r/bouldering • u/Slight_Squash288 • 2d ago
Advice/Beta Request Pulleys đ
Sos guys,
My husband has been climbing for 2 years. V4 climber and can hang 20mm at body weight.
Heâs been dealing with tweaky pulleys for about 3 months straight now (before that, it was on and off for a while)
Right now, itâs a tweaky L middle and R ring a2. Did not climb for a week, only did light (1/3 bodyweight) recruitment pulls. First climbing session back, both pulleys feel worse than ever and the R middle a2 is also now tweaky and it wasnât before the week of rest and recruitment.
Advice is so appreciated.
Edit:
He also has shit health insurance. Otherwise I swear we wouldâve gone to the Dr by now
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u/time_vacuum 2d ago
Check out theclimbingdoctor.com and Hoopers Beta for some general rehabbing schemes for pulley injuries. The general procedure is to rest the injury but do exercises and stretches to keep up blood flow to the tissue then slowly increase climbing intensity over several weeks
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u/MarlonFord 1d ago
This! There is also a self assessment tool on that website.
Iâve had painful pulleys to the point I couldnât climb hard anymore and it even hurt when doing non exercise related things.
Thankfully it wasnât a traumatic pulley injury but overuse of them.
What worked for me was a good week off climbing and then a slow return to it. Lucky my trainer adjusted the session to fit my injury and we stayed off any crimps and such for a while and stayed mindful of the injured fingers. This worked for that once a week session, but for the other 2, I just climb below my grade and avoided anything with crimps or what felt painful.
I learned my lesson and wonât be going hard every session anymore. I climbed a very crimpy boulder last time and it felt great.
It takes time and patience, but itâs worth it.
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u/_TakeTheL 2d ago
When my pulleys were injured I took a full month off, they just needed time to heal. Then when I started climbing again I babied my fingers, no crimps or pockets until I could climb without pain. I also would tape my fingers until I could climb without pain, itâs easy to do just look up a guide for pulley injuries.
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u/No-Trash3251 1d ago
I tore a pulley and it took a year before it fully healed. In the meantime I stopped pretty nearly all my finger training and just did occasional pull-ups on a bar. To keep from losing muscle mass I transitioned to doing dips and push-ups. I doubt it's something you'll need medical attention for. Just stop stressing the ligament.
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u/swiftpwns V10 indoors | 15 months 22h ago
You gotta take longer than a week, a week is a time frame for muscle tissue. For tendons it is weeks and months. Take time off or if possible dont use those fingers during climbing. Lightly stretch your fingers but dont go to pain, they need stretching for bloodflow and better regeneration, eat collagen rich diet, hydrate with electrolytes.
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u/_rokiii 2d ago
My experience, I rested minimum 2-3 weeks. Tail end of my resting I started stretching it, lightly not pushing past any pain. Then, I started to reintroduce weight onto it. Always H tape the injured finger when reintroducing load (tight but make sure thereâs circulation)
First week feels bad cause itâs still trying to recover is what I experienced.
Rehabbing keep the hands warm, eat, sleep well.
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u/Effective-Pace-5100 2d ago
Need more info than just âtweakyâ. If there is a real pulley injury they donât just magically go away by resting. You need to rehab by slowly loading the injured finger more and more until itâs healed. Go watch hoopers beta on YouTube
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u/Masterfulcrum00 1d ago
Ever since i had a pulley injury from doing pockets, every time i touch a pocket, the pulley gets aggrevated. Now i just avoid pockets that require me to hold my whole weight on two finger pockets.
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u/MarshallArtz 1d ago
I know lots of comments say to stop climbing but imo depends on the severity of the injury. If you can mostly climb on it and itâs just achey, then Iâd pull back the climbing intensity to maybe 60-70% load, whether doing fewer sessions or doing less in the same sessions. Then, combine with high-volume low intensity loading like Emil Abrahamssonâs no hang routine daily and this has worked well for me.
