shooting up the back of my hand.

[MarkAnderson]

I don't think I've experienced shooting pain up the back of my hand, but I have experienced low-level chronic pains in my wrists from time to time. I think my pains are caused by using a laptop and/or mouse with poor ergonomics (specifically, forcing my hands to rotate out relative to my forearms). In my situation, hangboarding, especially pinching, can aggravate these injuries.

So, my advice would be to evaluate how you are using your hands/wrists in daily life and see if there is anything you're doing to irritate your wrists. Then while hangboarding, ensure you are pulling straight down on every grip, especially the grips that are causing problems. Do you have an adjustable-width rig?

[mcd]

Yes, I have my rig set up pretty well. I haven't got a good look at my wrist alignment while hanging. Sounds like something to check out.

[mcd]

Hmm, I just checked out my form briefly, and I think I may have been twisting my wrists a bit to try and get my short pinky fingers onto the holds. I guess I should try and record my next session and look and my hand /wrist position.

[mcd]

Jun 11, 2018 6:13:44 GMT -7 MarkAnderson said:

So, my advice would be to evaluate how you are using your hands/wrists in daily life and see if there is anything you're doing to irritate your wrists. Then while hangboarding, ensure you are pulling straight down on every grip, especially the grips that are causing problems. Do you have an adjustable-width rig?

This ended up being great advice. I found after a lot of evaluating that Pretty much any time I need to grip or create force through my wrist I Have been cocking a bit to the ulnar side (ulnar deviation ) and really loading up the extensor tendon on that side. In fact I  have been using my hand that way for almost everything, not just climbing. After I figured this out 6 weeks of extensor exercises with a focus on neutral wrist position has got me back to being able to climb and hang at full strength!