Pain in forearm extensors after campus board training

[jessebruni]

I recently ordered the RCTM handbook and read it cover to cover. I went through about my hangboarding phase with no issues and decided to jump into my campus phase. On the first day of campus training I felt pretty good like it wasn't too hard. I first warmed up by laddering up the large rungs, one set with each leading arm. Then the same thing on the medium rungs. Then I was able to complete 1-4-5 on the smallest rungs (1/2 pad, not sure how many inches) with about 3/4 moon spacing. I did a few sets of this, probably 4 or so, and moved on to the next exercise, double dynos. I did this on the large rungs and after a few sets of practicing the catching motion I was able to go all the way to the top on the large rungs. I then tried on the medium rungs but wasn't able to go up more than 3 rungs or so. I still felt okay after all this, but figured I had put in enough time and didn't want to overdo it so I went home. The next day I rested and my muscles were sore but nothing out of the ordinary and I figured I might be okay for some bouldering the following day.

So 48 hours after my campus session I went to the gym to get some bouldering in. I warmed up by ARCing for about 20 minutes and felt fine. When I went to get on the boulders I noticed something though, pinches and slopers at my limit weren't possible as there was a lot of pain in the tops of my forearms in the extensor muscles. I would notice this also with really hard crimping but found that while I was crimping the pain would be dull, but as soon as I would release the crimp the pain would amplify 4 or 5 times to the point where I couldn't move dynamically between two bad holds as, even though I could grab the first hold when I would release to grab the next the pain in my forarms would be too much to allow me to grab the following hold.

Needless to say I stopped that bouldering session and took another 2 rest days thinking I was just still sore from the campus workout. After another 72 hours I tried to climb again, this time I had to pull a bit harder to get the pain to come back, but it DID come back. As a result I moved into the PE phase and skipped the campus workouts, not wanting to injure myself too much. At this point (it's been about a month) I would say that I can pull on holds with around 95%-97% power without noticing any pain, but when I'm at my absolute limit and trying at 100% the pain creeps back. My feeling is that doing the double dyno's put too much stress on my forearm extensors (the latching of the rung in mid air maybe?) and I tore the muscle. I've tried to scale back the intensity without completely stopping climbing (though I am taking a week off right now), and I would like to be able to campus again and if I do I will not be doing double dynos, but I don't want to do it until I'm pain free.

My question is, does anyone have any kind of experience with this kind of pain? Is there a way I can rehab it? Do you have any specifics on what could have caused it and what the weak link was? Am I still not ready for campus training or am I okay to do the beginner campus plan?


Stats:
Years Climbing: 5
Age: 25
Sex: Male
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 137 lbs
Boulder Skill Level: V7
Sport Skill Level: 5.13a
Years of Training Experience: < 1

[RyanJohnson]

Oct 28, 2014 16:05:14 GMT -7 jessebruni said:

My question is, does anyone have any kind of experience with this kind of pain? Is there a way I can rehab it? Do you have any specifics on what could have caused it and what the weak link was? Am I still not ready for campus training or am I okay to do the beginner campus plan?

It sounds like you've already identified what caused it, doing too many campusing exercises too soon. The injurious part of campusing isn't so much the latching of a rung in mid air, it's the shock of your body weighting the holds after you hit peak of the upward movement. Double dynos are the one arm pull-up of the campusing phase. They're showy, impressive and dangerous and should only be done after you've established a significant amount of mileage on the Campus board. Similarly, I'd avoid down-campusing for the same reasons.

I'd honestly suggest avoiding double dynos for years. Stick to laddering, max reach, and max pull through variations on all the rung sizes. It's more specific, and more importantly it's safer.

Finally, a little bit of campusing goes a long way when you're just starting to train. Consider only doing 6-10 exercises for the first few campusing cycles and slowly increase the volume over time.

[jessebruni]

Thanks for the advice Ryan. That's basically what I figured I would do in the future. It was annoying to have to cancel an entire power phase after the first workout but I guess it's better than seriously injuring myself.

