Pressure build up in PID DIP joints

[kyqueener]

I'm not stranger to finger injuries and have had a couple A2 strains that actually brought me to the Rock Climber's Training Manual and since then my finger has made a very healthy recovery and I have much more strength in that finger. However I get this sensation in another finger, specifically in the joints and all I want to do it pop the joint but I typically can't. It feels like pressure is building in the PID and DIP joints and all I want to do is pop it. Has anyone else had something like this happen? I climbed on it last night and the movement from climbing loosened it up enough so I could stretch it and pop it and I felt relief almost instantly, but it's still lingering. 

[Chris W]

I see this happen in larger joints, such as the SI joint, fairly frequently. I believe that what happens is that muscle/tendon/ligament tightness pulls on the joint giving you the sensation you've described. Typical treatment involves working on flexibility and mobility in and around the affected area (i.e. stretching) to allow things to function the way God intended. I'll bet if you stretch your flexors and extensors, it will fix the problem

[MarkAnderson]

I've experienced this in my ring finger DIP joints during and/or after long or intense bouts of closed crimping. My theory is that hyper-extending the DIP joint places tremendous pressure on the bone and cartilage at the interface between the distal and middle phalanges. I don't know why that would lead to a desire to "pop" the knuckle, but I've experienced that too, and I off quickly pop my knuckles before placing them on the crimp when hangboarding.

The solution is to seek slow and steady strength gains, don't push too hard, too fast, too often. Additionally, you can try to avoid hyper-extending the DIP joint. That is easier said than done, but certainly while hangboarding it is possible to limit the deflection of that joint. While climbing in general, only use a closed crimp when you really have to. That will at least save you some wear and tear. To do that, it really helps to increase your "half" or "semi-closed" crimp grip strength.

[kyqueener]

I think I've found the answer to my own question and thank you Mark for your reply. In a way it was spot on with what I need to do and what I thought I was doing. "The solution is to seek slow and steady strength gains, don't push too hard, too fast, too often". It appears that the pressure I was feeling was caused by swelling in that joint cause by one of my favorite types of injuries, pulley strains. The pressure and swelling has subsided and now I can feel some mild pain when flexing the joint around the A3. After feeling around I found some point tenderness and I can feel that the pulley is a little swollen. On the upside of things I've caught this one early and I have too much experience on rehabbing pulleys so it should be short lived. 

What I think caused this was my addition of monos to my hangboard routine and then a couple campus board work outs, which were my first ones ever. Before starting to really get into training I was already climbing pretty well and was climbing 5.13 and low end 5.14 so I had some strength to work with from the start. I think though, and this is my guess, that while I may have been strong in one specific area I was really quite weak in others which allowed me to think I was being prudent and safe while in reality I was over doing things without really knowing I was. I had completed one season using the training manual and had excellent results so I decided to up it a little bit more. The monos on the hangboard were hard and I should have kept the resistance down a lot lower and since campusing was new for me I had really bad form. I was recording video on campusing and it was very apparent. 

So yeah... slow steady gains.... really slow steady gains. 

-Ky