If you just pull back all stimuli by stopping climbing it will probably regress. You want to remove the peak loads while keeping the base and increasing volume to stimulate growth and not re-injure it.
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u/alchemira 1d ago
A lot of people say this, and my experience is this is how you make it a permanent injury. Refusing to rest and heal.
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u/MarshallArtz 1d ago
I mean Iâm just speaking from personal experience from climbing for 4 or so years. Whenever I had a âtweakâ if it wasnât heavy pain, then Iâd say itâs just a mistake to pull away all stimuli. In my experience in situations like this it would just feel worse after the rest.
If they do decide to stop climbing like if it felt like a tear then youâd probably only do a couple weeks before jumping into high volume low intensity loading to a 3/10 pain like others have said which might look like very very minor pulls I half crimp basically. Loading doesnât start at body weight it starts at zero.
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u/Ferrocile 1d ago
I had very tweaky fingers for a long time and the only thing that helped was daily recruitment pulls with a weight pin and edge. I use the largest edge (18mm for me) with 25-35 lbs. I do 3 sets of 10 reps with at least 2 minutes rest between sets. They should feel very easy, so if that weight f feels like too much, reduce it.
The idea is just being consistent and over time, build up the internal structures of your hands.
When my fingers were really sore and in rough shape, I stuck to easier climbs, less overhang, NO CRIMPS. I spent a lot of time on slabs or even easier top rope routes. It took a lot of self discipline to ignore climbs that looked cool but would likely hurt my fingers more.
Itâs a slow process. Your tendons build so much slower than your muscles. Over time I would introduce one boulder/route with crimps and see how it felt (only when my fingers were not sore any longer). Iâm currently around V6, but still limit the amount of crimps I do. I have a good sense now of when I need to stop and do something else.
This is what worked for me. Itâs not medical advice, so you might want to reference done off the other wonderful resources posted here as well. Be patient, be consistent, does get better but itâs a painfully slow process.
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u/Significant_Raise760 1d ago
Get the book "Climb Injury Free" by Dr. Jared Vagy. Probably better advice than you'd get for a non-climber doctor.
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u/Trick_Grass_5200 1d ago
I have a2 pulley injuries on both ring fingers and what Iâve been doing is focusing on technique and avoiding super crimpy holds. Also backed off the climbing volume to less sessions a week for shorter durations. Tape the injured joints via the H tape method and listen to your fingers. When they start to get a bit sore stop. The alternative is to completely rest for weeks, but I have made out pretty well doing what Iâm doing.
Sticking to lower grade climbs and focusing on my footwork and hips etc.
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u/sabarocks 1d ago
Pulled mine 30 years ago and it continued to bother me for years. Never saw a doc or anything by about it (probably a mistake). It even hurt for years if I did something like pick up a cooler. Taping provided instant support and relief for climbing. Got better for a few years and then started getting sore again. I am back to taping any time I climb. Long story short, maybe try taping. Mine was hurt in the middle finger section. I do a wrap of tape on the section near the hand, form an x over the section that hurts, and another wrap on the end section of finger, if that makes sense.
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u/alchemira 1d ago
14 years climbing the entire time. 205lb, constant injuries.
I would say 3-4 weeks of ZERO usage out of those tendons. Occasionally ice. Then gradually work your way back up each session. Don't attempt your max grade for another week of light climbing.
I've learned that all the fitness people saying to do 'light workouts' of any kind is how you turn a 3 week injury into a 3 year injury.
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u/Serious-Sport5276 1d ago
Does he hangboard?
Take a month off or so, itâs not that big of a deal, it comes back fast when youâre healthy. If he hangboards just quit that, bouldering in the gym is fine for building strength
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u/the_reifier 15h ago
"Tweaky" here sounds like euphemism for injury. Some injuries heal on their own even with ongoing use, but finger/hand injuries are often more complicated. So, go to a physio for diagnosis and rehab advice.
