How to Prevent Finger Strains and Overuse Injuries While Rock Climbing
How can you avoid finger strains and overuse injuries during rock climbing? AOKWIT will introduce five effective methods to prevent sudden finger strains and chronic overuse injuries!
Point 1: Understand Your Fingers
This includes understanding the health status and any existing pain or injuries in your fingers. If you notice any signs of finger injury or illness, be sure to seek medical attention promptly!
Point 2: Always Warm Up Before Climbing
Especially warm up your fingers. You can perform exercises like opening and closing your fingers, flexing and extending them, as well as rubbing, tapping, and light hanging. This wakes up your finger joints and activates the tendons, helping to prevent tendon damage during sudden, forceful contractions!
Point 3: Enhance Overall Finger Strength and Capacity
The most fundamental approach is targeted training on holds of various sizes and distances, including different hold types like edges, slopers, pinches, and pockets.
Point 4: Climb Within Your Ability
Based on your past climbing experience, understand your finger’s control strength when gripping different types of holds. Do not subject your fingers to excessive pressure, overstretching, or even excessive twisting!
(Special note here, often overlooked by climbers, is the damage caused by over-twisting the fingers! Among our five fingers, only the highly flexible thumb can perform flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, and rotation. The primary functions of the other four fingers are simply flexion and extension, with only very limited rotational capacity; they are not suited for any vigorous or high-intensity twisting movements).
Point 5: Provide Adequate Rest for Your Fingers
After prolonged or repeated exertion, it’s essential to allow your fingers proper rest! After climbing, you can perform finger stretches and massage to promote relaxation.
