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Hi, I pulled a hamstring about a week ago and would appreciate any advice for getting it back to full climbing use. It's not really noticeable in day to day activity and I can walk / run ok so I'm guessing it's a fairly minor injury.
When climbing I get pain when the leg is either out to the side or when toe-ing in on any steep moves, basically any time I'm pulling with the foot rather than just standing up on it. The painful area is a few inches above the knee on the inner side of the back of the leg. (it's on the bit of muscle / tendon that stands out very prominently when the leg is tensed).
Any suggestions for stretching / re-strengthening would be great, Thanks.
 
[Hi Ali, if it is a mild hamstring strain then it should resolve over 2-3 week period. It makes sense that you feel discomfort with the manoeuvres you describe as you will be using your hamstrings to fix or bend your knee when pulling with your foot.
Progress the amount of load on the hamstring over the next 4 weeks as symptoms allow i.e. Back off the amount of heel use and grades and Increase as able. Mild discomfort is acceptable. If symptoms persist let me know.
Regards matt

quote author=Ali link=topic=27513.msg538627#msg538627 date=1480680378]
Hi, I pulled a hamstring about a week ago and would appreciate any advice for getting it back to full climbing use. It's not really noticeable in day to day activity and I can walk / run ok so I'm guessing it's a fairly minor injury.
When climbing I get pain when the leg is either out to the side or when toe-ing in on any steep moves, basically any time I'm pulling with the foot rather than just standing up on it. The painful area is a few inches above the knee on the inner side of the back of the leg. (it's on the bit of muscle / tendon that stands out very prominently when the leg is tensed).
Any suggestions for stretching / re-strengthening would be great, Thanks.
[]
 
Ali said:
Hi, I pulled a hamstring about a week ago and would appreciate any advice for getting it back to full climbing use. It's not really noticeable in day to day activity and I can walk / run ok so I'm guessing it's a fairly minor injury.
When climbing I get pain when the leg is either out to the side or when toe-ing in on any steep moves, basically any time I'm pulling with the foot rather than just standing up on it. The painful area is a few inches above the knee on the inner side of the back of the leg. (it's on the bit of muscle / tendon that stands out very prominently when the leg is tensed).
Any suggestions for stretching / re-strengthening would be great, Thanks.

[Hi Ali, if it is a mild hamstring strain then it should resolve over 2-3 week period. It makes sense that you feel discomfort with the manoeuvres you describe as you will be using your hamstrings to fix or bend your knee when pulling with your foot.
Progress the amount of load on the hamstring over the next 4 weeks as symptoms allow i.e. Back off the amount of heel use and grades and Increase as able. Mild discomfort is acceptable. If symptoms persist let me know.
Regards matt ]
 
Thanks for the reply, good to know I'm doing the right things. Also useful to hear likely timescale for improvement as it hadn't seemed to get any better in the first week and I was starting to be worried about a possible trip at New Year. Climbed last night and was able to do a bit more with it than last session so on the mend now.
Thanks again, much appreciated.
 
Hi, I recently popped my left wrist, first time I've had a joint pop, very strange. No pain afterwards, no bruising, did it with an odd back hand move. Did it about 4 weeks ago and have climbed on it since without really much problem. I rested it a couple of days after it happened and then went to Font. Anyways... today doing some strength rack pulls -max weight/low reps- it popped again. I stopped.

As there's really no pain and I still have full mobility without pain, should I rest it, be careful but carry on, see a physio, or? If I have to rest it, roughly how long for do you think? without any pain or discomfort its hard to know if it is better or not.
 
Ti_pin_man said:
Hi, I recently popped my left wrist, first time I've had a joint pop, very strange. No pain afterwards, no bruising, did it with an odd back hand move. Did it about 4 weeks ago and have climbed on it since without really much problem. I rested it a couple of days after it happened and then went to Font. Anyways... today doing some strength rack pulls -max weight/low reps- it popped again. I stopped.

As there's really no pain and I still have full mobility without pain, should I rest it, be careful but carry on, see a physio, or? If I have to rest it, roughly how long for do you think? without any pain or discomfort its hard to know if it is better or not.
[Hi,
joints can sometimes make noise when a small gas bubble is released within it. It seems like the wrist is making the noise when you are at the extremes of load or when you are performing an awkward manoeuvre. This would make sense in that you are putting it at it's end of range and it is a release of pressure. The fact you have no pain or swelling is good. If you are generally have mobile joints then they may be moving excessively with large loads. Try a strapping the wrist to give it a little more support. Don't stop the climbing but perhaps avoid odd manoeuvres if possible over the next 2 weeks. If it persists or becomes more regular then go and see a physio.
regards Matt ]
 
Thanks Matt. Climbed indoors today and didn't try anything where I thought it would be an odd position or strain and was fine. Will keep climbing and cruise for the next week and look at strapping/ tapes. Thanks for your work here!
 
Perhaps a bit late to catch you guys today, but hoping to get some advice re my elbow.
It's very hard to describe and might not be something that it is useful to discuss this way but...
I basically get this feeling of tension in my elbow and wrist with tightness in the forearm (inside) also if I apply pressure there can also be slight soreness in the wrist and inside of elbow right on the joint. this is just on my right arm (I'm right handed).
The symptoms don't seem to change with respect to exercise (i.e they aren't worse during or after) but I think I can be more aware of the issue during exercise.
Occasionally I will have days where I don't notice it.
Let me know if you have any thoughts/suggestions, but I appreciate it if there is not enough here to go off!
Richard
 
Charlton Chestwig said:
Perhaps a bit late to catch you guys today, but hoping to get some advice re my elbow.
It's very hard to describe and might not be something that it is useful to discuss this way but...
I basically get this feeling of tension in my elbow and wrist with tightness in the forearm (inside) also if I apply pressure there can also be slight soreness in the wrist and inside of elbow right on the joint. this is just on my right arm (I'm right handed).
The symptoms don't seem to change with respect to exercise (i.e they aren't worse during or after) but I think I can be more aware of the issue during exercise.
Occasionally I will have days where I don't notice it.
Let me know if you have any thoughts/suggestions, but I appreciate it if there is not enough here to go off!
Richard
[Hi Richard,
I suppose it is a good thing you aren't getting any pain and it isn't generally sore with exercise. The Ulnar nerve runs from the inside of your elbow into your lower arm and the inside of your wrist going on into the palm and fingers. Sometimes this can be irritated locally at the elbow and wrist through overstretching and direct pressure or at its origin in the neck. You don't always have symptoms in the neck. If it is just mild tension then it may be that you have overloaded the forearm if doing a lot of intense training. Recovery between intense sessions is important for progression.
Perhaps look at your previous few weeks or month and see if you have changed anything.
We would normally assess for patterns and reasons for this problem so maybe if it doesn't settle with reducing the grades over the/next two weeks then go and see a physio.
regards Matt]
 
Hi
I have pain on the upper left side of PIP joint on my left middle finger for a few years now. I found that taping the whole finger from the base to the base of the DIP joint allowed me to keep climbing with only very mild pain and without worsening the injury until now. now the pain is there even with tape and the finger is too painful to continue with the climbing level I want.

the pain is mainly localized on the upper left side of the left PIP joint on the left hand. I experience the pain when releasing from a crimp grip position not so much during the crimping itself. open hand grip doesn't seem to cause pain. the joint has never been swollen or painful to touch. when extending the finger , i sometimes feel some sort of click or rubbing on the upper left side of the left PIP joint toward full extension and sometimes it is painfull to fully extent the joint. I have full range of motion in the PIP joint

I have tried various hand strengthening exercises ( finger extension with elastic band, spreading and closing finger in rice bucket), self myofascial release of the forearm, massage of the joint with a spiky ring but the injury didn't get better. I saw a physiotherapist who thought that I had tight muscle in my hand and that massage and stretching would solve the problem but the stretching only made it worse. I saw an ostheopath who told me that I had a slight tear of the collateral ligament and so wear in the joint and that there was nothing to be done. I saw a hand therapist, she said that my ligament were all good but couldn't really tell me what was wrong with my finger, she thought that I had a mild hyperextension in my fingers so she gave me splint to wear for a month and told me to come back if it didn't get better. and finally i went to the doctor who told me that the splint was not going to do anything, that I didn't have hyperextension in the joint, and that I was going to have to learn to live with the injury. the doctor even told me to look on climbing forum to try to find a solution because traditional medecine was not going to help.
so I decided to reach out to Dr Volker Schöffl and he said without seeing the injury that I likely have an inflammation of the joint synovial membrane, capsulitis. I am reaching out to you guys to find out which diagnosis would confirm that and what kind of treatment option are available?
 
Guessing this thread is on a winter break, but if not/anyone else has had similar.

End joint of my RH ring finger has been 'clicking' for about 6 weeks, no discomfort/pain, but the distinct feeling of something not running correctly (a tendon/similar flicking over something?). It seems worse if I move the ring finger in isolation, a little better if I move the middle finger at the same time. I can sometimes wiggle and crack the joint and it then seems to run smoothly for a little while.

Any idea what this could be/how to resolve it? Again it doesn't hurt at all even when climbing/crimping as hard as I can, it also doesn't feel tender to the touch, hence I haven't yet tried a sustained rest period. It is possibly a little worse in the mornings, and possibly also if I have been climbing, but equally I have also had it feel worse after a rest day and a couple of days ago it seemed fine almost all day, even though I am currently in the middle of a climbing holiday.

Any help/speculation welcomed.
 
Hi guys,

I've got golfers elbow, or something very similar. It's at the point where it hurts to wash my hands or face. I've seen a physio who showed me a way to tape it and gave me the usual eccentric exercises but I've got a manual job which which not only caused the problem but makes it flare up every day. I can't get the taping to work, so I've stopped that and the exercises almost seem to make it worse. Should I be doing them on the same days I work? Or is that over doing it? (if I don't do them then I'm essentially doing nothing about it!) I'm guessing I need to take a few weeks off work but that's not really an option...

Thanks for any advice.
 
adrienbaudouin said:
Hi
I have pain on the upper left side of PIP joint on my left middle finger for a few years now. I found that taping the whole finger from the base to the base of the DIP joint allowed me to keep climbing with only very mild pain and without worsening the injury until now. now the pain is there even with tape and the finger is too painful to continue with the climbing level I want.

the pain is mainly localized on the upper left side of the left PIP joint on the left hand. I experience the pain when releasing from a crimp grip position not so much during the crimping itself. open hand grip doesn't seem to cause pain. the joint has never been swollen or painful to touch. when extending the finger , i sometimes feel some sort of click or rubbing on the upper left side of the left PIP joint toward full extension and sometimes it is painfull to fully extent the joint. I have full range of motion in the PIP joint

I have tried various hand strengthening exercises ( finger extension with elastic band, spreading and closing finger in rice bucket), self myofascial release of the forearm, massage of the joint with a spiky ring but the injury didn't get better. I saw a physiotherapist who thought that I had tight muscle in my hand and that massage and stretching would solve the problem but the stretching only made it worse. I saw an ostheopath who told me that I had a slight tear of the collateral ligament and so wear in the joint and that there was nothing to be done. I saw a hand therapist, she said that my ligament were all good but couldn't really tell me what was wrong with my finger, she thought that I had a mild hyperextension in my fingers so she gave me splint to wear for a month and told me to come back if it didn't get better. and finally i went to the doctor who told me that the splint was not going to do anything, that I didn't have hyperextension in the joint, and that I was going to have to learn to live with the injury. the doctor even told me to look on climbing forum to try to find a solution because traditional medecine was not going to help.
so I decided to reach out to Dr Volker Schöffl and he said without seeing the injury that I likely have an inflammation of the joint synovial membrane, capsulitis. I am reaching out to you guys to find out which diagnosis would confirm that and what kind of treatment option are available?


