For most of us, understanding our bodies is challenging. It can be tough to understand what those strange pings or twitches in your muscles or joints are—which kinds of pain are ok to push through, and which require rest? For climbers, this dilemma often focuses on the fingers. Although we’d recommend seeking out the advice of a healthcare professional for serious injuries, here are some tips on climbing finger injury prevention—so you don’t have to go to the doctor in the first place! As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Background: muscle pain vs tendon pain
Before we jump into tips, a little background info—the majority of finger injuries happen because climbers confuse muscle pain and tendon pain. This is a critical distinction because while climbing with muscle pain is unlikely to result in serious injury, it’s always dangerous to climb with tendon pain.
There are big differences between muscles and their support counterparts like tendons and ligaments, especially related to blood flow. Muscle tissue gets a lot of blood and can adapt quickly to stress. But tendons and ligaments have much less blood flow, and therefore can’t heal or adapt quickly. It might even take years to adapt to new levels of stress—from The Rock Climber’s Training Manual: “Support structures like tendons and ligaments require up to 6 years to adapt to stress, where forearm muscles respond to stress in about two weeks. Therefore, within weeks of becoming a climber, forearm muscles acquire the ability to destroy the support structures.”
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| Muscles | Tendons and Ligaments |
| Respond quickly to stress | Respond slowly to stress |
| Heal quickly | Heal very slowly |
| Take weeks to adapt to new stress | Take years to adapt to new stress |
Muscle pain or tendon pain?
Muscular pain or soreness is typically a throbbing, stiff, or tender feeling. It’s caused by muscles tearing, is a direct result of exercise, and is typically short-lived. Each finger has tendons, attached and braced by really strong tissue, which connect to muscles in the forearm. But there are no muscles in the fingers. If your fingers are hurting, it’s a sign of tendon or ligament pain, and you should stop climbing immediately.
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Because tendon and ligament injuries take so long to heal, it’s much better to err on the side of caution for climbing finger injury prevention. Make sure to stop and rest if you have any of these symptoms:
- Stiff, achy, or swollen finger joints
- Acute pain in finger joints
- Reduced finger joint flexibility or range of motion
- Irregular or sudden twinges
- Tingling sensations
Climbing Finger Injury Prevention Tips
There are 3 easy things you can do to prevent climbing finger injuries: prepare, be smart about the routes you choose, and plan to improve slowly.
1. Prepare intelligently
Sometimes it’s the simple things in your preparation that make the best possible prevention:
- Warm up routine – Causes more blood flow to the muscles and rest of the body. It “preps” your bodily systems for action!
- Stretching – Helps elongate muscle fibers so they can contract and relax better without tiring or fatiguing, putting less stress on your connective tissue.
- Massage – Relieves tension by de-stressing the muscles.
- Preventative bracing/taping of fingers – Gives extra support to the ligaments and tendons.
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2. Be smart about the kinds of routes you climb
Know the kinds of holds on your climb. Intense and sustained crimps on a route will substantially increase the risk of climbing finger injury, since the crimp hold stresses your joints a lot. By comparison, juggy forearm pump routes stress muscles, and are much less stressful on finger joints. Avoid the full-crimp grip when possible by using other types of hand positions.
3. Plan to improve slowly
Setting appropriate expectations will help you be successful over the medium and long-term. Train with purpose, not just vigorously—be wary not to overtrain. Long, continuous bouts of exercise are a surefire way to get injured if you’re not acclimated. For example, a continuous 4-hour climbing session is a bad idea if 1-2 hour sessions are normal for you. Also, allowing quality rest time between sets and sessions is critical for climbing finger injury prevention.
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That’s it! Stay safe out there, and take it slow and steady (while also crushing). For more resources and information on climbing finger injury prevention and other climbing injury prevention we recommend One Move Too Many and Climb Injury Free. For the best safe climbing training we recommend The Rock Climber’s Training Manual.
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