I even have a pretty silly story on how I even provoked my first pulley rupture 6 years ago because I felt frustrated that my fingers weren’t performing as “they should’ve”.
As a beginner in climbing it can be quite hard to read body signs and most of us don’t even have a sports background. Imagine you force your body into a physical activity that challenges gravity: of course you are going to pull on your hands and fingers at first.
Luckily our bodies adapt and learn how to incorporate the new stuff. The downside is that it takes time to understand how to engage your entire body into the movement. It’s an adaptation process that requires patience.
Climbing is, after all, an activity where we constantly evolve, discover and push our limits.
This article is not going to deliver a magic solution to prevent finger injuries. However, I am going to talk about what we can do to prevent them.
And, if they did happen already, keep reading as we have some tips on how to treat them!
What can you do for long term injury prevention?
Hyrdration
Remember to always drink water before, during and after climbing.
Proper hydration is crucial for regulating body temperature efficiently and flushing out toxins from the body. It helps to reduce fatigue and soreness caused by strenuous exercise routines, while also increasing the flexibility of muscles.
Eat well
For proper functioning our cells require a healthy nutrition one that includes electrolytes as well. Found in fruits and veggies, these babies are like fuel to exercise so it’s important to consume them every day in order to avoid muscular fatigue, lethargy, muscle weakness or spams.
To better understand their role and importance try to remember how extreme you felt after a stomach flu or indigestion. That’s right! Now imagine how your tendons, and tissues that surround the bones and joints must feel when you are applying big pressure to them without them being fueled by electrolytes.
An easy and healthy way to get your electrolytes during climbing or training is the E-Lyte. It’s sugar and flavour free.
Reminder: A healthy and complete diet as well as drinking water are not only beneficial for preventing injuries but also for stimulating the immune and healing response.
(Know when to) Rest and vary types of handholds
We sleep because the body needs rest (btw, a quality sleep is also important!). And it’s mostly a natural process that we can’t really avoid. However, when it comes to rest, this is mostly a decision we take based on how we feel, what our training program is, etc.
From my own experience we can get overly excited on a problem or a sports climbing route. We can get so excited that we stop listening to our body’s needs and forget we’ve been trying the same kind of move over and over just to reach the stage of perfection.
This is dangerous and doesn’t help with injury prevention! Always check in with your body like you would with your best friend and learn to read the signs. Be sure your route will still be there for you to try it next time or try finding a way to become stronger on that specific move while training other parts of your body as well. Such as core.
Warming up
Do a specific warm up before your session – it’s like adding oil to your engine and it takes only a few minutes.
Warming up is not only the way to become more flexible but it also safely improves your range of motion by not putting unnecessary pressure on your joints. By doing so you increase your blood flow and oxygen, you promote the flow of synovial fluid around joints and you improve the elasticity of muscles, tendons, and ligaments. A psychological aspect of warming up is that you basically set up the mood for the activity you’re about to engage yourself in.
I find this video from The Climbing Doctor amazing for both warm up, and strengthening because it improves the upper body mobility, it engages your abs and it can be a good way to prevent shoulder injuries.
And if you just don’t have the time then check out this super quick warm-up from Lattice Training:
Stretch after
Stretching in peace for at least 10 minutes also improves flexibility, decreases soreness, and improves performance. And it will not only leave you feeling like you have space in your body but it will also give your mind the space to cool off.
And remember: you want to get bendy and not broken.
Check out this video for a great warm down for climbers:
Also check out our article on warming up and warming down for even more useful tips.
Say Hello to Core
Finger strength is super important in climbing. However, it’s equally essential to maintain the strength and fitness of your upper body, core, and legs to provide a solid foundation for your fingers.
Practising simple yoga exercises can significantly enhance your core strength, and you can learn more about it by reading our article on how Yoga for climbing is a powerful combination.