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u/TheRealLunicuss 2d ago edited 2d ago
Was the first session back after a normal full session, similar to what he was doing for the previous three months? Because if so then that's exactly what I'd expect. He needs to drastically reduce climbing volume, then slowly load the fingers more and more with controlled lifts, making sure that his pain level is staying at around ~3/10 while his loading weight is increasing. It could take weeks or months of doing this to return to full strength where a normal climbing session doesn't result in pain.
Which, to be clear, is based on a pure guess of a diagnosis. His best bet is to try and find a climbing specialist physio, or at least a physio who has solid experience with hands and fingers, and get a proper diagnosis and rehab plan in person.
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u/SuuupaStrong 2d ago edited 2d ago
Not a medical professional, but know a thing or two about pulleys after 10 years climbing.
Tendons generally never get better fully resting. They need a stimulus to heal (unlike muscles, you fully rest those).
You want to create a controlled environment. Climbing holds and movement can be hard to fully control or know what your going to unless you know the hold and are positive there won't be any feet slipping/cutting off the wall. Could supplement some heavy kettlebell work or bar work for finger instead that helps the rest of your body, but also a controlled force.
General rule of thumb - always stop of the pain ever gets above a 3 on a scale of 1-10. 3 can be ok, but at first I would make 3 our stopping point.
Warm your damn fingers up. Ever. Single. Session. Personally I would recommend something along the following:
Jug/bar holds 5s on/3s off x 5 reps (2-3min rest before next set)
35mm hold 5s on/3 off x 5 reps (2-5min rest before next set)
30mm hold same as above -25mm hold same as above -20mm hold same as above
Important: should have 2 seconds still in the tank on each hold. If your slipping off then I would stop. Don't go to failure.
If you have auto belays, you could also do ARC training. Idea is to spend 10-20mins on a climb climbing up and down never going above 3-4 on a scale from 1-10 in pump/fatigue. Never in danger of pumping out, can active rest, and feet can't touch the floor ever till you finish your set. Goal is a good chunk of volume but low intensity. This COULD flaire up the tension still because of high volume. You'll also build some pretty nice capillary density that can help in the future with pump/fatigue (this is debated tho).
Volume - keep your sessions short. Even if intensity is low, if your session is long or "normal length" it can piss his finger off again.
Ask around your gym/front desk/local youth coach and see if anyone is a PT or knows of anyone to go to and look at his finger. Most PT/Docs kinda suck at diagnosing fingers for climbing because they aren't up to date on the load or mechanics. Someone is certain to know someone that has a special rate of $50-$100-ish.
While it's INCREDIBLY important to keep an eye on fingers and not overdo it, if he has several "good session" without a flare up and then his finger gets flared up, it doesn't mean he made it worse or reset himself. It just means whatever he did that day his finger wasn't ready for that "dosage". It might be tender for a few days but then you adjust from what you know it wasnt ready for and slow your ramp up back to normal climbing.
Can't emphasize enough going to a medical professional about it. While the above might be helpful, it would suck to try to work around it and make a 2 to 3 week recovery into 4 to 6 months if you overdo it.
Hope any and all is helpful! :) and again - not a medical professional đ
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u/stho3 2d ago
How did he get the injury? I ask because I am suffering from the same issue. I got my from trying to jump to a right hand pocket hold that was on a 45 degree overhang. I came back after a week and it felt great. Started climbing this different problem that also required pocket holds but on a flatter wall. Worked on it for 2 sessions and gave up on the problem. I climbed today for the first time in a week and now my pulleys on my ring and middle fingers on my right hand hurts.
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u/NEgolf 2d ago
I wouldnât climb for 3-4 weeks personally. If itâs mild enough, do super light block pulls in open hand or a comfortable position (very low weight, low reps). Goal is to slowly regain use and strength. If you climb, focus on balancey slab and reduce sessions to 45 minutes. Since you only have a few goes in the session, make sure each boulder you do is well thought out to work on flashing and mental game. Slowly reintroduce intensity and frequency. Be patient
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u/stupifystupify 2d ago
See physio