Collateral Ligament Injury and Recovery Hangboarding

[Michael H]

Hey Mark,
While reading your book, but before starting the rock prodigy program, I got a very mild collateral ligament injury in my ring finger from to much limit bouldering and hangboarding.

I took two weeks off of climbing then did two weeks of very easy (slab) outdoor mileage. I have since completed (religiously) the base fitness phase (4 weeks) of the program without any pain. I give my finger a ton of attention, avoid holds that may hurt it, and massage/skretch it hourly/daily. If my finger is cold (i.e. when I wake up in the morning) it still aches a tiny bit if I apply force perpendicular to my fingertip. But if my finger is warmed up and massaged I have absolutely no pain and it never hurts while I climb. 

I am eager to continue to the strength phase, but I am not sure if its wise to start hangboarding or not. I was thinking about doing some very light (not to failure) hangboard workouts for two weeks (with tons of recovery time) then doing two more weeks of hangboarding to get my strength back before going on to the power phase. You mentioned in your book doing "recovery hangboarding" for two weeks after an injury then progressively increasing the load. I was wondering what that entails and if you have any additional advice for me? Should I skip a phase? do recovery hangboarding then restart the program? or continue onto the strength phase full force? Any advice will help!

Notes: I have been climbing for 3.5 years, I onsight most 5.11c in gym and work on V4/V5 outside, its been 7 weeks since I got the injury (not acutely), I previously injured a pulley in my first year of climbing because of hangboarding ignorance. I am doing the program because I want to be working 5.12/V6 outside by next fall. Front Range Climber with tons of dream projects (V6/V7/5.12a) picked out.

Thanks!

[latestart]

In my experience, collateral ligament injuries are mostly pain-free, as long as you don't apply lateral force to the joint or digit. Avoid holds that somehow torque or contort your fingers (don't do ring or fingers locks on a hangboard... I'm not even sure how you would, but just don't), and holds that you catch with a lot of sideways momentum. Actually climbing is where things can get a little hairy, because you're moving dynamically and you're not loading the fingers with a purely downward force. If you can keep the loading largely in-line with the finger, you should be fine.

I would say to proceed with the hangboard phase as you would any other hangboard phase. If there is acute pain while hangboarding, drop the grip or drop the weight. Once you're back to climbing, buddy taping for a while is probably a good idea. You'll also want to make sure your campus form is right-on, and continue buddy taping.

[MarkAnderson]

I concur with latestart. Torquing the joint is the problem, so be sure to avoid that in your hangboarding (and the rest of your daily life). If you train pocket grips, ensure they are properly aligned so you hang straight down on the injured finger. Most of my collateral ligament issues have come from doing something dynamic where the finger snagged on something that twisted the PIP joint or put high lateral stress on the joint. For example, quickly yanking your fingers out of a pocket to initiate a dyno, but moving the hand up before the fingers are completely out of the pocket. So avoid doing stuff like that

[Michael H]

Thanks! looking forward to crushing the next phase