Thumb Pain During Very Specific Motions

[avasatu]

As I have stated before, I am fairly new to grip, and before I asked for any advice on this site, I spent about 2 weeks maxing out on various grip events to test where I was at.

About a week ago, before I even posted to this site, after one of my workouts, which consisted of Rolling Thunder, 3 inch block pinch, and biceps/triceps, as well as expand your hand band work, I noticed some pain in my right thumb, which belongs to the stronger hand.

Nothing acutely injured it; of that I am sure. Nothing in my current routine bothers it, and I have taken care to adjust my routine to suit my beginner needs since then (see my other topics).

I do, however, want a diagnosis of sorts, mostly to see if anyone knows what is causing this, what may have triggered it, how long it might take to heal, and what to do to help it along. Let me describe what motions make it hurt, and where:

Sometimes I pick up things in real life as if I was doing a plate curl (my heavy desktop replacement laptop, for example). This has nothing to do with training; it is just how I pick certain things up. My right thumb, sort of "under" my knuckle connecting to the palm, now prevents me from doing this in my right hand simply because it hurts deep in that joint.

Also, if I pick up a heavy jug of olive oil using a standard pinch grip and go to pour some into the pan, I get a little pain as well in the same area, but it goes away with repeated pours of the jug.

Standard wide pinch blocks seem to hurt it a little, so I have switched to a thinner block and moved my thumb position toward to index finger and force the block over my finger slope rather than my thumb slope. This completely negates all symptoms.

If I wipe my ass weird or fold my thumb in a way that bends my knuckle alot (such as trying to fit my hand into my pocket), I can sometimes trigger a little pain in that same area (again, deep inside the thumb knuckle, mostly toward the outside of the joint).

Additionally, the bone at the very base of the thumb near where the palm turns into the wrist on the radial side hurts when I press it too hard.

If I bend my thumb on the LEFT side in order to crack the knuckle, I can hear a tiny pop and a very small trash bag sounding noise, with no pain. If I try the same thing on the right side, there is no pop, and an intensified garbage bag noise, though still no pain.

I hope nothing happened to my cartilage, in particular...

Again, my routine has been adjusted both to suit my beginner needs and to completely avoid pain in the area, but what could this be, and what should I be doing to help it along?

Edited November 8, 2015 by avasatu

[jvance]

Take cissus for your joints. Grip will cause inflammation in your hands, when I take the cissus, no more pain.

[EJ Livesey]

Greens, rest and moist heat. This is another reason I said vitamin c. Too much too soon. You may be experienced in weight lifting but grip is a whole different animal. Your last thread, a lot of good info was given. That's to help keep you injury free.

Edited November 8, 2015 by EJ Livesey

[avasatu]

I used to take cissus back when I was bodybuilding. Maybe I should look into it again. I did some contrast baths and stuff when this first occurred which seemed to only provide temporary relief. That being said, my hand feels much better than when it happened. This seems like a fairly standard impingement in grip from my research, but I have never seen anyone suggest what the issue might be and how best to resolve it

[Jose Cabrera]

After i had pinched for some time, i began working in carpentry where i carried heavy stuff in a pinch grip. Give it some time youll adapt. I felt that same pain in the thumb joint. Sometimes your body freaks out from stimulation thats unfamiliar. Give it some time. At least you dont have to do it 8 hours a day.

[climber511]

Limit or even avoid wide pinch or big fat bar (3" or whatever really spreads your thumb for a while). It's usually that big stretch under tension that flares this up. Not always that of course - avoid things that cause it pain but keep moving it. Doesn't sound serious yet unless you keep going and make it something chronic.

[avasatu]

Hey jvance, got a favorite cissus brand?

And yes climber, especially with my tiny hands, 2.5+ inch pinch is stupid for me to consider at the moment. I am a little puzzled as to why plate curl-esque movements bother this, though.

EJ Livesey: yes, I have read and reread that thread many times. This did, however, happen about a week before I posted that thread, and I chose to withhold that information.

[climber511]

Think about the plate curl movement as a lever system like in math class in school. There's a whole of of plate hanging over a pivot point and resistance point that are awful close together. And depending on your personal anatomy - that stress may not be exactly in line with your thumbs natural range of motion (a bit of a side pressure). The forces get pretty high on the thumb in a position your hand isn't used to. My guess is just too much too soon for it.