Pain In Knuckles From Bending

[Octogen]

Last year I worked my way up to a grade 5 bend and was hoping to progress to the grade 8 and red but in December I found that bending was aggravating the knuckles on my index and middle fingers on my right hand.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so what have you done about it?

I've taken a full month off bending now and concentrated on crush and the swelling and stiffness have gone so i'm thinking of going back to around the IM blue level and working back up slowly.

On a positive note my crush is getting better

[gripman]

Last year I worked my way up to a grade 5 bend and was hoping to progress to the grade 8 and red but in December I found that bending was aggravating the knuckles on my index and middle fingers on my right hand.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so what have you done about it?

I've taken a full month off bending now and concentrated on crush and the swelling and stiffness have gone so i'm thinking of going back to around the IM blue level and working back up slowly.

On a positive note my crush is getting better

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Don, I get the same thing I am just trying to get a grade5 only kinked it to about 40 degrees. I find when I work on shorter bends under 5.5 inches that I hurt those knuckles. I ice the knuckles and rest like you did.

Ed

[HAMMERHEAD]

What style are you using?

-HH

[Octogen]

I bend double overhand now although a lot of my earlier bending was terminator style

[DAN PRAYDIS]

what material are you using have you tried leather sounds like your fingers are doing most of the bend

[HAMMERHEAD]

Where is the pain in your knuckle? I ask this because I had a similar experience when I used to bend over/under or revers style.

I had just killed 4 60d's. This was a PR and I felt strong. I picked up another nail and I noticed my first knuckle on my left hand felt wierd. Not a lot of pain but not good. I had strained the tendon on top of the hand that runs to the index finger.

Bending aggrivigated this injury and I had to lay off bending for months.

No big deal but a pain in the ass. This is one of the reasons I bend DO now.

Take the time for it to heal, and you'll get stronger.

-HH

[DrPepper]

Where is the pain in your knuckle?  I ask this because I had a similar experience when I used to bend over/under or revers style.

I had just killed 4 60d's. This was a PR and I felt strong.  I picked up another nail and I noticed my first knuckle on my left hand felt wierd.  Not a lot of pain but not good.  I had strained the tendon on top of the hand that runs to the index finger.

Bending aggrivigated this injury and I had to lay off bending for months.

No big deal but a pain in the ass.  This is one of the reasons I bend DO now.

Take the time for it to heal, and you'll get stronger.

-HH

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Me and rjkd12 both get pain on the knuckle as that's where we bend the bar over. It's annoying but whatever.

[Octogen]

Thanks for the replys guys,

DrPepper, I'm not worried about the pain as i bend the nail over, i expect that and thats just part of bending but my concern was with some pretty bad knuckle swelling and stiffness that hung around days after bending anything.

The symptoms are very much like arthritis and since that runs in my family i'm a little wary of trying to give it to myself before i hit 30!

HH,

The pain is right around the first knuckle of my middle finger and only occurs after DO bends. I switched to DO because it just turned out to be stronger.

Dan, I wrap in a bit of leather then a towel, I had a nail tear a chunk out of my hand and i don't want a repeat. I do use the IM wraps but only for round stock as I've prewrapped and taped them so i can just slide them over the bar (too lazy to wrap for bolts each time as they are fiddly)

[DrPepper]

I had pain in my knuckle for a week and half after the workout I got my first grade 5, grade 8, and failed on the red. I couldn't even do a timber tie a week later without a great deal of pain. Perhaps it just takes getting used to or you're talking about a different pain.

[EricMilfeld]

Don, it's easy to assume you have enough padding when you really don't. I made this mistake and got to the point where I almost gave up on trying to bend tougher stock due to the intense finger pain, but stuck with it and experimented with leather and found my cure. Once your fingers toughen up, particularly the side of your forefingers, with enough leather padding you should be able to push your bending as hard as you like without serious pain.

[the swiss]

same here I hurt my index fingers last year while trying DO with a small padding and bad technique.

It is now much better but still fragile, and I take my index finger off my nails when I bend DO.

[rjkd12]

Dan, I wrap in a bit of leather then a towel, I had a nail tear a chunk out of my hand and i don't want a repeat.  I do use the IM wraps but only for round stock as I've prewrapped and taped them so i can just slide them over the bar (too lazy to wrap for bolts each time as they are fiddly)

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For the nails, make sure you either cut and then file the ends, or use duct tape. For simplicity I just put a very small amount (one inch by two inches) and put it on th end of the nail. Mostly so it saves my wraps from getting holes in it.

[Incindium]

I have the same problem with the sore knuckles. I do use DO and 2 suede wraps. I'm coming to think that its actually too thick of padding that is causing my problems. The padding is thick enough that I end up having a hard time getting my stumpy index fingers wrapped around the wraps tightly to start the bend. Once my knuckles feel better from Friday's bending attempts I'm gonna experiment with cutting down my suede and see if having not as thick a wrap make a positive difference.