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Post by acmesalute76 on Feb 6, 2019 8:00:10 GMT -7
I tweaked my left ring finger, around the A2 area, in December on a boulder problem. Not confirmed what I did, but at the time it was like three of my fingers spasmed through the flexor tendons and the pulleys felt tight and painful when it happened. The ring finger was the only one sore after. I stopped immediately and took a couple weeks off.
I’ve been climbing through my base fitness phase with zero issues, not doing anything too hard or tweaky but using small holds. First hangboarding workout I feel that tweakiness return on the first grip (EDIT: after a warmup jug) (MR pocket) and complete the workout fine but am sore after and today. What do I do now?
1. Keep hangboarding and hope it goes away? I started with 20lbs below last seasons PRs which felt hard ish. That would set me up for ten lb PRs this season over 7 sessions.
2. Keep hangboarding but drop the weight? I’m already removing 60-70 lbs on some grips because my finger strength is terrible. How long can I expect to be in rehab mode before I can actually train hard again?
3. Become a slab master/trad dad? I’ve been injured more times climbing in three years than I have in my whole life, and that includes racing motorbikes, skiing, and skateboarding. It’s pretty frustrating because I can’t just keep pushing myself to improve like I always have.
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Post by jetjackson on Feb 6, 2019 15:53:41 GMT -7
How sore?
Can you give us some indications of pain/tenderness level off the pulley when you palpitate it? Out of 10, what was the pain through December, through the ARC phase, and now, post HB session?
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Post by Chris W on Feb 6, 2019 18:02:10 GMT -7
I started with 20lbs below last seasons PRs which felt hard ish. I start my season with weights about 40 pounds less than the last season's PR. That would set me up to increase the weight by 5 pounds per session with a goal of setting a new PR by 5 pounds on session 9. That's with healthy fingers. Granted, I've not had a bad finger injury, but if I had a finger issue that I needed to rehab, I would start way lighter than that.
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Post by Charlie S on Feb 6, 2019 18:13:45 GMT -7
I'm about 35 pounds less at the beginning of each season.
Your injury description is interesting with 3 fingers spasming, and then you feel tweaky-ness on the pocket. A few recommendations:
1, go way low on the 2F pocket. Like rehab weight (subtract 60 pounds or more if you need to). 2, pay attention to the position of your pinky finger. Is it curled over? There are a number of tendon sheath issues associated with this position. Try buddy taping the first knuckles of the pinky and ring fingers so it can't bend over and see if that helps. 3, get rid of the 2F pocket- either completely for this season or replace it with a totally different grip. If you keep it, I'd personally suggest making it your second grip. Throw a "warmup" edge as your starting grip or move a larger hold to the beginning.
Regarding injuries, how old are you? I'm early 30s and have found that recovery takes much longer and I have to be really smart about rest between workouts, knowing when to stop a workout, and not doing dumb things that can hurt. However, I'm also pushing a lot harder and I'm much stronger than I was in my early 20s. Depends on how you look at it.
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Post by acmesalute76 on Feb 6, 2019 18:59:26 GMT -7
I'm about 35 pounds less at the beginning of each season. Your injury description is interesting with 3 fingers spasming, and then you feel tweaky-ness on the pocket. A few recommendations: 1, go way low on the 2F pocket. Like rehab weight (subtract 60 pounds or more if you need to). 2, pay attention to the position of your pinky finger. Is it curled over? There are a number of tendon sheath issues associated with this position. Try buddy taping the first knuckles of the pinky and ring fingers so it can't bend over and see if that helps. 3, get rid of the 2F pocket- either completely for this season or replace it with a totally different grip. If you keep it, I'd personally suggest making it your second grip. Throw a "warmup" edge as your starting grip or move a larger hold to the beginning. Regarding injuries, how old are you? I'm early 30s and have found that recovery takes much longer and I have to be really smart about rest between workouts, knowing when to stop a workout, and not doing dumb things that can hurt. However, I'm also pushing a lot harder and I'm much stronger than I was in my early 20s. Depends on how you look at it. Thanks for the replies guys. I’m 32, so not as young as I once was. My finger doesn’t hurt that bad, even when I press on it, but I don’t want to hurt it worse. I have been using a jug for my warmup sets, but maybe I should drop that and use a large edge instead? I do also do about 20 minutes in the gym on progressively smaller holds to warm up. I’d really like to keep the two finger pocket, since it is a hold I see somewhat frequently, and it’s nice to be able to pull on it without being sketched out that I’m gonna get hurt on it. At first I did think it had something to do with the pinky position, but I’m not really sure. I try not to close the pinky when hanging on pockets. I did feel a lot stronger when I used all four fingers, but that’s kind of always true. I’m using the beginner plan, so only 7 workouts, which is why I started 20lbs below. But maybe I should drop the weight and add a couple workouts. I’m pretty conservative with amount of rest days, but I also don’t really know my body that well when it comes to fingers, having only started climbing a couple years ago.
