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Deep Friction Massage for Pulley Irritation (Read 7649 times)

tommy_k

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Hey UKB!

A few weeks back I had my first pulley injury / pain.
The typical treatments including initial rest, ice water and very light exercise did help somewhat but didn't really make the pain disappear.
I continued to train, with the finger heavily taped and trying to avoid any aggravation through crimping etc.
For several weeks it was ok'ish, I could train for a while before the pain started and during the rest day it would almost disappear again. But it was always there, pressure on the A2 area caused more pain (the inflammation pain kind) and the finger just wouldn't heal completely.

Then of course I managed to make it worse again through a particular intense training session after which for the next two days I thought I'd have to stop climbing for several weeks to allow the finger to heal properly and not risk a more serious injury.

But then a friend recommended to try deep friction massage on the A2 area.

Now this is really uncomfortable to perform, but it made a huge difference!
I have now done it for about a week, saw immediate improvement every day and even continued to train and today the finger feels absolutely fine for the first time in 6 or 7 weeks!

I hope it will stay like this for now and I'll manage not to screw it up again  ;D

I just thought I'd share my experience with everybody and maybe it can help someone else as well!

Cheers  :punk:

abarro81

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Conversely, I've found that massaging the affected area early on in an injury tends to just piss it off and make thing regress...  :shrug:

Sasquatch

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Conversely, I've found that massaging the affected area early on in an injury tends to just piss it off and make thing regress...  :shrug:
I agree.  I think the conventional wisdom on massage is that it's very helpful for breaking up residual scar tissue.  The scar tissue often leads to recurrances of injuries, hence why you want to get rid of.  In this case that seems likely.  After several weeks, the injury was through the initial healing and ready for massage.  Doing deep massage in the first stage of recovery seems bad, later good.   

Curious what the more experienced/physios think?

rodma

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My physio always worked on my forearm for a good 30 minutes interspersed with checking range of motion in affected finger, prior to even roving the timber.

That should say touching the finger but I quite like that swypo so left it.

Boredboy

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 :icon_321:what abarro said for sure

Fultonius

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This is a pressing issue for me right now. I tweaked my A2 a few weeks ago ( ring finger, crimping too hard on fucking plastic trying to massage my ego onsighting a 7a+)  :wall:   anyway, I digress.

The next day it was noticeably tender; no swelling, no audible pop at the time, just  bit sore to touch and "test crimp".


I've had this before and managed to get back to climbing reasonably quickly. I have never had a pulley injury so bad that it swole up (shit, it swelled the past participle??) digression, again.

Anyway, I'm trying to rehab it. I rested until tenderness went down, then did some mixed climbing. After that there was no pain, no swelling. I kinda forgot it was bad and went bouldering. Next day tender.

Since then I've been doing some mountain trad with it taped to prevent crimping and a couple of days of easy sport climbing. At the end of these days I've definitely noticed some tenderness but no real swelling and no pain unless I prod or crimp. I've been doing some massage which is uncomfortable/painful during and immediately after, but then an hour or so later it seems to have helped with the tenderness.

Am I massaging too soon? Too forcibly? Climbing too hard?

I know total rest is not good, neither is overdoing it. Getting it bang on is so hard!

Any tips?

Stu Littlefair

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Sounds like you're getting it spot on. I've been told by those that know that in the early days the correct level is one that avoids serious discomfort the next day. Later on in the injury you can push a bit harder.

Fultonius

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It's so hard to know.

I remember when I woke up from the general anaesthetic from to my knee surgery the nurse said - "rank you pain from 1 to 10" so I replied (well, what's 1 and what's 10, I need a reference).

She replied with "well, 1 is almost pain free and 10 is the worst pain imaginable".  I was waaaaay off the acale but said 7 to save face while asking for more morphine. She said I'd already had alll the morphine. Fuck.

Sasquatch

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Sounds like you're getting it spot on. I've been told by those that know that in the early days the correct level is one that avoids serious discomfort the next day. Later on in the injury you can push a bit harder.
:agree:

That seems to fit both my understanding and my experience. 

Fultonius

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After 3 awesome years in Chamonix I'm moving back to Glasgow so if I can afford it I think I might get a few coaching sessions. I've just hit 32 and done a lot of what I want to do with my climbing but the next step is - prevent injuries and up my bouldering game. I've never breached 7C and I'd love to.

Paying for for rent/food/beer (and maybe MSC in offshore renewable energy touch wood) might end that plan for a year, but we'll see...

SA Chris

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OT, but why you coming back Ali?

Fultonius

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To be there for my mum really.

SA Chris

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Tough, but good for you. Shout if you fancy a trip up our way, not that you have any shortage of contacts in the area!

tommy_k

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Just to make sure there are no misunderstandings:
I did not use deep friction massage during the first occurrence of the injury / pain, I did however start using it right after I aggravated the injury a few weeks later.

The pain though was still that of a strong inflammation and not that of a physical trauma.
And (chronic) tissue inflammation seems to be what deep friction massage has been used for traditionally and there are some studies out there showing it's effect on inflammation (and others showing no effect - just for the sake of completeness).

As it has been said here, I wouldn't use dfm during the acute phase of an injury, if however you just can't get rid of an inflammation a few weeks later and haven't tried dfm yet, it might be worth a try, it made all the difference for me.


 

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