Pulling and massaging your fingers
You can do it during your break from either climbing or fingerboarding. Stretching your fingers reduces the pressure within the capsule and aids the synovial liquid to lubricate the joint and refill faster. And you guessed it: your fingers are going to be less prone to injury!
Already injured?
So you found us because you are already injured and you started google-ing? In this case we hope this information will accompany you in traversing this period in a better way!
Did you know that the fingers in our hands have little helpers that make them move smoothly? These helpers are called pulleys and they come in different sizes and locations. The smaller ones are called A1, A3, and A5 and they are located at the joints. The bigger ones are called A2 and A4 and they are located in the middle of the proximal and middle phalanx bones.
Which are the most common finger injuries in climbing?
Unfortunately, A2 and A4 pulleys are more prone to injuries due to their rigidity and the A2 is the most common climbing injury. The A2 pulley is a vital part of your hand that keeps your flexor tendons close to your finger bones. When the ligament ruptures, it causes the tendon to separate from the bone and creates a bow-like shape, which is known as an A2 injury. This kind of injury can limit the range of motion and strength of the finger, gripping small edges, or use force of any kind.
About 2 years ago when I was desperately looking for a magical way to better understand my A2 pulley injury and magically treat it.
Finding this video below from The Climbing Doctor helped me so much because it’s one of the few I found that delivers an A to Z information on how to identify a pulley injury or rupture (a2, a4, a2, a4) and what your approach as a climber should be. I believe it is particularly interesting when confronting pulley injuries.
What to do while you are injured?
Here are some ideas of what can you do when you’re actually not able to climb as you would like:
Rest is nice but it gets boring when you enjoy being active…try an active rest!
So while you are not able to crimp the water out of the holds because you either tweaked your finger or because of a pulley tear or partial tear, how about doing all those things you don’t normally take the time for because you prioritise climbing over training or injury prevention? 😀
If you are confronted with minor finger injuries such as tweaks I find this Lattice Training video particularly on the safe side and useful.
Train your finger mobility by holding a pen or something similar to it and try rolling it
Start by rolling it using all of your fingers and then try doing so by using each finger individually.
You can easily integrate this in your routine as a climber for these 4 reasons:
- Warming up your fingers before climbing
- Training your joints mobility
- Increasing the blood flow
- Recovery from a pulley or minor finger injury
I tried it myself while recovering from my A2 pulley partial tear and it not only help me but it also made me understand I need to practise my mobility more.
Use tape in your rehab process of a Climbing Pulley Injury
Tape as needed when performing range of motion, strength and gripping activities to help prevent the overuse of your injured pulley. For example, for a grade 2 pulley injury, a H-tape should be worn during any loading activities, fingerboarding and climbing included.
Obsession Climbing does a really good job at explaining exactly how to correctly tape your fingers with this video:
The body-mind balance
I try to keep in mind and sometimes do a check-up of why I love climbing so much. I believe part of it is also that over the years it helped me be more focused, it forced me to cultivate patience with myself, and I got to know my body better and be understanding of it.
You are constantly learning about the sport and yourself. So try to engage in the activity when you feel like you want to enjoy it and focus on it rather than taking your revenge on the climbing wall!
Conclusion
You don’t know me but I ask you to trust me. It gets better. And you will be stronger!
From not being able to lift my left arm without supporting it with the other hand, sore muscles, helplessness and believing that I will have to learn to live with it, a year and a half after I was sending my first 8a+.
I was told my injury will roughly take a year to heal. And it did. It felt frustrating and unfair. But it also felt like I was missing something and that I needed to change something in the way I climb/train/live. This time meant also understanding how essential it is to set up a base and a healthy foundation.
Now I know that feeling bad is uncomfortable but there will always be something to learn from it. Just like with other things in life, try not to beat yourself too much! An injury can at times mean a new door opening for you to become stronger, be more mindful and treat your body like a person and not like a machine.
Learn to work with your strengths and weaknesses. It’s when your body will be at its best it will perform the way you want it to be. And luckily you are in charge of that!
What is your experience with injuries?
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