Post by Mike on Jan 6, 2015 20:54:21 GMT -7
Hi all (particularly Mark),
I recently have had some wrist pain during my power phase, which has brought to my attention the absolute necessity of taking more steps to prevent injury, and I've got some questions about how I should do this.
Some quick background: I'm 31, been climbing for 21 years but never trained for it at all until reading RCTM and have just finished the power phase of my first macrocycle. I climb 5.11 roughly, with occasional spurts of being able to flail up .12's.
During hangboarding, I felt some very minor pain on the side of my hand by the wrist on the pinky side. The pain centered around and above that knob of bone on that side of the wrist that protrudes a bit (the ulnar carpal bones, I think, if I'm reading an anatomical chart correctly).
I did the first couple of power phase workouts, though I initally had a hard time designing/finding limit bouldering problems, so this was only done lightly at first. After my first campusing session, I felt fine. I did the beginner protocol, so 12 sets as prescribed in that. Although my gym does not have half-steps, so I was sticking to the numbers listed in the routine but will Moon full-spacing. This was perhaps overambitious of me, but I was able to complete almost all the ladders in it.
Anyway, I did the same for the 2nd campusing set, with a few more sets for a total of 15 sets this time. Again, felt fine during and after this workout. The next day, I was sore in that same area of both wrists again.
After the prescribed 72 hours rest, I attempted a limit bouldering session. I found that the same spots on my wrists were very sore and got more sore the more I climbed, so I stopped during the hard bouldering phase of the warmup. My elbows were also sore but only mildly, not nearly as much as the wrists.
I then decided to take a week off, over which time I had quite a bit of soreness in the wrists. I did a little bit of the stretches in the book and started ice baths for my arms. An odd thing happens with the ice baths: the right wrist, which hurts a bit more than the left, has a very hard time warming up after the icing. The pinky side of my hand locks up and hurts a bit, almost like a cramp, and remains difficult to use and still cold for up to 2 hours after the ice bath. Whereas my left hand seems to warm up in about 10 minutes.
After a week off, I went back to the gym yesterday and did a limit bouldering session, which went great. Still some soreness in the wrists, but not too bad during the workout. But after the workout and still today, I again have the soreness, and it now seems to extend vertically up from that spot on the wrist into the pinky and down into the extensor area on the side/top of my arm on the pinky side.
The pain is mild to moderate, it's nothing debilitating. It does not seem like there is any major acute injury. But I am concerned as I don't want to stand transfixed and watch an overuse injury happen when I could just give it a rest. However, I also don't want to stop my macrocycle over nothing, and the power phase is over now anyway (I'm skipping the third campusing session given what's happened). I purchased the book One Move Too Many, but it has little to say about wrists and nothing about this particular kind of wrist pain.
So this brings up a few questions:
--Any idea what this is?
--Should I take a break from training or continue? Is this worthy of going into a rehab protocol as discussed in the book?
--Should I continue icing, given what happens afterwards?
--Are there any supplemental exercises you would recommend for strengthening certain muscles to prevent wrist injuries?
--Anything else I could be doing to prevent wrist injury or heal whatever damage is being done already?
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!
I recently have had some wrist pain during my power phase, which has brought to my attention the absolute necessity of taking more steps to prevent injury, and I've got some questions about how I should do this.
Some quick background: I'm 31, been climbing for 21 years but never trained for it at all until reading RCTM and have just finished the power phase of my first macrocycle. I climb 5.11 roughly, with occasional spurts of being able to flail up .12's.
During hangboarding, I felt some very minor pain on the side of my hand by the wrist on the pinky side. The pain centered around and above that knob of bone on that side of the wrist that protrudes a bit (the ulnar carpal bones, I think, if I'm reading an anatomical chart correctly).
I did the first couple of power phase workouts, though I initally had a hard time designing/finding limit bouldering problems, so this was only done lightly at first. After my first campusing session, I felt fine. I did the beginner protocol, so 12 sets as prescribed in that. Although my gym does not have half-steps, so I was sticking to the numbers listed in the routine but will Moon full-spacing. This was perhaps overambitious of me, but I was able to complete almost all the ladders in it.
Anyway, I did the same for the 2nd campusing set, with a few more sets for a total of 15 sets this time. Again, felt fine during and after this workout. The next day, I was sore in that same area of both wrists again.
After the prescribed 72 hours rest, I attempted a limit bouldering session. I found that the same spots on my wrists were very sore and got more sore the more I climbed, so I stopped during the hard bouldering phase of the warmup. My elbows were also sore but only mildly, not nearly as much as the wrists.
I then decided to take a week off, over which time I had quite a bit of soreness in the wrists. I did a little bit of the stretches in the book and started ice baths for my arms. An odd thing happens with the ice baths: the right wrist, which hurts a bit more than the left, has a very hard time warming up after the icing. The pinky side of my hand locks up and hurts a bit, almost like a cramp, and remains difficult to use and still cold for up to 2 hours after the ice bath. Whereas my left hand seems to warm up in about 10 minutes.
After a week off, I went back to the gym yesterday and did a limit bouldering session, which went great. Still some soreness in the wrists, but not too bad during the workout. But after the workout and still today, I again have the soreness, and it now seems to extend vertically up from that spot on the wrist into the pinky and down into the extensor area on the side/top of my arm on the pinky side.
The pain is mild to moderate, it's nothing debilitating. It does not seem like there is any major acute injury. But I am concerned as I don't want to stand transfixed and watch an overuse injury happen when I could just give it a rest. However, I also don't want to stop my macrocycle over nothing, and the power phase is over now anyway (I'm skipping the third campusing session given what's happened). I purchased the book One Move Too Many, but it has little to say about wrists and nothing about this particular kind of wrist pain.
So this brings up a few questions:
--Any idea what this is?
--Should I take a break from training or continue? Is this worthy of going into a rehab protocol as discussed in the book?
--Should I continue icing, given what happens afterwards?
--Are there any supplemental exercises you would recommend for strengthening certain muscles to prevent wrist injuries?
--Anything else I could be doing to prevent wrist injury or heal whatever damage is being done already?
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!
).