My finger got pinched hard between a 75 and 60lb weight this morning, its swelling up and I only have motion in the first joint. Tomorrow I have Deadlifts, Squats, Calf Raises and lying leg curls planned. The only concern I have is with the deadlift grip at the moment. I'm sure its different for everyone, but how long does it usually take a bruise to recover, and any recommendations so I can continue lifting good and hard while I'm dealing with this. I included a photo for reference.

It's probably going to take a few days to heal up. If deads really give you trouble, use straps until your finger heals.

ninjaboy wrote:
It's probably going to take a few days to heal up. If deads really give you trouble, use straps until your finger heals.

Yep. I'd be surprised if it wasn't near-fully usable be this time next week. Bump up your Vitamin C intake to 1-2 grams/day (helps promote healing of bruises), use the straps, and see if a mixed grip with the bum hand supinated is any better.


Note - I just realized I said "bum hand". Being Canadian, you may think I meant "ass hand", but I meant the injured hand. ;)

Thanks for the tips!

I'm going to go get it checked, make sure there's no blood pooling, just in case I crushed every capillary in my fingertip. It's gotten a bit worse, but I think its calmed down. We'll see how the lifts go tomorrow, but it's mostly legs.

Note - Being Canadian I did assume ass hand, but its all good now.

let it heal, don't lift

What kind of east coast language do you guys use...and if it hurts, stop. You know your limitations not us.

Well, looks like the finger actually broke, undisplaced fracture, I know that it's going to take a month to heal, so the doctor says and it's splinted to my middle finger. Any good articles that discuss training with something like this? I'm gonna start looking for some.

I'd say that for your hip dominant movement for the time being, choose the back extension. It'll keep your lower back and hamstrings strong, while also giving your finger a time to rest.

Squats may not require much finger movement, but I'd do the leg press in the mean time so you dont possibly aggrivate things.

I know you were mostly concerned with the deadlift at the moment, but I'll just throw some suggestion for all your muscle groups.

For triceps, use the pushdown with open palms.

For Chest, use a cable crossover with palms open.

For biceps, use a barbell or cable (straight bar) and put most of the weight in your left hand (I presume thats the good one) while lightly wrapping your fingers of your injured hand around the bar.

Your left hand would get most of the work, but most people are dominant on the right side, so this would also be good to help with an imbalance in strength.

Back should get taken care of by the back extension.

Calves, abs, should be fine without any hand motion.

Your shoulders get work done through the compounds.

Hope this helps for the mean time and lets hope it heals soon!

~Cheers

Thanks for all the ideas Forbes!!! Definitely looking forward to seeing how the next month goes!

i broke my finger 2 weeks ago. couldn't really do much besides squats for the first week. then i taped the hell out of it and was able to deadlift this week with straps. i probably interupted the healing process, but it's just a finger i guess. you'll have to mix and match and see what u can do in the weight room. you'd probably agree that a broken finger is more annoying than painful.

I lifted with a broken finger once upon a time, scaled back pulling and mostly pressed. Muscle imballances happened.