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Post by acmesalute76 on Feb 6, 2019 19:37:11 GMT -7
How sore? Can you give us some indications of pain/tenderness level off the pulley when you palpitate it? Out of 10, what was the pain through December, through the ARC phase, and now, post HB session? I’d say when I press on the pulley it barely hurts, so like a 1, but I’ve never had any pain so I’m concerned. Pain was zero through the arc phase and December. Pain during the workout was also minor, maybe a 1.5. It almost doesn’t hurt at all after 2 days rest.
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Post by jetjackson on Feb 6, 2019 19:44:11 GMT -7
How sore? Can you give us some indications of pain/tenderness level off the pulley when you palpitate it? Out of 10, what was the pain through December, through the ARC phase, and now, post HB session? I’d say when I press on the pulley it barely hurts, so like a 1, but I’ve never had any pain so I’m concerned. Pain was zero through the arc phase and December. Pain during the workout was also minor, maybe a 1.5. It almost doesn’t hurt at all after 2 days rest. Honestly, that to me doesn't sound too bad. If it is not hurting after 2 days rest, you're probably pretty far through your recovery and further rest won't help it improve - I'd say safe to continue training, but as per the others, I'd drop back on the weight and slowly ease into it. Some tenderness in the pulley during and after a day of training IMO is okay, but it should be mostly gone by day 2 - if not maybe you're pushing a bit too hard. Generally over time, it should be improving and you should be able to increase the weight on it without getting increased pain, otherwise you probably need to back off. If you google search my youtube I did a video on how I test my pulleys before a training session just google youtube jacksonclimbs and you should find it. Rather than me type out all my thoughts here Agree with the others - if I was rehabbing an injury, I'd be starting at more like 50-60 pounds below previous PRs and I would be aiming to maybe finish my cycle at previous PRs - I'd just accept that would be a great outcome for the season. I wouldn't be trying to hit new PRs.
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Post by jetjackson on Feb 6, 2019 19:48:09 GMT -7
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Post by acmesalute76 on Feb 7, 2019 18:24:03 GMT -7
I had my second hangboard session today. After warming up carefully and testing my fingers on small holds, I decided to continue with hangboarding as planned, and added 5lbs to all grips.
I determined that the pockets are the real problem. I taped my pinky to my ring finger before I started, suspecting this might be the issue. The MR pocket was most tweaky. I was able to finish but I was also questioning if I should. The IMR was less tweaky, and much of that may have been from being bothered on the MR set. I felt some mild pain between the pinky and ring bones in my palm as my pinky moved free. The tape wasn’t restrictive enough to keep it tight enough.
My pulleys felt fine half crimping. The only time I felt anything was when I had pressure on the ring finger in that spot. Doing pull-ups on a bar and some very deep jugs gave me a slight ache in that A2 area from the direct pressure. But since crimping felt fine, I’m wondering if that’s really my pulley or what.
I definitely have a tweak between the ring and pinky finger, in whatever soft tissue is in there. It’s not a bad tweak, and I didn’t notice it because I hadn’t been climbing small pockets. I will have to look into rehabbing that. I’m not sure hangboarding on pockets is beneficial, but I can still train four finger grips and MRP pockets, which is great. I may try the IMR again and see if it’s ok, although not sure if it’s worth it.
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Post by Charlie S on Feb 7, 2019 20:31:04 GMT -7
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Post by daustin on Feb 7, 2019 22:47:23 GMT -7
I think one of the fundamental tenets of hangboarding is “When I’m doubt, lower the load.” Maybe less applicable if you have a decade+ experience climbing and training, but otherwise it seems like it’s a pretty good guiding principle for many situations and questions that arise with hangboarding.
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Post by acmesalute76 on Feb 8, 2019 8:08:23 GMT -7
Yes, this is exactly what’s going on. I normally hangboard like he prescribes, but when bouldering I must have done something tweaky. From what I’ve read I need to avoid pockets for a while for it to heal. I am concerned about campusing if I only latch three fingers but I might be fine in a few weeks. Doesn’t seem like there’s much out there for rehab exercises.
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