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vishnuepie
Oct 20, 2001, 8:07 PM
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What are some of the early symptoms of tendonitis, and what can be done to prevent it?
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hardcoredana
Oct 20, 2001, 9:50 PM
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I have never had tendonitis in my hands/fingers. But I have had it in my elbows. Early symptoms are soreness or tenderness in the joint, especially when using it. With my tendonitis, my elbows hurt not only when climbing, but whenever I would move my elbow. The most important way to prevent tendonitis is to plan deliberate rest days. On these days, you should not be climbing at all, not even a little bit. You should have at least 2, if not 3, rest days a week. Also, stay in tune with your joints and pay attention for the early warning signs. If you feel any twinges in your joints, you should take at least 3-5 rest days in a row. If you're a climbing junkie like me, and have a hard time taking one day off, you are going to have to be disciplined. Just tell yourself that if you don't take the time off, then you'll get full blown tendonitis, and you'll have to take weeks off in order to recover. The main thing is to listen to your body, and don't be an idiot about rest days.
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trillium
Oct 21, 2001, 12:15 AM
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I have had tendinitis in both my elbows. You know that you have it when you can no longer hold up a carton of milk because if the pain. One way to prevent it from returning once you have had it is to wear an elbow brace as one wears for tennis elbow. Also as stated earlier, rest.
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rck_climber
Oct 21, 2001, 2:21 AM
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I've battled tendonitis in my right elbow for most of my adult life due to the insane ammount of lifting I've done coupled with PT (military physical training) 6 days a week; add to that my love to climb every free second and you can see how it's a short road to tendonitis land.
For me, tendonitis is a constant, dull pain that is excrutiating. Nearly every movement of my arm hurts.
As mentioned, the best way to treat it is with ibuprofin to soften the pain and reduce any swelling in the joints, and REST. It will only get worse if you continue to push your body further. RICE is the best solution: R=Rest - take at least 3-5 days off whatever you're doing to aggravate it; I=Ice - Put an ice pack on to help alleviate the pain and reduce any swelling (ibuprofin helps this too); C=Compress - Use an ACE bandage or something to compress the area and restrict further movement; E=Elevate - Keep it above your heart on a pillow or something to keep the swelling from coming back.
This is a common tool that works for just about everything (at least that's what I always get prescribed as treatment). Works for sprains, twists, tendonitis, etc.
Hope this helps.
Mick
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greatgarbanzo
Oct 21, 2001, 2:27 AM
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IF YOUR FINGERS HURT, OR ARE EVEN SORE AND YOU HAVE NOT CLIMBED IN THE LAST 24HRs GIVE YOURSELF AT LEAST A 24HRs MORE OF REST. THIS IS THE FIRST SYMPTOM OF A COMING TENDONITIS... Better to not to climb for a day than for a month!!!!
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climberchk
Oct 21, 2001, 5:32 AM
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Rck_climber - that was some of the best advice I've ever heard. Thanks a lot!
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rck_climber
Nov 16, 2001, 10:47 PM
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In that case, believe it or not, my intelligence must far outweigh my looks for that is rarely a problem for me .
Definitely not the brightest bulb in the hallway, but it scares me to think that my intelligence somehow outweighs my looks
Maybe the wife and 3 children scares them away.........yes, I'm sure that's it ........
Well,.......let me at least cling to that one notion .
Mick
Edit: Oh yeah, thanks for the beta guys, just hope it keeps someone else out of my shoes (or pain, as the case may be). Continue to take care of your body, it's the only one you get and if you break it enough it gets harder and harder to fix.
Climb on folks!!
[ This Message was edited by: rck_climber on 2001-11-16 14:49 ]
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spunkylilrn
Nov 17, 2001, 12:05 AM
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A tendon is a fibrous connective tissue that attaches mucle to bone, so tendonitis is inflammation of such tendon. Now, exercise is the best way to help it as it was weak and /or overworked. Exercise will help strengthen. Depending upon where the tendon is, there are specific exercises to help with this. Any orthopedist will give you the nessecary exercises to do. But, you may want to see a physician to make sure that is truly the problem. Signs and symptoms of tendonitis is pain and the pain increases with movement. Swelling, and so on. But, it's best if you get it checked because it may also be a tear. This my friends = bad news.
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rck_climber
Nov 17, 2001, 12:15 AM
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Ah, yes, the more dangerous and damaging tears - I know them well.
The tick list has recently grown to a torn rotator cuff, although I'm healing quickly enough. It joins 2 ligaments in my right knee, nearly everything in my right ankle and my (famed) right elbow (long time ago when I was a kid).
Should this happen, you'll definitely know as the pain will be more intense and sharp, not the dull ache that accompanies arthritis and tendonitis. This, my friends, will sideline you for a while.
Mick
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paulc
Nov 17, 2001, 12:38 AM
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Good advice so far.
A couple of points though that haven't been mentioned.
There are actually more injuries that feel like tendonitis that haven't been mentioned yet.
Synovitis is the inflamation of the sheath that lubricates most tendons in the body. This is usually indistgishable from tendonitis and is treated as such. You usually get a combination of tendonitis/synovitis called tenosynovitis when you have an over use injury. When you get a acute tendon injurt it is usually the tendon only that is injured.
Another injury related to this is called burstitits, which is the inflamation of the bursae. Due to the close proximity of the bursae to the tendons/tendon sheaths these are easily confused and treatment is similar. So what you ask is a bursae??? It is a pad that your body uses to protect tendons when they go over bones, joint or muscles. Common examples are your knee and elbow.
The fingers are a special case due to the tendon pulleys that keep your tendons close to the bones in your fingers ( two points for anyone who know the proper term for your finger bones, and no you can't redeem them for anything other than a good word from me, so don't ask for a magic rack!!)
Most professional climbers have torn at least one of their tendon pulleys, typiclly in their ring finger. This is called an A2 pulley injury (this has nothing to do with aid climbing so don't start on that).
The main way that you can tell a pulley injury from a tendon injury is where the pain localizes to under pressure. What this means is that if you poke your injured finger if it hurts on the same side as your palm (anterior) then it is most likely an tendon or tendon sheath injury. If it hurts on the side then it is most likely a pulley that is injured. Under severe tears you can see bow stringing of your tendon (hint this is not a good thing). The only upside is that once it stops hurting and you recover then it doesn't seem to affect your crimp strength which is the particular hand position that tends to cause/agravate tendon/pulley injuries.
Now I am not a doctor or physio so if you do have a tendon injury then don't take this as medical advice. If you decide to climb with a tendon injury and you do more damage don't come crying to me, its not my fault.
Side note. For most tendon injuries a ring of tape is good to protect it as you get it back into shape. The X taping method is used for only specific injuries and is not recommended for straight tendon/pulley injuries.
Paul
IANAD, IANAP, YMMV.
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wachy
Nov 17, 2001, 1:05 AM
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when I first started climbing I would get tendonitis a lot. It was a soreness in my elbows, and it throbbed and was just generally really annoying. Someone told me it's because muscle gets stronger a lot faster than tendon, so when you suddenly start working your forearms a lot, it stresses out the tendons and makes them inflamed.
What helped me the most was doing push ups in between and after climbs. I don't know why exactly, I just know I had noticeable results. Also, doing cardio work seemed to help... this I can't place as definitive as the push ups, but I'm pretty sure it helped. I guess this is because it gets the blood flowing..... Anyway, cardio can't hurt in any case. Hope this helps.
note: as soon as you start feeling sore, and it's not a muscular tired type sore, STOP CLIMBING. Tendon injuries heal very slow.
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