[Schnell]

Context: I've got a pulley strain and following my usual routine I've been climbing fairly lightly without crimping. Still the strain is taking a long time to heal which has got me thinking about the mechanics of open-handing vs crimping.

When I use an open hand grip on an edge or sloper and if I want to get my pinky on, there's a bend in the hand/fingers at the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint. Thinking about diagrams I've seen about how the pulleys work, this would suggest that the a2 is under strain despite the fact I'm not crimping. Basically I'm interested in people's knowledge or opinion on whether level of stress on the a2 defined by the angle at the MCP joint, irrespective of a bend in the PIP joint?

This would contrast with suggestions (e.g. in Dave Mac's injury book) that when you have a pulley strain you should splint the PIP joint to stop yourself crimping, but not worry about the MCP. It would also mean that a chisel/drag type grip, where the MCP is not bent but the PIP is, would involve less strain on the pulley than open-handing with pinky on or pulling on slopers.

I'm aware this post would be a lot better with pictures in to illustrate my points, but I've never got the hang of embedding them anyway.

[mctrials23]

As you say, you cannot open hand properly when you get the pinkie involved. I tried to take Dave Macs advice on open handing to help heal an A2 but initially I was open handing with all four fingers and wondering why it wasn't helping that much. When I thought about it and looked at the position of my fingers I realised that I simply couldn't open hand properly with 4 fingers and moved to 3.

When you climb you roughly group finger positions into crimp/open hand/chisel but quite often you are using them somewhere between the 3. i.e. four fingers open handed is somewhere between full open handed and half crimp.

Essentially, if you want to avoid annoying and A2, don't use four fingers. I assume that as it heals and you are supposed to gently start crimping again would you be best using 4 fingers open handed as an intermediate phase. I don't think it stresses the A2 as much as crimping but more than proper 3 finger open handing.

[abarro81]

I have no idea what an MCP is, but agree with mc trials - 'open' doesn't really exist that much on 4 fingers unless you're on jugs. The closest I can get is on a sloper, but I still tend to half-crimp up a bit. On an edge you'd have to have fuckin' long pinkies to be able to open hand

[rodma]

i can only open truly open hand on two fingers on an edge, otherwise my middle finger or middle & ring finger is slightly more cranked, depending on whether it's my index or pinky that is off.

everyone's fingers/lengths/ratios are slightly different.

perhaps your pulley strain and the one dave mac writes about are not the same. I mean, they're on different peoples hands for starters 

[Schnell]

I have no idea what an MCP is, but agree with mc trials - 'open' doesn't really exist that much on 4 fingers unless you're on jugs. The closest I can get is on a sloper, but I still tend to half-crimp up a bit. On an edge you'd have to have fuckin' long pinkies to be able to open hand

MCP is the joint between hand and finger (i.e. knuckle).

Seems like other people have just applied a bit of common sense and worked this out already then. I was defining open handing as allowing a bit of a bend at the knuckle/mcp in order to get the pinky on.

[abarro81]

I can't get all 4 fingers on without bending my PIP (thus going half crimp style) unless the edge is 2 joints deep

[Schnell]

I can't get all 4 fingers on without bending my PIP (thus going half crimp style) unless the edge is 2 joints deep

This is my point. It seems people consider that any bend in the PIP means strain on the pulley, whereas I wonder whether it's not bend at the knuckle/mcp that causes problems. E.g. I find that chisel/dragging is pretty benign compared to pulling on slopers (where there is flexion at the knuckle) despite it being closer to half crimp, and I wonder it is because of this.

By chisel drag I mean as in pic: