[matthew]

Oh it hurts! Picked up a pair of shoes earlier and tweaked the injury. It happened 4weeks ago! Does it always take this long for the pain to go? If this carries on gonna have to do cardio excercise (shudder)

[LL55]

Could take a while dude, with my last a2 I took 2 months off - did loads of weights, boxing stuff, mtb'ing, hill walking, scrambling, bit of winter stuff, feel pretty strong now, and dead fitter than before xmas.

LL55's top tips lesson

Just take the time to do stuff you didn't do before cause you were dead focussed on climbing.

Try some deep massage on the finger, and keep it mobile, the more blood you get to it the quicker it'll heal. Then ease yourself back into climbing, warm up for a good length, don't try anything that tweaks the finger too much, drink loads of water and tape up!

Thin tape, tightly around the a2 and a4 when you start back.

If you can, get out on slabby stuff, where you just need to palm off, and get your footwork up to scratch.

And  'ing will keep your fitness up and your mind on the job.

[lorentz]

Mine took ages too. For the first 5weeks I couldn't clench my fist or open jars right handed - forget pull-ups. Most annoying. I also took 2 months on the cardiovascular tip (running and stuff to keep fit and keep the weight off), but also because I was too busy away with work to climb. It probably did me a favour as I couldn't aggravate the injury any more so it healed better than it would have.

My first month back  was a real little-by-little, patience affair. Taped up, ibuprofened and warmed up, but it was really weak (and so was I!) and one wrong hold and I'd really feel it again. It did start to improve fairly quickly, but you rapidly learn when to call it a day. First bad twinge is usually too late!

 5 months+ on and it's ok except when I climb a lot and I get this nagging ache in the finger where the injury was. I find it my subconcious/default mode massaging and stretching the relevant finger when I'm bored or have time to kill. Have been getting back into the fingerboard  recently and am starting to get crimping back to speed. However, a lot more cautious about crimping now, and try to open hand where possible!

It will get better. Just give yourself time and follow the advice in the relevant topics in the d,t&i area. Not what you want to hear when you psyched to go, I know. You got to take your own cues when to climb on it again, but it's worth looking after your fingers in the long term! Good luck, mate.