Dealing With Injuries (and what got me climbing again)

Anyone that climbs seriously will get a finger, hand, or elbow injury at some point. Many climbers, myself included, are hesitant to bring injuries to a doctor. I imagine the interaction going like this:

Me: “I think I hurt a tendon in my finger.”

Doctor: “How did you do it?”

Me: “Rock climbing.”

Doctor: “Can you tell me more?”

Me: “Well, often when climbing I’ll support as much weight on my fingers and hands as possible. I load my hands and fingers until they fail. On a really good day, I do this 10, 20, maybe 30 times.”

Doctor: “Ok... that sounds too hard for your body. You should stop climbing for a while.”

Me: “Not an option.”

Doctor: “Why are you here again?”

I’m not hopeful that many climbers and doctors would reach an agreement here. So I imagine that most climbers rush to the internet the way I did when I had my first tendon injury (A2 pulley). I googled how to heal tendons faster, foods to strengthen tendons, exercises to strengthen tendons, and even how to climb through finger injuries. But most websites are run by people that aren’t climbers, and information from experts that also understand our sport is really hard to find. I certainly don’t claim to be an expert. But I can tell you what I learned about the reality of climbing injuries.

Forget your old self and remember your… old self

After several weeks of rest, using the finger lightly actually aids healing, so I didn’t want to completely stop climbing. But it is incredibly difficult to take it easy on your finger when you have ingrained in your brain that 5.10 is easy. 5.10 is not easy on your body. Go down 3-4 number grades from your old limit and plan on climbing at that level for months. Feel free to tell everybody that will listen about your injury if it helps you feel better as you’re watching everyone around you pull hard. I know that climb looks really great, and it used to be doable for you. Don’t get sucked in.

More than anything, you need to remember that climbing isn’t always about today. Remind yourself that you want to be able to climb hard next season as well as when you’re old. If the sport is important enough for you to be reading this, then it’s too important to risk a more permanent injury just because you were impatient. The rock will still be there in a few months.

There are some things that help a bit

Make sure you stay hydrated. And taping well can really help -- if nothing else, it keeps you cognisant of the fact that you need to take it easy. Ice in short spurts is great for reducing pain/swelling too. I’ll leave this for the experts to argue, but I started to feel like normal icing reduced blood flow and thus slowed down healing. I read a bit on Dave McCloud’s blog about this. He recommends using cool water for extended periods of time to increase blood flow to your injury and accelerate healing (thanks to Brad for recommending it). This technique definitely aided in increasing blood flow to my hand, but after a while I felt too much swelling. I got scared of chronic inflammation (something else I read about during my incessant googling) and backed off.

So you should know that nothing is going to heal you like magic. Time, rest, very light climbing, and swallowing a lot of pride seems to be the best prescription.

Bouldering was good for me?

I can’t believe that I’m writing this, but after the initial healing was finished, bouldering was really good for my finger injury. Here’s why:

The finger felt its worst when I was fatigued. I could do 8 moves without feeling much pain, but 8 bolts was a different story. This could be for several reasons, but I think it was because when my muscles fatigued, my tendons felt more stress.
You can see all of the holds from the ground. I could easily suss out each move and see if the problem would stress my injury before I got started. It’s easy to spot and avoid tweaky boulder problems.
I am more comfortable letting go of a boulder. Despite the fact that I do it a lot, but I don’t really enjoy falling on a lead climb outside. So if I felt a little tweak when I was climbing on rope, I would try to make my next clip (risking more injury) instead of just letting go. On a boulder, I was off the rock and on my pads the moment I felt the slightest pain.

It’s not over when it’s healed

So your injury feels better -- great! This is where the physical problem ends and the mental problem begins. 6 months after my injury, I really needed a psychologist more than a medical doctor. I was scared that every crimp was going to be my next injury. I didn’t know my limits, and I didn’t trust my hands. It became frustrating to continually not be able to work the same climbs as my partners. I mistook normal fatigue for a tweak and would quit for the day. I felt defeated by my body, and this could have easily led to my quitting climbing. But then I discovered...

What absolutely helped the most

Hangboarding! For me, hangboarding was the key that eventually turned everything around. About 8 months after the initial injury, I read about this training technique and started a routine. Using a simple pulley system (picture), you can remove as much of your body weight as you’d like when hanging. I started by removing nearly a third of my body weight and doing a beginner hangboard routine. If it went well, I would add 5 pounds a week. This system has many major benefits:

It builds strength. I got my old fingers back, but I also feel like the exercise is preventative in nature. With all of the hanging I’ve done, I feel less likely to over-stress and injure another tendon.
It builds confidence. I learned what my body could do all over again, and I lost the feeling of impending tendon doom that I had so much trouble with.
It is controlled. Adding 5 pounds a week to a successful hangboard routine and making no other changes made me feel completely at ease. It made me feel like a scientist. In hindsight, I should have worn a lab coat.

More than anything, hangboarding made me excited about climbing again. Stoke level is incredibly important in a sport that can be so mentally and physically painful. Ironically, I credit one of the most mind numbing climbing exercises for getting my drive back.

My Timeline

I’m not sure if there is a “typical” timeline for these injuries, but if it helps you prepare, here is how my recovery went.

Day 1: Injured trying too hard on a mono at the gym. Dumb.

3 weeks AI (After Injury): Re-tweaked trying to come back too soon.

2 months AI: Started feeling finger pain in other hand because of overcorrection. Decided to avoid crimps and work slopers for a while

2 months and 2 days AI: Injured wrist trying too hard on slopers.

2 months and 2 days through 8 months AI: Lots of climbing depression. Nothing too hard. Many rest days and rest weeks. Gradual improvement, but no breakthrough. Mostly bouldering.

8 months AI: Hangboarding routine #1!

10 months AI: Have increased weight by 30-50 pounds depending on hold type. Feeling much more confident. Starting to send problems near my BI (Before Injury) grade.

14 months after the initial injury, the tape finally came off. I’m even a little stronger than before.

Now about that endurance...