Phantom Finger Injury

Training Bodybuilding
1

I have been lifting off and on for the past 8 years or so. I am 25 years old, 6’4, 220lbs, in good health. For the past year I have been working out 5 days a week, 2 hours a day, with a few healthy off periods. I have been hitting it very hard for the past 1.5 months with an ridiculously clean diet.

I stick to 1 muscle a day and hit it thouroughly. I do go very heavy at almost every workout. I have recently lost 45 lbs of fat and have found that heavy weights have really been working to make my muscles “show through” in light of the fat loss. Some basic stats just for reference would be: 320lb x 1 bench, 250 x 5 military press, 365 x 8 squats. Nothing too huge, but not too light.

Anyway, on to the problem. About 4 weeks ago I started having a pain in the ring finger knuckle on my dominant hand. There was no injury whatsoever. I never hit anything, pulled anything, bent anything, no “uh oh” moment, no injury incident at all! Nothing! That being said this pain got worse, so I took a week off the weights. It felt slightly better, but once I got back into lifting the pain came right back.

I can make a fist as hard as possible with not a single bit of pain. The pain occurs when I attempt to open my hand as flat as possible. The injured finger will not get flat, and can be pushed back; however with pain.
Due to this odd type of pain, it wouldn’t hurt to curl a 70lb dumbell, yet it would hurt to give someone a pat on the back. There is slight swelling in the knuckle joint area when the hand is opened flat. There is no brusing and the swelling is minor and seems to be limited to a small spot with a single bump.

First off, I really have no idea what could be causing this as there was literally no injury event. One thing which I have been told is simple overuse of the hand. This theory sounds legit, as it states that since my joints have become so accustom to hold and gripping around heavy bars that they are becoming limited in their “reverse” mobility.

Does anyone have any better suggestions and or ideas?

I have flirted with doing the right thing and taking at least 4 weeks off to rest the hand… although I will admit that about 2 days into it everytime, I go right back into lifting. It is going to be VERY mentally difficult for me to sit out for 4-8 weeks to heal, as I feel that I will loose so much of the gains that I have gruelingly made over this past year. I know that I need to take this time off, and will be doing so.

This brings up another question which would be; what type of resistance workouts could someone do with an injury like mine? While I could see shurgs being devastating, what about machine chest presses with an open hand grip? I just don’t see how my arms are not going to shrink it up in this long time with no workouts…

Any advice is more appreciated that you know.

Thanks everyone!

3

Thanks for the reply. After reading the description it seems like that could be it. There is some stuff that is similar and some things that don’t seem to apply.

One thing is for sure: my finger looks nothing like any of the fingers I see in a picture of someone with trigger finger. At rest the bad finger still follows the slight natural bend of the other fingers on the hand. It is nowhere near curled up. You wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at my hand at rest. It isn’t until the last little bit of straightening the finger that the pain starts. I would say it goes 90-95% of the way straight before el pain-o.

I definitely seems odd to me that I would just randomly get trigger finger on some freaking Wednesday at 25 years old… ya know?

This is the best explanation I have gotten yet… well between this and overuse.

And, oh man how I am looking forward to getting some sweet gloves!! Hopefully they have leopard print ones at Sports Authority. Now all I will need is to have the “P” pad from the squat bar sewn onto the top back of the “squat” shirt and I will be good to go.

Also, for what it is worth - this pain didn’t really start until I started getting really heavy AND using straps. I went heavy before, but never wore straps. Ever since I got them… it seems like the finger hurts. Connection? I hardly see how…

4

I looked into the trigger finger thing and the only issue that I see is that I have never had any problems with the finger “locking” which is the main deal when talking about this trigger finger condition.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

5

If you tore a tendon bad enough resting might not do anything. I’d just get to a doctor. Hands are handy. (Couldn’t resist.)

6

Lol, nice too clever

I wish I could, but I don’t have insurance as of yet. I will be getting it on the 15th of this month, so a Dr. appointment is one of the first things on my list.

I doubt that something could have torn. Again, there was no real injury incident. I just work out heavy everyday, than woke up one morning with a sore knuckle that just kept getting worse.

8

Quality questions Bushy, so I appreciate that.

I agree that a tear should / would involve much more pain that I am currently feeling. My pain in just in the knuckle, both top and bottom. There is no pain the forearm or any real tightness. If I bend my hand all the way back the wrist by pushing on my middle finer, it is fine. If I bend the hurt ring finger, its all over.

I am absent of hand pain other than the localized pain of the top and bottom on the knuckle in question.

On a scale of 1-10, I would rate the pain at only a 0-1 when the hand is not flat, a 2-3 when just generally using the hand, 4-5 when lifting, and a 9-10 when bending the finger back… if that makes any sense.

Hopefully this clears some stuff up. Every post gets more informative, as I experiment and learn more about this mystery injury :wink: