Tendon Care 101
Hi Steph,
Although I’m shooting you an email in hopes of getting some sound advice about injury, i do just have to say that you are pretty incredible in terms of both climbing and the lifestyle you’ve created for yourself; you’re really inspirational and i look up to as a climbing hero. (I know you get that every day with every incoming email but i thought i’d just jump on the bandwagon and tell you again, haha). Okay, to the important stuff. I’m 19, only started climbing at the end of high school, haven’t had any real climbing injuries, until now. I went to the Red over spring break with some guys from school. I ended up ripping/straining/messing/popping tendons in both hands on the second day. From what i’ve read thus far I have a flexor unit strain (does this sound right?)… it’s the same tendon in both hands…the tendon that goes to the ring and pinky fingers. i think my middle finger is okay but the ring finger is definitely bad (when strained, the sharp pain can be felt in the inside of the wrist too). This happened climbing open-handed on 2-3 finger pockets. Has this ever happened to you or others you know? What did you do? What is your advice in terms of can i still climb as long as i stay off pockets or should i lay off all climbing? Do you think other exercise like lifting weights would be a bad idea? I think it’s tricky because i can still crimp and climb other stuff without pain; it’s the pockets and open-hand that hurt…but does any climbing (whatever it may be) injure me further for the future? I would really appreciate it if you could give me any advice on this matter. Thank you so much. And thank you for the website and the blog; it’s great stuff!
Sincerely,
Jeff
Dear Jeff,
I hope your fingers are better now! Most climbers have to deal with tendon issues at some point. When I had been climbing for about five years, I strained my ring finger tendons while climbing in a gym, and it took a long time for them to feel good again. I have been fortunate to never have one of those horrible pop-and-tear injuries. The ring finger is one of the weakest fingers, and it’s pretty easy to hurt that one. I notice that sometimes I have a tendency to want to use only my first three fingers on a crimp, and if I make the effort to get my pinky finger on there too, it can feel like a stronger grip. I think this can help the ring finger too, as it gets loaded a little less. It’s also good to warm up a LOT, and to avoid cranking if you’re not warmed up. Another thing you don’t want to do is climb once a week, and then start trying as hard as you can the next time you climb, a week later. It’s better to climb 3-4 days a week and be consistent, and to have a solid base before asking too much of your tendons. But enough of the prevention…. 🙂
So if you have hurt your tendon, you basically know it. Either your fingers just start to hurt when you grab holds, or you literally heard a horrible “pop” and then numbness followed by hurting. Personally, I have never bothered going to a doctor for something like this. Basically what they will tell you is that you hurt your tendon and it has to heal now. Which you already know.
The things you can do are: rest, ibuprofen, ice and tape. Generally if something isn’t hurting your finger, it isn’t making it worse. Most of my friends will go on a crack climbing binge if they have torn a finger tendon, or possibly big wall climbing or alpine climbing. My brother, an ER doctor, recommends two weeks of ibuprofen dosage for injuries like this, making sure you take the ibuprofen consistently every day, as it is the cumulative dose which keeps inflammation down and aids in healing. He says you can use regular, over the counter ibuprofen in a dose of 3 tablets 4 times a day, or 4 tablets 3 times a day. Take it for the first two weeks, and then only as needed. Of course, if you have had problems with ibuprofen, don’t do this.
When you are feeling better enough to climb, but still a little dubious about the fingers, tape them. I have heard people say you shouldn’t tape things that are injured because it keeps them weak. I don’t agree. I went through years where my ring fingers were always taped, and other years where my wrists were always taped, and other years where my ankles were always taped. Right now, I don’t need to tape any of them, but tape definitely kept me climbing when I had some recovering or weak links. So I’m all about taping myself back together, because basically it works. Tape is your friend!
I don’t know if this is official protocol or not for tendons, but when I have any kind of hand or wrist injury, I also do ice water immersion. I fill a coffee cup (if it’s a finger), or a larger tupperware container, with ice water, and just put the offending body part in there for a LONG TIME. After a while it stops hurting and you can leave it in there basically forever. The longer the better, in my opinion. You can do this while you’re driving.
