Understanding Palm Bruising in Rock Climbers
The abundance of blood flow within a tissue defines how much it will bruise or not.
For example, I don't see much bruising with pulley injuries (mostly just swelling), but I commonly see bruising with lumbrical injuries in the palm.
The classic lumbrical injury happens while pulling on pockets or "dry firing" a pinky off a flat edge. Those scenarios place more mechanical load on the muscles attachments to the flexor tendons. Because these muscles have more blood flow than their surrounding connective tissue, you've likely injured a lumbrical muscle if you wake up with bruising in your palm.
think you’ve injured a lumbrical muscle?
The first thing to do is load all four fingers with resisted flexion (open-handed position) against the other palm to see if it hurts. This position is not likely to produce much pain. The second thing to do is isolate each finger in the same fashion. This position is much more likely to produce pain in the area of bruising.
While consulting climbers with lumbrical injuries, I commonly hear that they can still climb at their typical level, so long as they avoid the weird hand positions, pockets, and 3-finger drags. Those are what cause increased mechanical stress to the lumbrical muscles.
Compared to pulley injuries (more chronic in nature), lumbrical injuries can be one of those "one-off" types of acute injuries. But the reality is, as long as you're pulling with all four fingers (buddy tape helps), the risk of making this injury worse is not significant.
Red flags might be increased bruising, pain, and numbness/tingling in the pinky finger.
take a deeper look:
Key takeaways:
Back off regular climbing for a week or two. Too many weird positions on the wall might risk continued irritation.
Use a fingerboard in place of your climbing. The loading is more controlled and easier to adjust. But keep loading.
Buddy tape the finger when you're ready to get on the wall. This only serves as a reminder, not protection. Be logical with where you start.
Don't be freaked out by the bruising. It should go away quickly.