Sunday, December 12, 2010
Injury Frustration
Since getting back from the Dominican, I've had a lot of free time, and I've been trying to focus my energy on climbing. I've been in the gym every single day since getting back, and would love to climb more and and for longer, but I've got a really annoying finger injury. The pulley in my right hand middle finger is inflamed. I think I picked it up in Smith, but it didn't seem too bad at the time, pocket pulling in the Dominican didn't help, and now that I'm climbing in the gym all the time its gotten a lot worse. I've applied an anti-inflamatory gel to it, and have been icing it and taping it when climbing. I know what I really need to do is rest it, but not climbing right now doesn't seem like an option. I'm in a time crunch because I'm headed on a trip down to Bishop with friends on the 26th-3rd, and really want to be able to climb hard without the pain then, but its asking a lot to recover from this in such a short period of time. Thoughts?
4 comments:
Just climb until your finger falls off.
Or realistically, see if you can iso-train the other fingers so that you can still rest that one finger. Training with your whole hand in a way that doesn't bother your injury at all may be difficult, perhaps you'll see better results in Bishop if you completely rest?? You don't want to hurt it any more such that you won't be able to climb at all!
I would bet $ you will climb better and with less pain in Bishop if you rest until then. Plus your psyche will be higher without climbing in the mean time and the power of the mind (your 'psyche' level) will far surpass any training the gym may gain you. Gym climbing with an injured finger is basically a great way to not climb at all in Bishop. If you MUST climb, I would say climb lightly for short periods of time on the type(s) of holds that do not irritate the finger (ie open hand if it hurts to crimp). You should DEFINITELY NOT be trying hard moves near your limit or campus boarding. Be careful leading up to a trip...it's easy to train train train right before you leave only to find yourself worn out and hurting when you get to your destination. You will be surprised how well you will climb after even a couple weeks of complete rest!
I agree with Kyle. Remember to also do a long warm up in Bishop, seeing as every hold there is a crimp. And when you return never climb more than two days in row, ideally climb every other day.
Given my penchant for niggling finger injuries I should probably add my 2 pence worth.......tape up (the Swiss cross method is a much loved favourite of mine) stick as much as possible to open handed holds, avoid pockets like the plague but KEEP CLIMBING! Biggest mistake I made for effective rehab was to rest and rest and rest and zzzzzzzz climbing and stretching the fingers are pretty much the only things to promote blood flow and enhance circulation which as any science teacher will tell you helps bring in the good shit for recovery. Maybe rest it a couple of days till the swelling goes down then climb and stretch, stretch and stretch some more!
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