Place the center piece on the inside of the middle joint of the affected finger and wrap each of the ends around the finger in a ring . One of the ends will go above the knuckle and the other end will go below the knuckle . To stop the tape loosening up again during climbing, you will need to apply the tape quite tight, which will also support your pulleys during climbing. Gloves may protect your skin, but they prevent you from properly feeling the holds. There is one exception to the no-glove rule; many folks who do a specialized kind of climbing called “crack climbing” wear partial gloves. There are many different taping techniques out there to support healing finger injuries.
The smoother your skin is in terms of calluses, the less risk of flappers. Warming up well begins with an aerobic warm-up—hiking, jogging, cycling, or elevating the heart rate for 20–30 minutes. Then engage in dynamic stretching—stretching a muscle through continuous motion, briefly bringing it to its end range. Finally, begin a sport-specific warm-up of easy climbing for either 100–120 moves, 8–12 boulder problems, or 3–4 routes. Skin injuries during climbing and bouldering are annoying, but they heal with proper care within a few days.
Table of Contents
Taping Injured Tendons
Subjects were placed on a standardized measuring device in order to keep each subject’s arm in the same position for a standardized ultrasound reading. The measuring device also had a transducer at the end to make sure each subject was pulling with the same amount of force at the fingertip . This method tapes both pulleys, front and back of a joint.
It’s super gross for other people to grab bloody holds. Less commonly, you may sprain or otherwise injure a finger and wish to biologically splint it by taping it to the next finger. Again, if you’ve injured your finger, it’s always best to simply rest until it gets better. But, if you are in the middle of a multi-pitch climb and it’s do-or-die, this type of taping may be helpful. Your skin is the best source of protection against that underneath layer while it’s healing so it’s ideal to maintain your flapper for improved recovery time. Unfortunately, this very common climbing injury takes a long time to recover.
Using Tape For Skin Injuries
You might also see this sort of psychological taping on the fingers of climbers who have recovered from injury, which they keep on doing as a reminder to consider their choices and their potential for injury. Only, in reality, you’re already squeezing the maximum number of fingers possible onto each hold, so they’re already working together. Your finger’s buddy isn’t going to hold up his bowstringing tendons.
Dave Macleod, professional climber and author of the book, Make Or Break, has his own thoughts on pulley taping, so I’ll summarize here. He feels that the structural support offered by H-taping is not strong enough to truly protect the pulleys and also reiterates that tape stretches quickly and might not be enough. The results of the study showed that taping over the distal edge of A2 did not decrease bowstringing by more than 5% or absorb more than 10% of the force on the pulley. Taping over the distal end of the proximal phalanx however, decreased bowstringing by about 20%. Taping over the distal end of the proximal phalanx helped to reduce the angle of the flexor tendon acting upon the A2 pulley, and thus reduced the perpendicular force applied to the pulley. Even when used in multi-pitch crack climbing as a glove it will hold.
Please be as descriptive as possible and pictures and/or videos are preferred in any explanations. Personal experience on effectiveness and tips with these tape jobs is also welcome and preferred. From a scientific point of view, the H method is best because Studies have shown with ultrasound measurement have shown that this method tapes up the tendon and the bone extremely close together. All three methods successfully do it and alleviate pressure on the pulleys and your fingers.
Tendon And Finger Injuries Heal Slow And Should Be Avoided If Possible!
If you tore off too much tape, you can easily cut or tear off the excess. Matt is a Doctor of Physical Therapy working in Telluride, CO who recently graduated from the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus. While going to school, he lived in Boulder, CO to be closer to his playground. In his final semester of the DPT program he conducted an independent study researching climbing injuries and injury prevention techniques to provide to his clients. His main interests are in sports medicine physical therapy and injury prevention revolving around the climbing athlete. Before starting school, Matt lived in San Diego, CA and worked at Mesa Rim Climbing Center.
Usually a ten centimeter strip of tape will do the trick. Your goal is to protect your skin, so you won’t need to make the tape very tight. It’s best to tear the strip of tape completely off the roll before you start putting it on. Otherwise, the tape may become uncomfortably taut and affect the blood supply to the finger. Proper footwork and avoiding intense dynamic movements may decrease the risk of pulley injuries by reducing overgripping or shockloading of the fingers. As a rule, avoid dynamic movements, especially to crimps, and focus on slow, precise footwork and core engagement.
You can tape over these minor injuries to keep the area at least somewhat sanitary and prevent it from getting any worse or stinging like heck when you get back on the wall to finish up your climbing sesh. Be sure to stop any bleeding before you apply tape, or you will still smear blood all over the holds which is both gross and unsafe. You can tape gauze over the site if you are worried that it’ll open back up during a climb. Make sure that your skin is clean before you start taping.
It is normally aggravated by crimping and direct pressure. Having a gentle feel with your thumb is a good way of locating the tender area. Sand down your callused pads and fingers before climbing. Flappers come from climbing in large jugs, and gripping holds them with as much hand as possible. That’s why they rarely happen on routes with tiny handholds and often happen in bouldering gyms, where the easy routes consist of super big jugs.
Chances are that throughout your life as a climber, you will encounter at least a few of these reasons to tape up. That’s why we’ve prepared this ultimate guide to finger taping for when that inevitable time comes. Rest assured, if you have any questions about taping your hand for rock climbing, you’re in the right place. The skin on your palms is much tougher, and doesn’t need protection like the skin on the backs on your hands. Which actually made it harder–but without tape, I would rip all my skin off. By climbing a lot your skin hardens, and if you keep sanding down your calluses you will have very hard but “flat” skin, which minimizes potential surface for flappers to happen.
When you do crack climbing, you can also wear tape like a glove so wrap your wrist and hand multiple times. This way jamming your hand inside the crack for a stable resting and hold position is not becoming too painful, and your wrist and finger knuckles are protected. Finally, many climbers tape essentially their entire hands for crack climbing, which involves stuffing your hand into a crack and then flexing it or balling it into a fist, essentially locking you in place. This is obviously quite hard on your hand skin, so most people create something that resembles a boxing glove out of tape to protect both sides of their hands and their knuckles. Occasionally extra tape will be wrapped around each finger for even more protection.
Metolius Climbing tape is the top selling climbing tape on the market. We found the tape to be durable enough to re-use those finely crafted crack gloves several times over. Obviously, some of the stick is lost as the gloves are reused, but the 3-day old gloves still performed well. Finger taping is popular in grappling sports, climbing and martial arts. It is used to increase your grip strength and prevent injured figures from moving laterally.
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