Hand Injury Question

[dpinsen]

Rip,

In a response to a previous poster, you mentioned that hand injuries take a long time to heal. I injured my left ring finger a few weeks ago, either while deadlifting or doing some bag work. It didn't bother me outside of the gym, but I noticed it next time I deadlifted. It hurt near the base of finger and the second joint, on the palm side, when I did my warmups, so I used straps for my work sets.

Next time I deadlifted, I used straps for all of the sets, to give the hand a chance to heal. I also used them on chin-up grip lat pulldowns, for the same reason. How long would you recommend doing that for? How long does this sort of minor hand injury usually take to heal?

[Mark Rippetoe]

If the hand injury is minor, why are you using straps?

[dpinsen]

If the hand injury is minor, why are you using straps?

Because I didn't think I'd be able to do the work sets without them. I was favoring my index finger on the double overhand warmups and it still hurt. I call the injury minor because it doesn't bother me outside of exercise.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Did you try to do the work sets without the straps?

[dpinsen]

Did you try to do the work sets without the straps?

No.

[Mark Rippetoe]

This is ridiculous, Dave.

[dpinsen]

I'll try to do them without straps Friday.

[Troy May]

Did you wrap your hands properly when doing bag work? Ten to one odds that's where the injury occurred.

[dpinsen]

Did you wrap your hands properly when doing bag work? Ten to one odds that's where the injury occurred.

I used Everlast gel wraps underneath a pair of cushioned bag gloves. The one thing that makes me skeptical the bag work did it is that it's sensitive on the inside of the hand, not the outside.

But it's possible. I threw some uppercuts against a head-high round bag that looks like a giant medicine ball, and I may have landed a punch wrong, hitting closer to the 2nd finger joints than the knuckle, which could have torqued the knuckle area a bit.

Anyhow, I actually used straps again Friday. I had an unrelated injury going for the 2nd rep on a 5/3/1 1-set of bench (failed it). Might be a pec muscle tear or pull. So I figured I'd use straps again on deadlifts so I had one less thing to worry about. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do them given the injury on bench, but when the first warmup went okay, I did the next set, and so on, and got a straps PR.