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Flexor Unit Strain - help or experiences? (Read 6058 times)

b3n99

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Flexor Unit Strain - help or experiences?
August 26, 2011, 10:30:16 pm
So I have just self diagnosed a flexor unit strain in my ring finger that happened jumping to the pocket on jerry's roof :thumbsdown:
Has anyone had this injury and any advice on how best to treat? Where and how would I tape it for support and how long a recovery have people had?

Cheers

ducko

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I've recently had tendon problems on my ring finger I've take ibuprofen, then rested obviously, massage the areaof pain to encourage blood flow then I used a stress ball too help get everything moving again then I used H brace style taping and started climbing on easier problem the hot and cold treatment seemto work too

heelhookofglory

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Has anyone had this injury and any advice on how best to treat?

Did your arm go numb? Mine did and it really worried me!

This happened to me whilst dynamically latching a 3-finger pocket with my right hand back in January. I had 4 weeks where I could hardly hold anything and then started climbing easily after that. It's still not 100% (probably about 95%) now but it's not holding me back.

In the initial stages I used cold-treatment techniques to reduce the pain -- some info here http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/search/label/Injuries

After the initial stages (2-3 weeks of no climbing) I just changed how I climbed and started using different hold types (crimps, half-crimps etc.) which didn't affect the flexor so much -- mine hurt more when using open-handed grip positions.

Not sure if that helps but to sum up, once the pain subsides then start climbing easier stuff and use crimps rather than open-handed grips until it gains strength again. Expect it to be slightly weaker than normal for ~6-8 months perhaps?

To be honest though I've not really been that pro-active with my recovery and I ended up just climbing differently. I'm sure others will post more specific rehab which will speed things up.

b3n99

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Cheers for replies guys, am following cold treatment plan (from Dave Macleods blog) and a lot of deep massage and stretching. I had 7 days off and first session back today it felt surprisingly good even open handed as long as it wasn't two finger pockets.
Don't think mine is quite as serious as yours Pezz, maybe just a small strain as didn't get any numbness either but advice is still very useful!

 

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