The Pulley Tweak and the Long Way Back
June 2, 2026 · 2 min read
On the last day of April I pulled hard on a two-finger pocket, heard nothing, felt nothing much, and woke up the next morning with the base of my right ring finger swollen and tender to press. Not the pop that people describe for a full pulley rupture, so I am calling it a tweak, probably a partial strain of the A2 pulley. Bending the finger was fine; loading it in a crimp was not.
I did the sensible thing for once and did not climb for twelve days. Then I did the thing that I think actually helped, which was to start loading the finger gently rather than resting it completely. From day thirteen I did light hangs on the biggest edge of the hangboard with both feet on the floor taking most of my weight, three sets of ten seconds, every other day. It ached a little during and not at all afterwards, which I took as the line to stay below.
Over the following three weeks I gradually took weight off my feet until I was hanging freely on the large edge, then moved to the 20 mm edge with feet on the floor again. Climbing came back at the same time but only on big holds and jugs: slab, juggy overhangs, nothing I had to crimp. It was dull. I did a lot of downclimbing and a lot of easy volume, and my technique on bad feet quietly improved because that was all I could work on.
Five weeks in, the swelling is gone and I can crimp on the 20 mm edge at bodyweight for ten seconds without complaint. I am still taping the base of the finger with a single loop of 1.5 cm tape, less for support than as a reminder not to pull on pockets. Full crimping on small holds is still off the list until the end of June.
The lesson I want to remember is that the finger did not fail on a hard move; it failed on a move I had done before, at the end of a long session, when I was tired and pulling badly. The next injury will come from the same place if I let it.