Hang boarding novice. How to recover from finger injury?

[chris]

I'm curious what all of you would recommend. I started my first training cycle about a month ago, but it got interrupted by a trip to HCR and the nice weather. After my trip (about a week long with little rest) I came home and took a few (~3) days off and then went to boulder at the gym. I didn't warm up properly and ended up feeling a weird tweaky pain a few hours after my bouldering session in what I think is my ring finger flexor tendon. The pain is located in my forearm near my wrist and only appears when I stress my ring finger. Also, it only hurts when I put weight on it with an open grip. I can probably put about 35% or 40% of my maximum power on it before it starts to feel bad. It started about a week ago and it feels a little better each day.

I know Mark and Mike advocate recovering from finger injuries on a hang board (I imagine this is because it's so controlled) but I wonder if this recommendation applies to people who have not hang boarded before?

Should I go the hang board route anyway and just take LOTS of weight off?

Thanks All! Happy Climbing,

Chris

[MarkAnderson]

I would go the hangboard route with lots of weight off. Certainly it would be better if you had a history of hangboard logs you could refer to, but I think you can still get good results doing it from scratch. Just read Chapter 6 a few times (there's a lot of nuanced info in there).

[chris]

Thanks, Mark! I'll have a second look at Ch. 6. I appreciate the input!

[jdb]

Your description sounds very similar to how Dave MacLeod describes Flexor Unit Strains in his book. Does it hurt more with a fully openhanded grip with the pinky dropped than with a 4 finger openhanded grip? If so the advice was basically that if you climb without provoking the symptoms it seems to heal well.

This is just based on what I have read & not something that I have any experience with. So take it for what it's worth.

[chris]

Yeah, jdb, that describes it quite accurately! I'm glad that my instincts about this being a flexor issue were on point! Also, I think this is a re-injury of an old one. Last time it took a long time to heal but I think it was worse then. Hopefully we'll get a faster recovery this time. Maybe if I climb/hangboard easy on it, it will somehow stimulate recovery and I'll get back to 100% strength!