Are your fingers constantly sore?

[jrblack]

My fingers hurt... a little bit... almost always.

I don't think this counts as an "injury" because, well, the pain is minor, should just be called "soreness" and I don't have diminished strength or range-of-motion.  But it's pretty much a constant feature when I'm climbing/training that my finger joints are tender.

By "sore" I mean that if I "roll" or "knead" my finger joints, they feel tender.  At least some of them do... and I'm happy if it's a different joint each morning because, as the old saying goes, "The definition of healthy is when, each day, something different hurts."

At times I've taken time off to let me finger soreness abate, but it just comes right back as soon as I stress them again anyway.

Questions: Do you deal with soreness too?  Is training on sore fingers a good way to get injured?  Do you ever find that light climbing helps ameliorate sore fingers?

[jonfrisby]

I think glucosamine with chondroit and msm can help with this a bit. but yeah same thing here

[MarkAnderson]

No. Yes. No.  I've gone through periods of training or climbing when many of my fingers felt achy pretty much all the time. At that time I think I figured that was the price of glory, but now I climb/train much harder with no chronic finger pain, so in retrospect I would say I was probably training too much, pushing too hard, and/or not resting enough. What phase are you in? It might be prudent to reduce the volume of training and add in some extra rest days for a while.

[jrblack]

Thanks for the replies!

MarkAnderson : After a 16 year break, I started came back last year (Sep 2016) and just climbed moderates for a year, trying to get my arms/finger used to the stress again. I succeeded in avoiding injury that way, and I wouldn't change anything.

A month ago I pulled REALLY hard on a 2-finger pocket and tweaked my left ring PIP. I waited a couple of weeks until it was pain-free, then started HB, and I've done 4 sessions now. But my left ring is sore again, mostly as a result of MR hangs. I'm planning to either drop MR or back off the weight until it feels better.

(I've done almost nothing between HB sessions other than doing laps on a moderate 1 day last week.)

[jetjackson]

I've gone through a few pulley injuries in my first 18-24 months of hard training. Now I'm in my third year, I feel like my fingers have adapted more, so now the next weakest link appears to be my finger joints, and my elbows. I've started getting what I think is the very early signs of tenosynovitis(vaginitis, whatever it is called) and what may be mild tennis elbow. I'm backing off training a bit but yeah, I get odd aches every now and again, but I tend to 'work through them' I have found that I get the occaisional, what feels like a tweak and is achy during the session, but may just be a hard move, and then goes away 2-3 days later and I don't feel it again in the season. I also find I get aches/tweaks on those older injuries as I start to push them beyond where the point I rehabbed them to - if that makes sense.

It's only with experience I'm starting to get a 'feel' on what I can push, and what I have to back off.

[jrblack]

jetjackson Man, in my first 10 years of climbing (1988-1997) I had endless elbow problems... medial and lateral epicondylitis. I just didn't have much mileage on them going into it (I was a swimmer in college, which really doesn't use those muscles much).

I found that pullups helped with lateral epicondylitis (for me at least). Medial... there are some good exercises in "Make or Break" that I do preventatively now, along with reverse wrist curls. Hiking out of a crag, I'll find a 6kg rock and do reverse curls while walking out.

P.S. You look like a young Hugo Weaving.

[jrblack]

Well, my left ring PIP has gotten so bad I decided to take a week off (after 5 total HB sessions... the last one was very painful, esp the MR hangs).

But after a week, it's not much better!

So I think I'll rest another week. In the meanwhile I'm just squeezing an exercise ball and doing the rice bucket. Sigh... old age....

[Chris W]

A week is really just a drop in the bucket in terms of recovery and rebuilding from injuries. I usually tell the average Joe to expect 6 weeks from things like a rolled ankle. I'm a big proponent of active rest and recovery. Instead of resting totally, actively and intelligently working toward rehabilitating the traumatized area.