Finger trouble

Can anyone shed any light on some finger trouble I have had for the
last couple of months?
The PIP (proximal inter-phalangeal) joints of the middle two fingers of
both hands are stiff and sore when I wake up in the mornings, but the
stiffness goes away very quickly when I flex them a few times. There is
no apparent swelling.
They do not seem to trouble me otherwise, unless I roller-ski hard, in
which case they are stiff and sore afterwards, which makes me think
that it is something to to do with skiing. (Though a recent 9-day break
from skiing did not help).
I use cork grips, which are much more slippery than rubber, and I hang
on the straps rather than squeezing the grips. One pole has a
wrap-around strap, and the other a simple strap, which makes me think
it is not just a matter of strap adjustment.
Has anyone else had this?
Suggested solutions (I have thought of T-grips, but not tried them
yet)?
Thanks,
Hugh

I had it numbness of the fourth and fifth. I feared ulnar nerve but
it was wrist ligaments. Nature of strap can have a lot to do with
it. Ultimately, changing to Swix pro straps probably solved it for
me more than anything else. Along the way I went to a hand specialist
twice, someone who is a downhill skier and had an inkling what the
problem might be. The second time lead to several weeks of therapy
(nice to have someone massaging one's hands). I think both times I
accepted a cortisone shot as a jump-start on therapy. I also got two
or three hand stretches from them that I still use.

rm

"Hugh P" wrote:

Can anyone shed any light on some finger trouble I have had for the
last couple of months?
The PIP (proximal inter-phalangeal) joints of the middle two fingers of
both hands are stiff and sore when I wake up in the mornings, but the
stiffness goes away very quickly when I flex them a few times. There is
no apparent swelling.
They do not seem to trouble me otherwise, unless I roller-ski hard, in
which case they are stiff and sore afterwards, which makes me think
that it is something to to do with skiing. (Though a recent 9-day break
from skiing did not help).
I use cork grips, which are much more slippery than rubber, and I hang
on the straps rather than squeezing the grips. One pole has a
wrap-around strap, and the other a simple strap, which makes me think
it is not just a matter of strap adjustment.
Has anyone else had this?
Suggested solutions (I have thought of T-grips, but not tried them
yet)?
Thanks,
Hugh

I got this same injury early in the fall and posted about it here.
Someone replied (Jay?) with the tip to grip the pole, don't hang in the
strap.

I got it, I'm fairly certain, the day after my first sizeable skate
rollerski of the season. A couple years ago I started using the cork
grips with biggish black straps on those poles--Swix SR2001.

The area between the main knuckles of one hand was sore and
weak---where the fingers meet the main-hand, between the bones. It
lasted for months, really. I'd say it's gone now, though.

But I haven't been gungho to skate rollerski since---I've done it a few
times since, gripping the pole.

I've done some classic rollerskiing, though. I have old "palm shelf"
style grips on my classic poles---no one seems to use em anymore but
I've never gotten an injury from them---they're just grips that came on
the poles.

Anyway, the injury seemed to be slow-healing.

Good luck! --JP

Not sure this will help, but I learned something interesting and
nonintuitive from an injury prevention class I took at work a few years
ago. The claim was that you get more power with less stress by
gripping almost anything with the last two fingers (pinky and ring
finger). They were talking about things like gripping a hammer, but I
started to apply it to everything I did in the sports world, like
gripping a tennis racket, ski poles, baseball bat, and it really DID
make a noticeable difference: more power, more control, and less
stress. Since your pain is in the middle finger, this type of gripping
at least should not aggravate it and may well help.

Jim

Thanks for these.
Some differences: no numbness here, and this is PIP, not knuckle (I get
a knuckle injury too, but I know that that is caused by certain design
features in gloves, and it only lasts a few days).
I will try a regime of hand stretches and piano practice before
roller-skiing and see if that helps.
Hugh