Hand Pain When Gripping

[fatcat]

Hoping someone can help.

As an ice climber I do lot of training with grippers and weighted hangs from thick dowels and ice tools etc.

I sometimes find I get pain in my hands early on in the session. (This is pain in the palm area not forearm or pain in the 'gripping muscles')

I'm beggining to wonder if I need to warm up this area of my hand - any thoughts ?

Any suggestions as to how to do this ?

All ideas gratefully received

Thanks

[Magnus]

You should always do a warm-up no matter what kind of exercise you're doing.

Where on the palm is the pain?

[eltorrente]

Well I don't know what's wrong, but I'll just make some general suggestions which I think would probably help anyway:

I'd first take a week or two off. You aren't gonna get weaker - but you'll recover fully and probably come back stronger.

When you do start back up again, you should try simply changing up your routine. If you're doing high reps, go to fewer reps - if your doing low reps, go to higher reps. Get a couple more training tools to supplement/replace some of your current exercises - like a rolling thunder, a pinch block/hub, a wrist roller, some rubber bands for extensor work, hand meditation balls, etc. Doing the same exercises over and over can certainly cause injury - always good to change things up and alternate to keep you strong and healthy.

Maybe you can change your workout routine - If your doing 5 days a week, go to 3. If your doing 3 days a week, go to 2. If you're doing 2, go to 3 or more, but do different exercises/weights/reps each session.

[DannyGrip]

Hoping someone can help.

As an ice climber I do lot of training with grippers and weighted hangs from thick dowels and ice tools etc.

I sometimes find I get pain in my hands early on in the session. (This is pain in the palm area not forearm or pain in the 'gripping muscles')

I'm beggining to wonder if I need to warm up this area of my hand - any thoughts ?

Any suggestions as to how to do this ?

All ideas gratefully received

Thanks

I dunno if what you're experiencing is bad, but I get sore on my palms after gripping training. Goes away after a day or two then I come back stronger. I actually like that soreness on the palms, let's me know I got something good going when I trained.

[ae_yogi]

I once had some sort of bruise in the deep tissue of my palms from trying to do forced negatives with a machine which mimics a gripper and benchpress in the same workout. It took a long time to heal, and I could feel the soreness if I probed my palm even when not working out. It went away from splitting up my bench and gripper workouts, and playing with my hand position to let the damaged are heal.

If it is not that it may be tendonitis, or injury to one of the tiny muscles which adducts the fingers. There have been some threads recently on tendonitis; been beat to death actually. Everyone seams to agree that contrast baths are a good thing, and they will help no matter what the cause of the injury.

Good luck and let us know if you get it sorted out.

[Magnus]

Is this pain in the skin itself, then? If that's the case, you'll eventually get used to it. I had it pretty bad a while ago from doing forced overcrushes, BFNs, benching, and deads all around the same time. Took me around 3 weeks for it to heal.

[fatcat]

Thanks to everyone for the replies and suggestions.

The pain is on the palm - deeper than the skin. I'm getting it in both hands equally which made me think it wasnt a particular injury.

I'll take the suggestion of changing things around a bit and will look to try some other equipment. The rolling thunder looks 'fun' ! I'll try some contrast baths also - is this as simple as it sounds or is there a recommended protocol or any other advice ?

I've just had an enforced two weeks off (family committments and recovery from a cortisone injection in the shoulder which I seem to have reacted badly to) but have a workout planned for later today so will let you know how things go.

Thanks again for your help

[ae_yogi]

I'll try some contrast baths also - is this as simple as it sounds or is there a recommended protocol or any other advice ?

If you go to the FAQ section, on the second page there is a subject titled "contrast baths" where a few members have written their protocol.

[fatcat]

I'll try some contrast baths also - is this as simple as it sounds or is there a recommended protocol or any other advice ?

If you go to the FAQ section, on the second page there is a subject titled "contrast baths" where a few members have written their protocol.

Thanks

[Benedikt Farsmann]

Are your hands better now? What did you do about it?

[fatcat]

Are your hands better now? What did you do about it?

Thanks for asking. I've only done a few light sessions since last posting. But - I did do some extended warmups with a light gripper and didnt feel the usual pain so I'm quite encouraged. The plan is to get into some harder training over the next couple of weeks so will post some feedback here.

Hope to include some conrast baths in the recovery process also.

Thanks again to all for the replies and I'll post here soon

[andyfreeland]

If you are getting the same pain in both palms then it most likely will be narrowed down to overtraining. Heal up and go back at it!