FWIW I got a bottle a while back and found my finger niggles went away when I massaged them regularly.
[...]
So maybe Crimp oil is actually a good alternative.
I havent been using it for a few weeks now - (because we all know how easy it is to forgo prevention when there is nothing bad happening) and I just got an A2 tweak.
I have the bottle of crimp oil at work so I will use it every day at lunchtime and see what happens.
I will not use Ibuprofen orally or as a gel (after a quick search, apparently ingesting too much can hurt your liver...who knew? )
I will report back.
and then we can form a judgement based on my extensive data sampling.
I have continued to conduct my testing, using some at least once a day and forgoing other treatment like ice and stretching. I have used it once or twice a day - Once at lunch time, and once before bed (after climbing).
I have seen improvement in the finger from pain on squeezing a spray bottle, to being able to crimp to a certain degree on problems (I used a quarter pad crimp last night - tried to open crimp it). However, I dont feel that Crimp Oil alone is enough to completely heal the finger so I am going to finish my rehab by including ice, stretching and massage. (I should say that while I have been 'Crimp oiling' I have still been climbing a fair bit and that may be setting back the process a little)
In my opinion, the crimp oil is better than ibuprofen gels for massage because it does not get sticky and make me not want to touch anything for a while. Instead it works its way into the skin by about the time I am done massaging. I view this as a good selling point because the faff with gels stops me from using them during regular rehab. (I do not know the relative costs of massaging oils - so as far as value for money goes on this point...
)
So - although I know my sample dates are not that long - I hypothesise that while Crimp Oil alone is not enough to 'heal' an injury, if used in conjunction with the 'normal' response (ice, stretching and oral ibuprofen) I hope to see a faster recovery time than normal. (I will not be able to confirm its efficicacy vs NSAID massage since I have not normally massaged after previous injuries).
I will report back just before CWIF.