[MarkAnderson]

Jesse,

I agree with Ryan, it sounds like you just over-did it on your first workout. It's really important to ease into new things so you can get a sense of how your body will react (that's one reason I really disagree with the "Muscle Confusion" philosophy for finger training). The one thing I would add is to make sure you are stretching your extensors (and flexors obsiously) after every training session. I'm guessing you have some latent muscle tension in your extensors that are making them extra sensitive to campusing.

Good luck, and int the future add sets gradually and add exercises gradually.
Mark

[jessebruni]

Just want to update this. The pain is back and worse than ever after starting my campus cycle, although it's pretty much just in the left forearm now. A few things worthy of note are that I started this campus cycle very mildly, beginner routine on large and medium rungs. Even on the largest rungs on my first day campusing since October of last year just doing basic laddering I could feel pain. It's the act of pulling while in a half-crimp position that causes pain. Latching a hold in the half-crimp position feels fine, but when I pull with my forearms I feel pain in the posterior side. I've assumed it's my extensors although it's worth noting that if I do a chin up (instead of a pull up) in the half-crimp position my forearms feel fine. This leads me to believe it might have something to do with the pronator muscle. I've started stretching, but honestly wasn't doing it very religiously before. I'm going to do that now.

So now I'm left wondering what this could possibly be? I seem to be the only climber I've ever heard of (and only one I could find on the internet) with this issue. Everyone else has finger pain, elbow pain, or shoulder pain. Maybe chronic muscular tension from lack of stretching? Injured pronator muscle (not sure how)? Weak extensors (if so why would this not be a more common problem)?

[MarkAnderson]

I've felt soreness in my extensors after campusing. Not so much now, but when I first got serious about campusing I would get sore there after nearly every first workout each season. The point being, something about campusing seems to activate the extensors in a way that is not typical to regular climbing.

I think stretching is a good idea. My guess is that you have some tightness that is causing inactive joint stress. Regular climbing is not enough to cause an acute problem, but the extra strain of campusing is pushing it over the edge. If the pain is in the muscle itself, and not the connective tissue, I would try some icing and massage as well.

All that said, the intensity of your pain is definitely unusual and gives me pause. Take it easy on the campusing until you can figure out a treatment method to keep this under control. It's very possible to get by without campusing.

[jessebruni]

I do think this is a muscle issue and not connective tissue simply due to the location of the pain but then again, I'm not a physician. It seems that once the muscle is strained for next few climbing days (after 2 consecutive rest days of course) I still feel the pain when climbing normally, more mild and manageable but I feel it on more hold types such as slopers and pinches as well. I'm going to be experimenting with a combination of finger extensor training, massage, and a lot of stretching and I will post back here if I find anything out that is worthwhile. I will avoid campusing until the pain is gone, and experiment with re-introducing it slowly so as to not bring on the pain. Hopefully something about massage, extensor training, and stretching, or a combination of the three will help make the pain go away. In lieu of that I suppose I could always go see a doctor.

[MarkAnderson]

Mar 9, 2015 9:02:14 GMT -7 jessebruni said:

In lieu of that I suppose I could always go see a doctor.

Honestly I seriously doubt that would help. Maybe a PT.

[Chris W]

Jesse, as much as I would love to disagree with Mark on this point, I think he's right (though not ALL doctors are bad...). To really accurately diagnose and treat something like this, it needs to be seen "in the flesh", in person. A good physical therapist (or occupational therapist since they often will specialize in hand/arm issues) should be able to help you. Yours is a mechanical problem and needs a mechanical solution. In the mean time:

Find a dumbbell that you can use with adjustable weights. The cheap ones with screw collars and removable plates work well for this type of thing. Experiment [carefully] with wrist extensions, first holding the dumbbell normally, then with all the fingers and thumb on the same side. Support your arm on the edge of a table. Try the exercise with your elbow bent at different angles. What you're trying to do is find a position and motion that reproduces your pain.

Try the same thing with pronation and supination exercises by removing the weights from one end of the dumbbell.

