Arthritis and Continuing with training

Been an avid climber for 25 years now but for far too long I’ve lived with Pain, discomfort and disfigurement of my fingers. Like the irresponsible fool I am I pretty much ignored it until this year when it became obvious my fingers were arthritic. I’ve not been able to make a fist or straighten my middle fingers on both hands for years. Anyway today after some X ray results and consultation with hand therapy I’ve been advised that if I have any sense I need to stop right now. This has saddened me greatly and I’ll be retiring my rope, harness and shoes plus saying good bye to a lot of good folk at the wall.

I’ve also been advised not to weight training which is something I’ve got into this year and I’m really struggling with this as it was my back up substitute for climbing. I’m not sure I’m ready to drop this so looking to change the routine for lighter stuff and machines with less emphasis on grip. I realise it’s me ignoring the advice but really hoping I can work around it.

Anyone had similar issues and still train? Just not ready to take up golf yet.

IANAE, but that advice sounds like it may be a little old fashioned to me?

We used to advise people to avoid activities that caused or exacerbated pain, but that changed a year or two back, and now we encourage people to use analgesia and maintain function.

I’m not sure how that applies to small joint osteoarthritis though?

The climbing needs to stop really as it puts way too much stress on just my fingers joints plus I’m not 10 stone any more.

The gym however I believe can be tailored to work around putting too much point stress on the fingers but the hand therapist was pretty much against it.

I’d still be playing rugby, football and running if my arthritic knee didn’t swell to the size of a beach ball each time.

I can cycle, swim, weight train with no issues.

Work round it, that’s what I’d do.

Don’t give up! Adjust, adapt, modify what you can. Listen to your body, manage your triggers, pain- food-  sleep- diary can all give insight to manage better. Heat, cold, pain meds/gels can all help.

Learn about pain, google Pain is really weird (Steve Haines), Pain Explain (Lorimer Mosely) or read Louis Gifford Aches and Pains.

Find other climbers with similar issues, there must be loads!

And if needs be be more Jonny Dawes! (no hands climbing).

Yeah, I have pretty bad arthritis of my knees, and it gets worse if I don’t train. If it really flairs up I will put less weight on the bar, or when cycling avoid the hills, but I find if I give up sport when it flairs up then it becomes constant.

No suffering in my fingers though, but it would make sense to utilise lifting straps to relieve the need for excessive grip strength for bar work, I find, I find figure of 8 straps easiest to use. And utilising machines instead of free weights if holding bars and dumbbells causes too much problems. If you are also experiencing any symptoms of arthritis is other joints you could also use knee and elbow sleeves to protect those joints, I got some decent quality ones from SBD but I only use them when I have a flair up.

I suspect it is the movement of the joints while training, pumping blood through and lubricating them that aids me, to do that for the finger joints is kind of hard to train, maybe try learning bass guitar or another instrument? Can’t really think of anything else that has much potential to manipulate and move the fingers much of the top of my head.

I have arthritis in my hip.
Drs and physios have variously suggested the ‘adapt’ approach, along the lines of – “okay, so you’re used to running 70 mile weeks and winning races, but if you can jog 3km twice a week without pain, why not do that instead?“.

Doesn’t suit me at all, jogging round slowly holds no attraction whatsoever.

So I’ve stopped entirely except for a few “treat” runs a year, when I say to hell with the pain/additional damage. So far in 2024 my running has literally totalled three runs: one parkrun on New Years Day, one 10km race and one 1500m race.

I can’t help with the arthritis but you could certainly get some straps for gym work. Can be used for all sorts of exercises to take the emphasis off your grip. E.g. use straps for rows, on the pull down machine, or for pull ups. A lot of pushing can obviously be done without a strong grip.

Does your hand therapist even lift? You can of course weight train with that condition and it will be very beneficial. I’d say you’ve done your last finger pull-up, though. It will just take some careful experimentation on how best to navigate machines / barbell / dumbells etc wrt grip strength. Straps as MSP suggests could be significant for barbell lifts if you enjoy that side of it.

Even with the climbing I’d not make any precipitous decisions – but I guess you’ve spoken with other climbers about this. It sounds like a very painful condition – if there’s no way of climbing at the level you want then maybe a clean break is the way. Lifting is very different in this respect, there is always a variation of movement, or a machine, that can do a similar exercise a different way.

I have spoken to quite a few climbers over the years and no one really seems to suffer anything permanent just the odd tweaked finger etc. as much as it grieves me I think it is time to move on from it as I can’t hold onto much after about half an hour so and it is almost certainly climbing that has aggravated the condition.

Definitely going to use straps in the gym and adapt some exercises…shame is I quite like dead lift but this is the one that my fingers feel the most so it might have to go or I just strap and lift light.

I go to a really good sports physio who also is a climber so sympathetic to desire to carry on climbing through and beyond injuries

If you live anywhere near Leeds I can send you the details

OP Don’t give up, find ways to work around it that work for you. And take whatever medication or physio you can get.