[Hi sorry about the holiday break. Wow, you have seen a lot of people and have had varied diagnoses. Unfortunately the more medical people you see this is often the case. It is always difficult to comment precisely without looking at you but it seems very linked to specific holds i.e. Crimping.
As you know a crimping hold puts more of a load through your finger joints, ligaments (pulleys) and tendons than any other manoeuvre. In my opinion don't chase a diagnosis as I would be more interested in why you have this and how you need to go about changing it. It could be related solely to the load you are putting through this area and although it may or may not be a capsular irritation or a ligamentous injury this should settle. Often when a joint and soft tissues are loaded it is painful on the release. The fact that taping did help makes me think you were taking the load off the area slightly and helping support the joint/ tendons.
I would suggest that you back off any crimping for at least 2 weeks and stick to the holds that are pain free. Then start to add crimps that you can control i.e. Lesser grades that you can vary the load. The idea would be that you slowly add the number of crimps over a 2 to 8 week period and start to creep back up the grades. You need to load the area in a controlled way to enable the tissues to adapt otherwise you will overload that area again. Be patient and if it becomes sore back off to the previous level. Basically control your training intensity and have easy recovery days. Let me know how you get on.
Kind regards Matt]
 
[q
adrienbaudouin said:
Hi
I have pain on the upper left side of PIP joint on my left middle finger for a few years now. I found that taping the whole finger from the base to the base of the DIP joint allowed me to keep climbing with only very mild pain and without worsening the injury until now. now the pain is there even with tape and the finger is too painful to continue with the climbing level I want.

the pain is mainly localized on the upper left side of the left PIP joint on the left hand. I experience the pain when releasing from a crimp grip position not so much during the crimping itself. open hand grip doesn't seem to cause pain. the joint has never been swollen or painful to touch. when extending the finger , i sometimes feel some sort of click or rubbing on the upper left side of the left PIP joint toward full extension and sometimes it is painfull to fully extent the joint. I have full range of motion in the PIP joint

I have tried various hand strengthening exercises ( finger extension with elastic band, spreading and closing finger in rice bucket), self myofascial release of the forearm, massage of the joint with a spiky ring but the injury didn't get better. I saw a physiotherapist who thought that I had tight muscle in my hand and that massage and stretching would solve the problem but the stretching only made it worse. I saw an ostheopath who told me that I had a slight tear of the collateral ligament and so wear in the joint and that there was nothing to be done. I saw a hand therapist, she said that my ligament were all good but couldn't really tell me what was wrong with my finger, she thought that I had a mild hyperextension in my fingers so she gave me splint to wear for a month and told me to come back if it didn't get better. and finally i went to the doctor who told me that the splint was not going to do anything, that I didn't have hyperextension in the joint, and that I was going to have to learn to live with the injury. the doctor even told me to look on climbing forum to try to find a solution because traditional medecine was not going to help.
so I decided to reach out to Dr Volker Schöffl and he said without seeing the injury that I likely have an inflammation of the joint synovial membrane, capsulitis. I am reaching out to you guys to find out which diagnosis would confirm that and what kind of treatment option are available?


[Hi sorry about the holiday break. Wow, you have seen a lot of people and have had varied diagnoses. Unfortunately the more medical people you see this is often the case. It is always difficult to comment precisely without looking at you but it seems very linked to specific holds i.e. Crimping.
As you know a crimping hold puts more of a load through your finger joints, ligaments (pulleys) and tendons than any other manoeuvre. In my opinion don't chase a diagnosis as I would be more interested in why you have this and how you need to go about changing it. It could be related solely to the load you are putting through this area and although it may or may not be a capsular irritation or a ligamentous injury this should settle. Often when a joint and soft tissues are loaded it is painful on the release. The fact that taping did help makes me think you were taking the load off the area slightly and helping support the joint/ tendons.
I would suggest that you back off any crimping for at least 2 weeks and stick to the holds that are pain free. Then start to add crimps that you can control i.e. Lesser grades that you can vary the load. The idea would be that you slowly add the number of crimps over a 2 to 8 week period and start to creep back up the grades. You need to load the area in a controlled way to enable the tissues to adapt otherwise you will overload that area again. Be patient and if it becomes sore back off to the previous level. Basically control your training intensity and have easy recovery days. Let me know how you get on.
Kind regards Matt]uote author=adrienbaudouin link=topic=27513.msg540717#msg540717 date=1482859251]
 
