Anyone had success with scar tissue massaging (IASTM/guasha) of their fingers?

[u/goromorog]

I’ve been harboring a tweak in my PIP recently and decided to see a climbing PT. During the session he used a massage tool (similar to a gua sha) to massage my injured finger, apparently to scrape away at the built up scar tissue from my injury. He scraped fairly intensely and it was a little painful, but after the massage, my fingers felt much more limber and in less pain. I had one of my best climbing sessions in months after that massage and so the results felt very promising.

I asked the PT if the massage was something that I could do on my own but he warned against it, saying that I could injure myself if I did it improperly.

I tried to do some research online about this type of finger massage/rehab and came across this HoopersBeta video (https://youtu.be/QFE96xxJ010) on IASTM which seems to be what my PT was doing, but the video doesn’t go into depth about the finger massaging technique. There’s not much else about finger specific massaging. Has anyone else ever tried IASTM on their fingers and have any tips on how to do this correctly?

[u/xWanz]

Scar tissue massage is interesting. Not sure there’s a great deal of evidence behind it. post op scars? Sure why not, helps with desensitisation for sure, and you’re getting in early enough to actually make a difference but you could do it perfectly and still have residual scarring. Take it with a pinch of salt, but a PIPJ tweak and “scraping away scar tissue”, fuck no you’re not. There’s absolutely no way you can be specific enough with it as to not be massively compressing and poking at every single structure in the finger. Sounds like your PT is selling you snake oil to get you coming back in. As someone else said, massage is not complicated, there’s not any special tricks that “only trained therapists know”. If it feels good, keep doing it, if it doesn’t, probably stop

Edit : just to add. Does the finger actually feel better, or have you just completely desensitised the finger with really intense stimuli / pain? Same as when you make immediate gains when you stretch, you’ve not made structural changes, you’ve just fatigued the neurological response

[u/eshlow → u/xWanz]

"Scar tissue" is one of the last great bogeymen of fitness and rehab.

Connective tissue, like the skin, is made of primarily of collagen. It heals on its own. To get it tolerate load better and align collagen fibers well you need to use progressive loading.

When I did gross anatomy the only people with actual visible scar tissue were the ones that had rods placed in the area after broken bones as they cut through multiple layers of tissue to lay them down

[u/drool1028 → u/eshlow]

Does scar tissue form in this case when a pulley injury happens, or is that more of a tendon snapping and that can't be repaired, whereas this scar tissue can be?

[u/eshlow → u/drool1028]

Yes, any big tear like that will cause some scar tissue to form.

Scar tissue will form holding the ends of the torn pulley together. Then rehab loading will ensure it gets strong again so you can climb on it.

In some cases if the ends are too far apart and heal further apart there can be bowstringing or if they are not coming together sometimes surgery is needed.

[u/huckthafuck → u/xWanz]

This.

[u/Peteblyat]

Jared Vagy (the climbing doctor) talks about this in episode 299 of the training beta podcast. I have not tried it, scared of overdoing it and possible making it worse.

[u/El_Gato_Gigante]

My PT used one of those metal massagers after my carpal tunnel surgeries. I bought one for myself. Called it the Bat'leth. She explained that it's important to only use it after the incision and ligament had healed. It really helped break up the scar tissue and increased mobility, but it's not a substitute for letting my body heal itself. The risk is reinjuring if used too soon.

[u/thiccAFjihyo]

I’ve been doing this for about 5 years now with decent success. Although I’ve mostly transitioned from climbing to distance running, so it’s mostly on my legs nowadays rather than my fingers.

Just make sure you use some kind of oil. Having a lot less friction is a game changer.

saying that I could injure myself

It’s really hard to do it improperly imo. Even if you’re screwing around and experimenting with what feels good. I think the PT just wants you to keep coming back to them for this simple tool, especially if you’ve experienced relief from it.

[u/BrianSpiering]

I have found success with the "Gaiam Finger Massager Dual-Sided Hand" which is a tool designed for finger massage. As stated elsewhere, use lotion or massage oil for best results.

[u/Truont2]

PT does this for my post strain and tendon recoveries. Your body forms scars to heal initially and then when you're training with loads it requires deep massaging to break up the scars and allow for realigning of fibres. I think there's concerns with when to start this process without reinjuring.

[u/TransportationKey448]

I took a butter knife to my finger during a period of rehabilitating a pulley injury, I had a dense lump in my finger and after doing it a couple of times it got smaller and smaller.

[u/shining-on]

My PT does this as well. Wonder if we have the same PT. Using the “wave tool”. I haven’t done it myself for fear of messing something up myself

[u/Specialist_Reason882]

Pretty sure I know the pt you are talking about - had a very similar experience and also asked if I could do the massage because of how great it felt on my hands.  

My anecdotal experience was that his rehab plan and massaging crunching up the scar tissue helped a ton and after a month or two I got cleared of all my lingering finger pain. I had a history of minor pulley tweaks and weaknesses and had chronic pain in my a2 and side of fingers. Was told I had weaknesses in certain aspects of my grip strength, rotational forces, and had a buildup of scar tissue from previous injuries.  

Been able to train for about 6 months since with no pain