achy fingers

[Drew_Jones]

I'm sure this has been covered before but I'm too lazy to look.

I've been climbing 4 days/week in the gym pushing myself pretty hard. Now my fingers hurt all day long. Maybe like arthritis feels? I want to keep training but it's just killing me. How long will this pain last. Two days rest doesn't seem to make it any better.

Any recommendations?? (Other than the obvious )

 

Drew

[sexual_chocolate]

What do you consider to be the "obvious" recommendation?

 

Hey, injuries produce pain, and injuries take time to heal. A sad and frustrating prospect, to be sure, but the only one I'VE ever found that works. You can do other things to help the recovery process, but one thing you can't do is climb at high intensity (or any intensity if your injury is bad) for a while.

 

[RedMonk]

true enough...plus... you might wanna concentrate on holds that dont aggravate the injury...your probably not gonna want to scratch your way up a crimp fest if you have a tendon injury...so if you must...pick friendly holds...fingers can take a long time to heal...especially if you dont let them heal...i'm not doctor, but i have usually seen 2 weeks as a general rule of thumb before you can really crank 100%..hope that helps... sorry about the injury

[Drew_Jones]

Thanks Mr. Monk. That's what I was looking for. Maybe about 2 weeks? I can deal with that. I'll take it easy for a while.

 

Chocolate - The obvious cure is obviously

 

Drew

[freeclimb9]

Fish oil added to your diet could really help, too. It helps alleviate my own arthritis.

[thelawgoddess]

fish oil - yum.

 

when my fingers start aching i take about 3 days off. seems to do the trick. i also find that toproping and leading is less strenuous on my fingers than bouldering.

 

monk's advice sounds like a good ticket.

 

here's to healthy happy fingers!

[allthumbs]

When I worked construction and had achy, beat-up hands, a slathering of Bag Balm before bed healed them nicely by the next morning.

 

[thelawgoddess]

i use the bag balm almost nightly to help replace the skin i donate to my climbing gym. i haven't noticed it helping with aches ... but it could be happening. hmm.

[RedMonk]

tiger balm is the shizz as well...i am assuming it is similar to trask's offering... if you can stand the strong menthol smell...it is worth picking up... good luck bro!

[Courtenay]

...and best to rest them now so you don't keep re-injuring. Do you use tape as a preventative measure? Focus on stemming, manteling, lower-difficulty climbs, and avoid the sorts of moves that caused you problems in the first place. Make sure you're getting enough rest when you're climbing hard, and schedule in some easier days with harder, warm up properly, yada yada I'm sure you've heard it all before. PREVENTION is perhaps the best cure for tendinitis -- training smart in the first place so your body (especially tendons and ligaments, they take a lot longer to adapt than muscles) can adapt to the gradual overloading. Keep us posted.