Last September I had a very similar experience.

My wrist made a lovely popping noise from open hand grip on a sloper in the gym. The pain was in the wrist but directly related to my ring finger and I could feel it catching when bending my finger. Description sounds very similar to yours.

After immobilizing it and resting for two weeks, I went back to the gym for a little light training only to hurt it worse the second go round. Sorry to say, but I had to stay off of it for 4 or 5 weeks after that for healing. Though, afterward it felt great w/ no pain or problems since.

Two considerations for distinction and prevention: at the time I had only been climbing for 4 or 5 months (hence my body still probably wasn’t used to the strain), and was probably climbing too much for long periods of time.

Net net though, everyone is different…

sorry to hear that. basically, rest is the answer you (do not) seek.

Just become a crimpmaster

Zac, here are 2 good websites with specific info: climbinginjuries.com & onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/2007/06/finger-injury-treatment-videocast.html. The Onlineclimbing coach website has a videocast for a treatment program, which is pretty good. I injured the tendon on my ring finger on my non-dominant (left) hand 3 years ago. It hurt mainly on slopers. At the time I was working with hand surgeons at my job. An evaluation by them showed that I had partially torn the tendon a ways past my wrist into my forarm. I was told to take at least 4 to 5 weeks off, unless I wanted to risk a complete tear, which would be a huge disaster. REST is key unfortunately. At least you can work on you core exercises, one arm pullups and single arm traversing. Hope this helps.

Zac, I’d suggest to you the same thing I suggested to Pete last week—stay away from climbing for at least 2 weeks and if that isn’t enough stay away until it heels. It sounds like everyone from the experts on down suggest 4 to 5 weeks. During that time you can focus on keeping everything else in shape, and maybe improve those peripheral areas that make you the all-around solid climber you are (core, legs, flex, endurance. etc…). Any badass training regimen includes extended episodes of rest.

My one tendon strain took longer than I wanted to heel, but I let it heel, and I’m 100% as a result of it.

You want to climb in March, but you also want to climb later in the spring, and the summer, and the fall, etc…

I agree with everyone else so far. Rest is key.

Ice and anti-inflammatories can be useful too, but only in the beginning (maybe 48 hours depending upon how much inflammation was initially created). After that, I wouldn’t ice it or use NSAID’s unless you are massaging or heating it to bring blood into the area for healing (which I wouldn’t do in the first week) . . . using massage or heat followed by ice (repeat) can be a good way to bring blood in, then flush toxins out as you move down the healing path.

The good new? My experience with my team, myself and fellow climbers has been that tendon “tweaks” (i.e. strains or partial tears) in the forearm’s flexor digitorum tendon(s) heal more quickly than other common tweaks, like the A2 or A4 pullies in the finger. Nutrient supply tends to be better (fed by synovial fluid inside the tendon sheath). Healing time is different, of course, for each individual, but a big factor is whether it’s the actual FDS or FDP tendon itself, or an issue with the sheath (or some weird combination) . . . and also were the injury is (some areas have more fluid and better nutrient supply than others).

Listen to your body. Rest until there is absolutely no pain in the area when resting (not being flexed at all). A few days after that, try some very light flexion—like a very soft squeeze (rehab type) ball. If there is pain, more complete rest. If no pain, begin with 2-3 sets per day of squeezes with one of these minimal resistance balls or similar (less resistance than even the lowest gripmaster—which I think is yellow?) A few days later increase reps a bit, and maybe do 2-3 sets twice during the day. Next, go to the yellow gripmaster for a few days, then the red for a few days, etc. . . . finally working your way up to hanging statically on the jugs of a hangboard. If there is any pain DURING any of these phases, ice, rest a few days, and go back at least one phase—probably 2 or 3. If there is any pain other than really mild “soreness” or “irritation” later in the day, or the next day after these exercises—same thing, go back! Very MILD “irritation” or “soreness” may be felt that evening or the next day, and is probably okay (use good judgement!).

I strongly recommend that you do not start climbing (even on easy jug routes) until you have gone through a phased rehab like the one above. And when you do start climbing, go through a phased climbing “rehab” too. Don’t push it, warm up excessively well, ice after workouts, and JUST LET GO OF ANY HOLD THAT CAUSES PAIN WHILE YOU’RE CLIMBING—the send will not be worth it!

If the damage was minor, and in a good area, you will get through this phased rehab in a few weeks. Trust me, it will be well worth the time! As someone who had his climbing essentially ended by Medial Epicondylitis, I highly recommend taking the safe path!

Work on your core and antagonistic muscles so you don’t go crazy! Drink tons of good fluids, perhaps get on the Glucosomine/Chondroiten train (can’t hurt), do jumping jacks (especially good since it moves the arms above and below the heart) or other cardio to push the blood through your body every day, and make sure your protein and vitamin/mineral supply is adequate. Excess sugar and/or alcohol tend to increase the body’s inflammatory response and may be counter productive.

Good luck!

cheers- dave

Thanks Everyone. Rest it is! I’ve work so hard for two years to learn how to climb, now I have to learn how not to. Great advice Climb64. I printed everyone’s responses and will start a light regimen in the next week or two. I should post in a few weeks to track my progress.

Just played Wii last night (using the gun on Resident Evil) and the finger hurt. Might take some more rest time.

Wow! It seems like you’ve gotten a lot of good advice and some useful specialized advice (climb64’s).

One thing I want to restate and emphasize is one detail of the phased re-entry into climbing: The ICING after workouts part. That (touched on by climb64) is so important it bears repeating. Running your hands for 5 minutes (no more!) under cold water draws blood in, flushes the tissues, and brings down any swelling that may have occured during the workout. I’ve had two tendon injuries in 8 years. The first one was minor and was treated (under the advice of a climbing instructor) with 5 minutes of cold cold water, then a good healthy meal, and then another 5 minutes of cold cold water and sufficient sleep at night. The soreness in my hand was quite minor, and I continued to climb 5 days a week during the “recovery” (not that you should). Each day the soreness subsided.

I feel that the coldwater/nutrient/coldwater/rest treatment in my case actually strengthened my tendons to the point where they became stronger than they were before the injury.

I say tape it up and keep climbing. Don’t listen to these wimps around here!

Update:

Still hurts when I hit certain positions. Mainly in the palm along the ring finger. Still only hurts in open hand grip (no pain when crimping). Haven’t climbed in, oh lets say 3 weeks. Just resting more and more. Might take April off too.

Zac, I think I have a diagnosis. You seem to be suffering from a syndrome known as “cold feet”. This generally occurs in men just prior to their weddings. It causes pain and swelling in the ring finger on your left hand resulting in you backing out of your wedding… “Sorry baby, you can’t put a ring on that finger, my tendon’s all jacked. Oh well, later.”

All right fellas, I’m back. I gave it a good two months off, completely off. I didn’t even think about climbing. It consistently hurt for some time and then it seemed like I turned around and the pain was gone.

I’ve climbed two days so far and it hasn’t hurt. Sometimes I feel a tickle in my palm now and again. In those cases I back off and work softer problems.

The reentry is different than I thought. Amazingly I still have all my power and grip strength, obviously endurance is gone, but not the endurance of finishing one problem. I’ve lost the endurance of finishing a 2 hour workout. I’m tired after 3 or 4 hard problems, then I just strength train. I didn’t expect that kind of weakness while maintaining my power. So now I have to do boring endurance training.