Try the same thing with finger extension exercises using bands or a rice bucket

Try the same thing with biceps curls, hammer curls, triceps extensions, etc.

Somewhere along the line, one of these exercises should reproduce your pain. When you figure out what does it, that is the area that needs work and strengthening. Say, for example, that wrist extensions with your arm bent at 120 degrees reproduces your pain. Perform this exercise in this position using negative reps, 2-3 sets of 10, 2 days on and 1 day off. Start out easy and increase the resistance as your symptoms improve. Avoid NSAIDs. Stretch the appropriate areas, holding your stretches for 30-60 seconds to get any benefit from it. Let me know if you find the right spot.

[jessebruni]

Thanks Chris. I've actually known which motions reproduce the pain for a while, and it's finger extensions (rather than wrist extension) or pulling very hard with the forearm. I'm not totally convinced it's a matter of strengthening, but I bought one of those faux rubber band finger extension trainers anyway just to try it out. Anyway, I'm fairly certain that this will be a long term issue as I've had the problem intermittently for almost a year (started last summer and was mild, got bad when I first posted this thread) so hopefully a long term solution will work. I was able to do limit bouldering in the gym last night fairly pain free, the only hold that hurt was a pinch the size of the RPTC medium pinch and so I avoided that problem. Other than that I was pretty much able to boulder at my limit so I don't think my season is totally lost.

[Chris W]

Jesse, try to be really slow on the negative rep portion of your rehab training. Also, it may help to experiment with where on your finger you place the bands (proximal vs. distal). I hope this fixes your problem. If it is a muscle/tendon issue, it may take several months of dedicated therapy exercises for it to go away.

I had an issue with my elbows several years ago. It was bad enough that it would shut me down (no climbing) for months at a time. Eventually, I figured out what was causing it and worked out the solution. Now, after every climbing [training] day, I spend 5 minutes doing my "elbow exercises". I will probably have to do these as long as I am climbing, but five minutes per session is well worth it for me to keep going. As long as I behave and do my exercises, I can climb without any elbow pain.

I imagine you may find yourself in a similar position. You may have to spend a little time doing some prophylactic exercises, but I'll bet if you're consistent with them you could be climbing pain free on your next training cycle. Hope all goes well.

[rce123]

You're not the only one. I've been climbing for about a year. Anyways, the first month, I went hard in the bouldering cave, about 3-4 times per week. A month into it and I experienced the same pain with the same holds and everything. What I was told was to just stick to rope climbing on extremely easy routes. For me about 5.5 xD. I also stretched, just as Mark said, and it helped a lot. Luckily and unfortunately, I stopped rock climbing altogether because of work and my girlfriend. I took about a 2 month break. I read the book and decided to give it a try. So far, about a month into my cycle, my pain is no longer there. I also understand that because my extensors are a little tender that I have to take it easy. Eventually it will go away, but it's hard to say as I have only experienced this pain for a short while. I think it's tendinitis. So rest, ice, rehab should do the trick. So far it's working for me.

I hate to see people go through the same pain, but I know rest and rehab will fix. Good luck man.

[Li]

I felt the exactly same pain in left forearm after practicing on sloper campus rungs on consequent two days. I think the large move caused the pain. I am going to rest, and doing some push up and thruster to balance the muscle until it feels good on campus rungs. I think it is a typical problem for beginning climbers who want to build up strength and grip quickly. Hope Rehab and fully body warm-up will help.

[vale]

You're not the only one.

I've been climbing ~15 years, but started training in a more structured way 3-4 years ago. In every power training phase where I've started doing campus workouts I find the same pain creeping up each session in my left arm, probably one or several of the finger extensor muscle(s). I have tried the eccentric wrist curls and different kinds of isometrics but these have not yielded any results. After 3-4 sessions of campusing the pain gets so bad that it starts to hinder my bouldering sessions, so I stop campusing, forget the whole problem and encounter it again in the next power training phase.

So I am curios as this is pretty old thread, that did you find any specific exercises or stretches that kept the symptoms away?