[Robsons]

So had a bit of a mixed training session at the wall on Tuesday - was running circuits round the woody board (well trying to do more  than one as it's pretty nails on ours) but then got distracted by friends and we started doing harder problems...
Anyway, I finished the session and felt ok...went to put things in my bag and I felt a "twinge" in my forearm.
The next day I did chest weights and to try and find out which tendon/pulley/flexor I'd hurt, I put each finger independently in the middle ring of a plate (weight) and lifted gently (not off the ground, just adding pressure) - turns out the ring finger on my left arm. I felt a short sharp pain higher in the arm - flexor.

Have taken off two days so far and will take off the next few as well...any thoughts of what this could be?
Slight strain, tear, just slightly bruised?
I have been massaging it a lot, but not sure if this is helping?

Cheers,

Robin

[Fultonius]

Sounds like a flexor "unit" sprain. It's described as a strain of the whole muscle-tendon system, but I actually think it's a strain of the tendon insertion into the belly of the muscle.

They're a bitch to get rid off to be honest. Take it easy for a week or so, then build up gradually. I've never found massage to help them much (had it a few times)  also, take it very easy with stretching. I think its very easy to prolong the recovery with agressive stretching.

Basically, be nice to it, and give it some time, don't do shit what hurts it yo!

[Snoops]

Sounds like a flexor "unit" sprain. It's described as a strain of the whole muscle-tendon system, but I actually think it's a strain of the tendon insertion into the belly of the muscle.

They're a bitch to get rid off to be honest.

Agree - flexor unit strain, did the same thing last year. Bitch.

[Robsons]

Bugger! Typical when you feel at your strongest!
Thanks for the advice!

[Fultonius]

Most important thing is to avoid pockets, as this tends to agrivate them. You might find you can climb fairly hard - just back off if it's 'urtin!

[Snoops]

Another common finger injury is flexor unit strain. These are tendon strains which often occur in the ring finger when using two or three finger, open handed holds. Unpleasant twinges of pain are felt along the length of the tendon through the finger and palm. For this injury, follow the treatments below and avoid gripping positions which irritate it.

From Dave M:  http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/2010/05/pulley-injuries-article.html.

They take longer than pulleys to heal, although yours sounds like it might be towards the more minor side of  things, fingers crossed!

[Robsons]

Cool, thank you guys - much appreciated.
Hopefully it is on the minor side...got a lot of routes I want to do in the next few weeks.
Feels fine to pull up, crimp etc it is just in isolation...

[hongkongstuey]

how did this heal up?

think i did something similar at the wall last night - certain grips now send a shooting pain throughout the finger, palm and up the forearm, not nice (just when i was starting to get back in to climbing more seriously again too...)

did you get the list of rehab stuff off DaveM's site? seems the link above isn't working anymore

Stu

[Snoops]

It was off his website:

A lot of climbers get in touch asking about using Lewis reaction icing on other injuries besides finger pullies. The goal of the treatment is to increase blood flow, which if done well it seems to do very effectively. I’ve written recently about using it on elbows with the aid of a nearby bathroom wash basin. But what about tendon strains?
It seems nearly all tendon strains in climbers happen in the ring finger when using an openhanded three or two finger pocket grip with the little finger not used. The pain is a highly unpleasant twang that runs variously through the finger, palm and forearm right back to the flexor muscle belly. Can you assist healing this whole structure with Lewis reaction icing? The short answer is I don’t know. I’ve not seen reports from other climbers of it’s successful use. The last time I had a flexor unit strain myself was about 9 years ago and I was doing Lewis icing on the same hand at the time for a separate pulley injury. I couldn’t really say how much the icing helped. Possibly not that much, evidenced by lack of responsiveness of the pain level to adhering or skipping the treatment and the fact that the pulley had healed in around three months and the flexor unit strain took over a year to heal.
The tendon seemed to respond more to frequent stretching and long gentle warm-ups. And it didn’t slow my climbing down to much by strict adherence to using four fingers only on holds, either crimping, or with four finger openhanded grip. I’m researching this in detail right now for my book and will hopefully have more on this soon.

I did the lewis reaction with mine after it had calmed down (after 2 weeks), it was a bitch of an injury for me, several months off climbing was the only thing that helped, and then I taped the two fingers more to stop them bending too  much rather than support. Good news: Its fine now! Just my wrist that is fucked.

Good luck with it fella

[hongkongstuey]

cheers

[kilroy]

Not nice.  I've done the ring fingers in both hands, both times open handing and both times it was definitely down to over use.  Feels like an electric shock all the way up to your elbow. 

For the first month it will feel like its wrecked for good, but after four weeks of rest try some very easey climbing.  I went and climbed all the VDiffs I've never been on in the Mournes, even at that stage tho I had to be careful pulling the cam triggers.  Also tried to get the blood flowing around it with some excerise using the wee metolius squishy ball thing (only do this when very bored).  ALso go running, helps blood flow and generally good for flushing any bad stuff away from the injury.

My latest time was June this year.  Its still not 100% today but I can pretty do everything I want with it. The perfect opportunity to hone your one handed arete climbing skills. Also, get the pilates mat out!!!

[hongkongstuey]

have been icing it and taping to adjacent finger and this seems to let me climb in a relatively unaffected manner - apart from the awkwardness of not being able to seperate the fingers.

searching around the general rule of thumb seems to be 'avoid pain and let go the minute you start to feel this' - am following this for the time being as we've just entered the nice season for climbing in HK and i can't force myself to stay in on nice sunny cool days....