UKH

I tend to boulder around three times a week - outdoors or indoors, depending on the weather.  I generally have to pack in each session after a few hours, when my fingers eventually get sore.  If I try and climb the following day, my fingers often still feel quite sore and I usually don't climb as well.  Therefore, I tend to try and have a day's rest - i.e. climb every other day or so.

Basically, my fingers almost always hurt.

This means I don't climb as often as I'd like and means I struggle to fit in any training (e.g. on a fingerboard).  I should point out that I'm nearer 50 than 40, so I don't recover from anything like I used to! 

Does anyone have any tips to improve finger recovery, so I can climb more?

I've been dabbling with resistance bands (for antagonistic exercises), finger massage rings and icing, with maybe a little more success than just rest.

Your finger pain  could be telling you that you are trying very similar high intensity things 3 times a week. Anyone's body finds it hard to tolerate 3 days of hard bouldering. Maybe you could try a week with something like this and customise it to your schedule:

Sunday, Monday - rest
Tuesday - hard quality day, trying hard boulder problems at your limit with plenty of rest between (absolute minimum of 2 minutes between goes, 5 even better). Keep this sesh short as it's intense and finish strong.
Wednesday - rest.
Thursday - mileage, loads of easier problems and no more than a couple of goes on stuff. 
Friday rest
Saturday - cranking on either hard stuff outdoors or indoors! Once again don't get thrashed and finish strong.

Repeat.. :p

The finish strong bit is very hard to achieve when you're at the wall or at a bouldering venue. But simply there is little point in pulling as hard once you've sailed past your best. You will simply really prolong your recovery and might need 2 or 3 rest days after a single draining session. So important to stay disciplined

Depends where they hurt:

- finger tips - those will toughen up

- tendons - go easy

- joints, particularly the first joint: I'm told synovial fluid gets squeezed out of the joint and that it worsens with age - ease off on crimping and work on other things - there's more to climbing than just fingers

Natural yogurt and downward dog yoga poses. It’s all about the gut biome these days.

I experienced the same sort of thing about a year ago. I'm 49 now so we're in similar situations. I had stiff joints, pain after climbing and trigger finger in two fingers (one on each hand). Now I have none of the above issues.

The "regime" outlined above will only exacerbate your problems because you're spending less time resting than you're spending climbing. I would ignore something so rigid and training top heavy.

The answer is this: Stop climbing on indoor walls and sell your fingerboard. Lose some weight, do a ton of core exercises (there are apps for that) and get quality sleep & good food every day. Also, take time off, do something else and don't make it all about going climbing every week. It really is that simple.

Thanks for the reply.  That's kind of what I do but I'm a bugger for telling myself 'one last climb' over and over.  I think keeping the intense sessions shorter would be good.

Thanks for the reply.  Most of the pain is in the No.2 Neutro Joint.  It's a tenderness style pain.  If I tap the joint, it hurts.  It builds towards the end of a long bouldering session (say 3 hours) but isn't too bad while actually climbing.  It hurts most the morning after, then improves through the day.  

Lots of good advice there but I'm not sure I can not make it all about climbing every week!  

Despite the fact that 2 people disliked advice that actually works and is borne of experience, what you do is down to you. I was offered steroid injections to ease the trigger finger, which I declined, which was clearly an excellent decision.

If you continue to use your fingerboard and go to the wall so frequently your problems will, at best, stay the same, but will more than likely increase and multiply.

Looking at your logbook shows that despite all the training you're doing, your maximum and average grades have remained virtually static for the last 3 years, which means that whatever you're currently doing isn't having any effect.

It wasn’t me who disliked your reply.  I appreciate the help

I barely use the fingerboard.  I can easily go two months without using it at all.

I was hoping to improve my finger recovery so that I can use the fingerboard some more, to see if that would bring an improvement.  Or maybe just so I can climb more often, as I enjoy it so  much.

In terms of recovery make sure you're getting sufficient protein. You need a minimum of 20g per meal to initiate muscle protein synthesis so that might well be the same for other soft tissue repair too.

You could also speed up recovery by doing some kind of cardio, say 3-4 times per week. Don't overdo it though. Around 30 mins is good or even less if you're doing HIIT cardio.

In terms of the climbing I would imagine that it's probably one particular hold type/hand position that is causing the problem, possibly combined with arm position. If you can figure out which, then you might find simply reducing those positions will allow you to climb more.

If you're training then you've got much more flexibility to avoid whatever is causing the problem. Climbing is a full body sport so training upper body and core doesn't require the fingers at all. You can also train fingers differently - say with dumbell finger curls.

Finally, and probably should be first, is go see a good physio. Once you've got a diagnosis you'll be in a much better position to figure out what to do.

I'm sure it wasn't, but it's interesting that a proven remedy would get disliked!

So. Once your finger improves (which is very different from it being fixed) you're aiming to go back onto the one thing that will damage it again. I would go with your second suggestion of just going climbing. Seriously - ditch the fingerboard if you want to climb for decades to come.

If you have the patience and are desperate, dunking your hand in ice cold water for 20 mins after a climb helps to get the blood flow to your extremities and hence speeds recovery. I also take turmeric and black pepper to reduce inflammation. I usually only do both of these things when injured but I have tried this on a short trip to get as much climbing in as possible and feel like it helps. The science is there, and may be more beneficial to do over a few weeks to actually feel real benefits.