Sore finger tendons

[Hanzo]

We have been remoddeling the garden the last month, and during this I must have carried or dig up or carried about 30 tons worth of dirt, gravel, rocks and concret blocks. This mixed up with about the same level or rowing as I normaly but into a week. I noticed my ring finger mainly getting sore and painfull after a few days of this treatment, and now a week or two after we finished the garden, my ring finger tendon is sore, and if I ably pressure to the lower end of the finger, it feels painfull. I dont feel any pain from rowing, or daily stuff, but it's sore to the touch and I'm worried it would be smart to stay away from the erg for a short while.

I would like to keep on rowing as much as possible, but have permenently damaged my achiles heels after jogging despite sore and painfull tendons, and dont want to risk this with my fingers as well.

Is this a at all common thing with rowing? The rowing itself I dont think caused this, but all the lifting in the garden no dought, but I'm worried the rowing keeps it from healing up completely.

[c2jonw]

Many finger/hand/arm issues with rowing can come from too tight of a grip on the handle so be sure you're not holding the handle any tighter than necessary during the drive and think about relaxing your grip completely during the recovery. I believe maintaining activity helps healing, so you could keep rowing with a modified handhold to minimize the stress on your ring finger- left hand all the way out at the end of the handle with ring finger and pinkie off the end, right hand in closer to the middle of the handle to take up more of the load. Good luck with it.....C2JonW

[Carl Watts]

Yes I have recently had sore fingers but elbows are my main issue.

I was rating quite low in the 18's and for the pace it was loading up my fingers so by simply moving to 20spm for the same pace the problem has gone away. Rows are 30minutes five days a week from Monday to Friday. Have found that rubbing/massaging them after the row to help. The biggest change these days is a long 12 minute cool down row, this has generally removed all the soreness the next day from my legs and arms, you feel a little fatigued but not sore. Am also using some sports Percutane sports action cream applied BEFORE the row (the sweat or water really activates it) and this stuff is also really helping.

Sounds like you moved allot of material and the soreness would be attributed to this and not the rower. Would only be worried if it was still a problem after a week.

[sekitori]

I believe maintaining activity helps healing, so you could keep rowing with a modified handhold to minimize the stress on your ring finger- left hand all the way out at the end of the handle with ring finger and pinkie off the end, right hand in closer to the middle of the handle to take up more of the load.....C2JonW

For me, rowing for long periods of time can become boring. I found that altering the way I hold onto the handle can break up some of that monotony. I often change the position of my hands and occasionally of the handle itself, using it with the handle pointing upward instead of downward. I use the entire length of the handle, holding it anywhere from the middle to the ends and I change the number of fingers I use. I will even row occasionally with an underhand grip. No matter where I hold the handle or what position it's in, my grip stays loose.

Although I have no problems with sore fingers or hands, I tried keeping one hand near the middle of the handle with a couple of fingers on the opposite end, as described. This works surprisingly well and does not detract at all from the intensity of the workout. I plan to add this hand and finger placement to those I already use. Thank you for showing me still another way to make my workout even better.

[Hanzo]

Sounds like you moved allot of material and the soreness would be attributed to this and not the rower. Would only be worried if it was still a problem after a week.

It's been atleast two weeks since we finished in the garden. In the start both ringfingers had sore tendons, and a slight touch had a certain level of discomfort. It's alot better now, but I'm worried the rowing is slowing down or downright hindering healing. I'm certain carrying about 10 tons of cinderblocks is my main issue and not the erging, but the combination might be less than ideal. I actually went on the wifes eliptical trainer last night instead of the erg to get some rest.

The wife used to be a gymnast, and they had a hand harness to avoid to much strain on the hands and fingers when using the trapes. Anyone ever tried anything like that?

[brianh]

I've had a similar-sounding finger injury from rock climbing. As far as I could guess from reading up I think it was an injury to an annular or cruciate pulley ligament (but I didn't feel like shelling out thousands of bucks into the US health system to find out for sure). In my case contact/pressure on the knuckle initially seemed like it was the source of the pain, but very careful prodding revealed that the knuckle itself wasn't the issue, and I could find some spots between the knuckles that caused pain in the knuckle.

While dealing with this I found out a few relevant things with regards to rowing:
* I found that I just couldn't do anything with moderate or high intensity, as my finger issue would either stagnate or devolve when I tried it.
* Trying to row and keep the affected finger straight or just not helping with gripping the handle didn't help at all, it actually made it worse. It still caused tension at the site of the injury that irritated things, and the surrounding fingers applied more pressure on it.
* Wearing grippy gloves while rowing helps a lot, because it allows me to use a looser hold on the handle. I use full-fingered cycling gloves.
* I also got a lot of relief by wrapping the affected finger fairly tightly with climbing tape above and below the knuckle, all the way to the next knuckle. This was a bit of a structural reinforcement for the injured bits.

Honestly, if you've got an elliptical, I'd say tape up and use that while your finger heals, and focus on pushing with your upper body rather than pulling. You can still sufficiently abuse yourself on that to minimize your fitness loss, and most of any strength loss you have should just be neural and come back quickly when you can resume rowing. I did not feel happy when I started to realize how much I had set back my healing process by squeezing in a harder row whenever it started to feel just a bit better, and how much of a downer my chronic minor injury had become in daily life. I was in an injured not-really-recovering state for about three months before I got smart about it and actually let it heal. Not worth it!

[heroesfitness]

Try using a palm grip glove as this will give you a better grip without having to hold on to tightly, if this doesnt help try using a good joint strengthening supplement and use contrast baths of hot and cold treatment on to the afformentioned finger

[Wundej]

I know this is an older post, but figured I'd chime in.

I've had similar issues from overworking my hands and fingers, erging doesn't help. My main issues were between the joints on the inside of the hand. Tendons were really sore. Felt bruised when pressure was applied. One thing that helped a lot is nerve glides. Just search google for images or videos for "finger nerve glides". It helped me a lot. Also great for those that use computers all day. There are all sorts of nerve glides that help with overused areas. Give them a try.