Finger strength, stretching, and warming up.

[Thinker]

I went to an occupational therapist today as my ortho doc thought I'd gain some benefit from learning about stretching and warming up my fore arms and fingers before climbing...getting old sucks!

 

Got the ususal stretches I expected:

 

1, arm straight, fingertips pointing up, pull fingertips back toward my arm.

2, arm straight, fingertips pointed out, pull fingers back toward elbow, pullin on the back side of my fingers.

 

All very well and good. She recommended warming up the forearm muscles with a hot water bottle or heatpack for 10 minutes before stretching before climbing...good enough.

 

What really surprised me was finding out that the ring finger on my dominant hand was the weakest finger out of the 9 I have left. We stuck some 'therapy putty' on the table and pulled each finger through it individually with only the finger tips bent. When I got to that finger I was amazed...no strength. She said it could be due to a frayed or strained tendon.

 

Guess I'll be taking it a bit easy on that finger for awhile. She noted that if I hear or feel a pop on my forearm and that finger won't close when I make a fist it's time for surgery....yuk. Seems to be a fairly common injury called 'jersey finger'.

 

Any experience with that? Anyone else have a weak finger? Anybody had the tendon snap and surgery to repair it?

[skyclimb]

jersey finger, huh??

not laughing at you, just wondering where that name originated.

[Thinker]

common injury in sports where athletes wear jerseys and grab at them, i.e. american football. http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/ortho/JerseyFinger.htm

[skyclimb]

well that is a little more rational than some of the things i was thinking

[Fence_Sitter]

skyclimb said:

well that is a little more rational than some of the things i was thinking

 

sick bahstahd! it is common in roogby... that is THE sport of jersey pullin... not to mention sack kickin, gouging, biting, punching, and best of all....