I get over these frustrations and stop myself from slipping in to a low I have decided to slowly start trying to build up my finger strength. When I first injured myself I did try to maintain my upper body, core and finger strength, but after about six months when it became clear I wasn't going to be climbing any time soon my motivation disappeared and that all fell by the wayside.
I have read a lot about how to improve climbing you need to work on developing technique rather than strength. While I believe that this is true, 1. I can't work on technique now so it's strength or nothing, and 2. I think that these 'how to improve' guides are often written with men in mind. Since men build up their upper body strength faster than woman it is much easier for them to make huge gains through a bit of strength training ling before they have developed even basic technique than it is for a woman to get to this position. I'm also hoping that I will still have some of my technique left when I return to climbing (though at this point I don't feel like I remember anything).
The first thing I have been using is a Powerball gyro (I say have been using, I have started to use it again today). You circle your hand clockwise and counter clockwise working your forearm muscles, and depending on how you hold your arm, your supper arm muscles too. The faster you circle, the tighter you have to grip, so there is some grip work there too. I mainly just use this to warm up and get some blood flowing in to my arms because attempting any finger work (even fairly gentle stuff) without warming up first is just asking for a tendon strain.
I used to use this on my way to climbing for about 10 minutes on each arm (5 minutes clockwise, 5 minutes counter clockwise) so that after some dynamic stretches I was able to hop on the wall without tearing my tendons to shreds. I can't do 10 minutes at the moment, and since my knee meas I won't be climbing anytime soon there is very little point in pushing my fingers at the moment, so I'm doing 6 minutes (3 clockwise, 3 counter clockwise), and at a more gentle pace than before. I can feel my forearm and biceps working as I do it, which is quite nice in a way, it feels like I'm doing something.
The next thing I am using is the Gripmaster Pro medium tension. I also own the heavy tension, but after a couple of months of no finger work at all the medium tension is really all I can manage at the moment. I used to use my heavy tension grip once of twice a week prior to injury. I really only bought it so I had something to do on the bus to work, because i figured this was dead time otherwise. I'm not sure how effective it is, but I think it did help my open palm holds which makes finger injuries less likely.
This Grip master allows you to practice an open palm crimp type grip, and a pinch type grip. My pinch has also been quite weak so hopefully I'll be able to build it up a bit. I am alternating hands and grip styles and holding each grip for 12 seconds (12 because I like the number 12). I'm trying to do 4 repetitions of of the crimp, and 4 or the pinch on each hand.
My aim is to use this Gripmaster before moving on the the heavy tension model, and then on to a hang board before I return to climbing. The hang board is really the best way to practice grip strength, and the only way that I think I will be able to practice slopers (which I love).
In the coming weeks I want to add in some core and upper body strength and conditioning exercises. I think the core is especially important for climbing, so I'd like to be able to get that into good shape so that (hopefully) I don't just flop all over the place. I really can't wait to return to stretching. I think that will have to wait until at least 12 weeks post op when the graft is getting stronger, but it is something that I am really going to enjoy getting back to.
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