Get On Top Of Finger and Elbow Injuries

by pat

Posted on 2022-12-22

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In this post I will discuss injuries that are common in bouldering, how we can avoid them in the first place and how I have treated injuries successfully in the past. Hopefully this is something that can help you and save you time. Just to clarify, I am not a health professional and any finger injury should be examined by a professional. I have had all of the injuries that will be mentioned and have successfully managed to treat and overcome them, so hopefully sharing my story will help.

To keep things simple there are two main types of injuries I will discuss. Number one is finger pulley injuries. Number two is elbow tendonitis.

Finger pulley injuries

Finger injuries to the pulley system are normally in the form of tears, that can range from minor tears to complete ruptures. These two types of injuries are the two most likely injuries that most climbers will experience in their lifetime so having an idea of how to deal with them is helpful. Firstly, preventing a pulley tear is obviously ideal and warming up thoroughly is mandatory before you climb something with smaller holds that requires crimping.  Another key to avoiding an injury of this kind is avoiding climbing to exhaustion or continuing to climb when you are very tired. Especially on crimps, small holds or dynamic moves on small holds. Our focus slips, our technique gets sloppy and we stop adding value to the climbing session. Not only are we increasing the risk of a finger injury, we can be reinforcing sloppy technique as well. It is a good idea to end the training session while you still have energy to spare and your focus is still sharp.

If you have suffered a pulley injury do not do any form of training that aggravates the injury. Ideally, I believe you should rest completely until any swelling has subsided and you can move the injured finger through its full range of motion. This could be anywhere from a week to 3 or more weeks depending on the tear. Once the swelling has subsided I gently begin using the finger again, as long as I am not getting any pain. I find taping the finger across the joint/knuckle is helpful as it prevents crimping. I recommend climbing only on open handed holds and avoiding steep climbing for at least the first month. This will get blood to the finger and promote healing.

In the case of a complete rupture when I ruptured my pulley in my middle finger I had to stop climbing for a total of 8 weeks, and for 3 of those weeks my finger was buddy taped in a splint. I consulted a hand surgeon and as a result I had 4 weeks off work and with the complete rest it was able to heal without surgery and I have not had a problem with the finger since. I slowly eased back into climbing on bigger holds initially and cautiously climbed harder problems over a period of 2 -3 months.

Elbow tendonitis

Elbow injuries are certainly very common in climbing. Pain on the inner elbow and pain on the outer elbow, I have suffered from both. One reason this can happen is the tissue/ muscles in the forearm get very tight. Self massaging of the forearm with with the fingers of the other hand whilst rotating the wrist can help loosen up the muscles and tendons. Stretching the forearms can help relieve tight tendons as well. However the number one thing that worked for me though was a piece of equipment called the Thera-Band Flexbar. If you google Thera-Band FlexBar Video Demonstration there is a demonstration of how this piece of equipment works and the different levels of resistance. For myself, I began on the green level of resistance twice a day and when that felt too easy I moved up to the blue level of resistance. Now I perform the exercises once a day for prevention in less than 5 minutes. Since using this piece of equipment I have not had any further elbow issues and I would recommend it.

 

UPDATE COMING

It has been quite a while since I have updated this post. Time flies by! An update is coming soon!

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