I’ve got one knee replacement, waiting for a second, arthritis in both radio-ulnar joints and associated ligament and tendon issues,have been told they need fusing when I’m older and/or the drugs don’t work. I get steroid injections for my wrists yearly and take naproxen and paracetamol daily.

I’ve had to go to ebike to have ‘a good’ ride, started cold/open water swimming, and still go to the gym to lift weights using knee sleeves, wrist wraps and choosing exercises or bars (such as swiss bars) that my wrists can handle or forearm cuffs on cable machines so i don’t have to use my hands/wrists at all.

With my knees I can’t really walk any meaningful distance (even use a trolley as a Zimmer frame in supermarkets) which is depressing given unused to walk in the hills for my job, but the ebike with front suspension means I can still get my outdoors fix. I used to be a climber, but can’t as the strain in my wrists and forearms is just too much.

There are usually ways around a lot of things, but some things might need to be replaced by new activities to still get you that fresh air fix. Best of luck.

Old dog…sports physio is a good call I’ll try this.

Longdog…I’m going to look into exercises where I can remove wrist pressure as my right one is also knackered and hurts like hell…it’s stopped me riding actually

Yeh my wrists stopped/limited my riding to road or tracks, non-rumbly single track,  so apart from the meds I have bigger tyres and suspension or redshift stems on my bike, plus higher than I’d like bars with different positions I can chose and occasionally use wrist braces or wraps.

I have used quite a few gyms over the years without touching free weights. Most things can be done on machines which usually gives an option that isn’t grip dependent. Deadlifts and farmers walks might take a bit more working out, but you’re hardly unique with dodgy digits, someone will have a workaround. Good luck.

Can’t really think of anything else that has much potential to manipulate and move the fingers much of the top of my head.

I know nothing about the thread topic, but for finger/grip strength look at “rice bucket workout” (and obviously I’ve never actually done this workout either lol).

I was trying to think of an activity that would be interesting, and likely to be continued, a possible life long pursuit that might go someway to replace the hole of no longer climbing. Sticking your hand in a  bucket of rice is going to get pretty boring and uninspiring even before you start. Unless you spice it up by adding some scorpions into the bucket as well.

Similar to @finbar ran “competitively” for almost 45 years. Over the last 4+ years I have developed Arthritis in the large toe joint of one foot. Ironically running itself doesn’t irritate it but walking does which is a big concern. I can stop running if I choose to but I will always need to walk. Although running doesn’t trigger it the lack of flexibility in the joint means my gait is altered a bit and I develop other injuries, most recently Peroneal Tendinopathy which is stopping me from running.

When this was diagnosed years ago I asked my GP how I could continue to run. He was surprisingly dismissive and suggested cycling…

Same boat here. Fingers are screwed, probably from the trendy dead hangs we did in the 80’s. Arthritis in other bits of me as well. I reckon it will get worse anyway so carrying on with what ever might as well happen until I can’t.

Of course you could just climb at a lower level. No, not bouldering but doing big juggy V.diffs instead of extremes.

I have worsening arthritis mainly in my index fingers caused by overuse. I’m a painter/decorator and I play the guitar a lot. The first joints on my index fingers are starting to look knobbly like Keith Richard’s. They click and hurt when knocked. After a several hours of painting my hands stiffen up a lot and ache. I have lessened the severity by quitting booze and cutting out high oxalate foods. However even on good days they can really hurt if knocked and more so when it’s cold.

oh that’s interesting, given the “modern” advice to keep moving and utilising the joints, I would have thought playing guitar would be a good exercise for arthritic fingers.

oh that’s interesting, given the “modern” advice to keep moving and utilising the joints,

As with most bits of medical advice though, this is aimed at Joe Normal who will – with a diagnosis of arthritis – likely spend the rest of his life parked on the sofa doing nothing other than operating the fridge door and the TV remote.

There’s a big difference between “keeping joints moving” and doing something demanding day-in-day-out, like climbing, painting & decorating or (I guess) playing and practicising the guitar at a super high level.

I was also thinking about my own experience with my arthritic knees. When I have a flair up I find I recover quicker if I do some cycling, in fact it is better IMO to put up with it causing some discomfort (without pushing into pain) while cycling to recover quicker and spend more of my life in relative comfort.

Finger joints are rather different to knee joints though.

The thing with fingers and hands is they are in use constantly and hard to rest effectively. I had a week off and went to Spain recently so no painting an no guitar playing for several days. My hands felt great after. 2 days back to work and the stiffness and soreness returned.

I would adapt and overcome when it comes to weight training.

So instead of big barbell deadlifts, look at kettle bell single leg variations, or instead of squats, single leg bulgarian squats etc, you are using a lighter weight, but doing as higher work load. Plus doing the single leg or arm variation often helps with imbalances.

As far as adaption to lifting weights, I’ve purchased some lifting hooks which I’m set to try out tomorrow but my lad used them at the gym today and reckons they are great and pretty much take all of the load off your hands (more quite a few exercises) so this is a result.

I’ve made my peace with the climbing though, it’s just too demanding on the joints even the easiest routes still require pretty hard pulling and I’ve tried to calm down before and it just doesn’t work.