Sorry quick copy and paste - just started a new topic and then saw this one too....
'Find my left arm gets noticeably more pumped than my right on endurance routes and also (I think!) takes longer to recover from a similar level of pump than my right would. No significant differences or noticeable imbalances in strength (max hangs/bouldering) or PE stuff between my arms, just longer endurance stuff. I guess there are a lot of potential causes for it...
Intuitively, I suspect the problem might be referred from an old shoulder injury/weakness - worse posture or shoulder position on left side reducing blood flow somehow? Can dodgy shoulders cause you to get more pumped?'
Cheers
 
sidewinder said:
Guessing this thread is on a winter break, but if not/anyone else has had similar.

End joint of my RH ring finger has been 'clicking' for about 6 weeks, no discomfort/pain, but the distinct feeling of something not running correctly (a tendon/similar flicking over something?). It seems worse if I move the ring finger in isolation, a little better if I move the middle finger at the same time. I can sometimes wiggle and crack the joint and it then seems to run smoothly for a little while.

Any idea what this could be/how to resolve it? Again it doesn't hurt at all even when climbing/crimping as hard as I can, it also doesn't feel tender to the touch, hence I haven't yet tried a sustained rest period. It is possibly a little worse in the mornings, and possibly also if I have been climbing, but equally I have also had it feel worse after a rest day and a couple of days ago it seemed fine almost all day, even though I am currently in the middle of a climbing holiday.

Any help/speculation welcomed.
Hi sorry about the holiday break. It could be a trigger finger although the finger tends to get stuck into a bit of flexion and then releases. The fact that you can still climb is good. May be try a 2 week period of lesser grades and see if this helps. If you have had an intense period of climbing or too many intense sessions in a week then you may have slightly overloaded the joint/ tendons. If it persists book in to see a Physiotherapist. Regards Matt
 
twoshoes said:
Hi guys,

I've got golfers elbow, or something very similar. It's at the point where it hurts to wash my hands or face. I've seen a physio who showed me a way to tape it and gave me the usual eccentric exercises but I've got a manual job which which not only caused the problem but makes it flare up every day. I can't get the taping to work, so I've stopped that and the exercises almost seem to make it worse. Should I be doing them on the same days I work? Or is that over doing it? (if I don't do them then I'm essentially doing nothing about it!) I'm guessing I need to take a few weeks off work but that's not really an option...

Thanks for any advice.
Hi, if you have a particularly busy day then don't do the exercises. Avoid wide gripping and maybe try a tennis elbow support (I know yours is on the other side of your elbow) that you can buy from a chemist.
Sometimes the neck needs to be checked and it isn't always an easy diagnosis i.e. the pain can come from a variety of sources (neck, shoulder, nerve, elbow). May be revisit the physio or get a second opinion. What is it like when you climb?
Regards Matt
 
Steve R said:
Sorry quick copy and paste - just started a new topic and then saw this one too....
'Find my left arm gets noticeably more pumped than my right on endurance routes and also (I think!) takes longer to recover from a similar level of pump than my right would. No significant differences or noticeable imbalances in strength (max hangs/bouldering) or PE stuff between my arms, just longer endurance stuff. I guess there are a lot of potential causes for it...
Intuitively, I suspect the problem might be referred from an old shoulder injury/weakness - worse posture or shoulder position on left side reducing blood flow somehow? Can dodgy shoulders cause you to get more pumped?'
Cheers
Hi, if you have a 'dodgy' shoulder then most definitely this can cause you to use your lower arm more ( and get more 'pumped') or in some way you are compensating. You need a strong shoulder girdle that is stable when you are manoeuvring through a move. Basically I would suggest you book in to see a physiotherapist and they should identify any compensations.
Regards Matt
 


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