And above all, take it easy on it. The body wants to heal, and it will, but you do have to listen to it and not do things that are stupid 🙂 If you can climb in a way that truly does not make it hurt, that is probably fine. Doing things that make it hurt will just slow the healing. The great news is that there are many many fun things you can do that don’t involve hanging on your finger!
So I hope you are recovered, and enjoying the fall!
🙂 Steph
Hey , Just wanted to add something to the healing toolbox for injured tendons and ligaments.Icing the injury a.s.a.p. is crucial and will reduce the time of recovery a lot. Also I have had great luck with doing a regimen of hot and cold soaks always ending on cold. In the hot soak I make a brew of ginger root and comfrey root and let it simmer for 20 mins. or so. allow it to cool enough so you can barely stand soaking in it for a few seconds, then put it in the ice water. When you cant take that anymore back to the hot soak and so on until the hot soak you can manage for as long as you want . Then most importantly end with the cold. The main benefit from doing the hot and cold alternately is the ginger, comfrey and hot water stimulate circulation getting new blood to the injury . But if you don’t want to put yourself through that twice or more a day certainly icing the injury is the most important. Also if you have a hard time with using ibuprofen as an anti inflamatory try aleve which has different active ingredients.Good luck and I hope you heal up soon
thanks for the info!
[…] Training – Advice from @highsteph on hurt tendons, what to do: https://stephdavis.co/blog/tendon-care-101/ […]
Just wanted to add that good neuro-massage therapy on the Flexor group of both hands and fingers will help. Get some trigger point work as well to help especially when you are starting to re-hab back to shape.
Hi folks,
Reading thru these comments has helped me quite a bit. I was cleaning a rug today with a rag and bent my right ring finger under itself, I thought I heard a medium pop, and when I pulled it up to look at it, the first section of my finger(from the nail down to the 1st joint) was bent and it didn’t want to straighten. I was so freaked cause I hurt it, and ice/watered it within 20 min(as soon as I could) made a magruber like splint with cardboard and painters tape, and am trying to keep it above my heart.
Do any of you or anyone reading this think it will be permanently bent? I feel like such an idiot to have hurt my finger this way, poor little ring finger.
I really do not want to go to a dr or get an xray. It’s only mildly painful but the pain is consistent. I did take an aleve about 2 hours after the injury, and will continue taking it for the two weeks recommended, and other advice or healing tips. I really liked the hot and cold soaks, suggestion, and hope everyone is healing up!
Peace, Adaria
Ice is a fine recommendation to bring down the swelling, but there are people out there (Like myself) who have a condition called cold urticaria that makes it life threatening to use ice on any part of our bodies. especially our hands, feet, and inside our mouths and throats. In some cases (mine) it is severe enough to cause the sufferer to carry an epi pen to counteract the allergic reaction. I (we who suffer from cold urticaria) are literally allergic to the cold and can cause our throats to swell shut like in an anaphylactic shock attack by eating ice cream or anything sub 32 degrees too fast. Also, the ring finger tendon pop will result in the tip remaining droopy unless you splint that joint and do not allow it to flop or bend AT ALL for 10 whole weeks. Other than that, your only recourse is surgery that may or may not fix the popped tendon. I have the splint on right now. Take care. Good luck and Peace, Blessed be.
I am doing more harm?
I’m currently nursing the my middle finger back to health following a 4-foot climbing fall where, rather than take the fall, I caught myself on one hand resulting in strained tendons between the PIP and DIP joints.
The pain is minor so I’m still climbing, but well below my level and only on straight verticals with positive holds (placing minimal light-duty demand on my left hand).
I’ve considered taping my middle and ring fingers together, but I like the feedback I get from the injured finger… slightest sign of stress feedback from the injured finger, and I stop climbing that day.
I understand tendons can take time to fully heal, meaning I’ll be stuck climbing conservatively for a while, but I’m wondering if there’s something I can do to speed up the healing process.
I think tendons just take a long time. So I think that if you are climbing carefully and are willing to stop at the first sign of pain, you should be fine. Unfortunately there aren’t any magic bullets to speed it up 🙁 But it will heal.
I am a jeweler and I woke up the other day with a similar- though probably less intense kind of pain in my last tendon. This is the first info I could find on it, thank you!