[Fultonius]

What do you mean by "flexor unit", are you referring to the tendon, the muscle or the entire system? Unfortunately, living in Glasgow in winter menas there is very little in the way of outdoor climbing......and every time I go to the wall I just want to pull down hard!

I wonder if easy winter climbing will affect it?

[Fultonius]

Just been googling.....flexor unit strain seems to describe it perfectly.....pity there's bugger all info on rehab out there!

[Three Nine]

Not so. Look at Mcleod's summary of pulley injuries on his main page (under articles). This includes flexor unit strain (although its not a pulley injury!) and suggests rehab measures etc. Also see his cold treatment podcast which i followed during recovery. My friend who's doing a D.Phil on tendons and stuff says his science might be a bit dodgy, but i reckon it helps - which is the only important thing!

Doubt winter climbing would hurt it at all. I'm not keen on the plastic at the best of times, so felt it easy to sack that and just climb outdoors. Maybe winter climbing/trad in the bitter cold, is hte way forward?

[Three Nine]

Not quite sure what a flexor unit actually comprises - but the symptoms were - acute pain in finger and palm, and inability to open hand with that finger (to flex it against resistence in an open position). hope that helps

[Fultonius]

That sounds more like a flexor tendon strain, as the flexor unit strain is characterised by shooting pains from the finger all the way to the elbow, which is what I have.

It's not what I'd call acute pain, it just feels wrong. 

[Fultonius]

After 2 fingerboard sessions I think I am fully qualified to say.......I don't think it's the right approach!

Got the physio today, so hopefully that'll shed some light on the matter.

[GCW]

After 2 fingerboard sessions I think I am fully qualified to say.......I don't think it's the right approach!

No Sher, Shitlock!!   

[a dense loner]

but you took your weight comfortably at 40%, according to the scales. what changed? either it wasn't comfortable or on your second session you did more? i'm curious. you should be the fingerboard therapy guinea pig

[Fultonius]

Well, I've been to the physio and he's given looked at both my problems:

1. Shoulder. I subluxated (partially dislocated) my left shoulder while bouldering about 5 months ago. The doc told me to "take it easy" and wouldn't refer me to my physio  so I just made up a training program to fix it.
 Phisio agress that I subluxated it and says the work I've done so far is good, he gave me a couple more excercises to do but said that it's in pretty good shape.

2. Finger. I have a grade 1/2 strain of my finger flexor unit in the left ring finger. He says carefull use of the fingerboard should be ok, along with loads of stretching and squeezing type exercises with a gentle build up of climbing from next week. Should be back to full strength in 4-5 weeks if I'm carefull.

Sounds good to me!

[SA Chris]

Did the extreme cold therapy of Friday help recovery? Nice one for getting routes done, looks like you had ace conditions.

[Fultonius]

Not sure if it helped, but it certainly hasn't hurt it.

Weather was ace, conditions were challenging! Inglis did his usual and did a hard pitch, followed by setting up a belay below a horrendously steep and tehnical section (not sure if we were off-route, or if it was just the lean conditions, or the fact it was getting dark and I've not done any technical 6 before)

Good first day of the season though. Ski-touring on the plateau would've been good.

[SA Chris]

Aye thinking of getting skis out for next weekend if it holds.

[Fultonius]

Supposedly Meaghaidh was quite good too. Inglis just bought himself some skins.

[Fultonius]

Update for anyone who may be interested.

After about 4 weeks of taking it easy (started off doing F4 - F5+ routes for 2 weeks, then pushed it a bit more up to about F6a, then F6b for another couple of weeks) it started to feel much better.

I did some bouldering on sunday, progressively pushing a bit harder, with no pain at all...felt great. Managed loads of V3's and flashed two V4's, so not too bad.

However, I woke up the next day with a sore RIGHT forearm.......bugger!!!! Thought it was just a bit of post-climbing sore muscles so I just rested and stretched it.

It felt OK yesterday, so I went down the wall for some more bouldering and within about 20 minutes of warming up it was a wee bit sore and got progressively worse so I just sacked it in and went home.

It's sore midway between my elbow and wrist and seems to affect all fingers right at the point where the tendons join the muscle.....should be fine with a bit of rest and a more gentle return to climbing.

I think I'm becoming resigned to the fact that I'm permi-injured!


 

[Houdini]

Myself?  I'm flabbergasted with your approach and am heartened there are still people fruity enough to look Certain Doom in the eye, and say, Have some of that.

I wad thee, Broken Thing.

[Fultonius]

But it's my other forearm! And I haven't touched the fingerboard!!!

My original dodgy tendon is fixed.

Unless I've just gloriously missed the point in your reply? Which is definitely a possibility, I haven't really learnt the language of UKB yet!