My finger

Hey, so it's been awhile since I've posted on here and wanted to give everyone an update on what happened with the finger. I had a bone growth coming off the most distal joint of the left index finger. It was around for six months or so, and then it started hurting after workouts that used any sort of grip. At first it was just deadlifts, but eventually it included pull-ups and any barbell oriented workout. So, I got it x-rayed and it turned out to be some sort of calcified mass attached to the bone. I had it excised a week ago and just got the biopsy report today.

The mass was: Tenosynovium tissue with Fibrocartilaginous Metaplasia and Calcifications

Doc said a few things about the diagnosis, but the interesting thing he mentioned was that this sort of reaction (spontaneous bone growth at the joints) may be caused by joint stress. I'm mentioning this because I think it has to do with the way I held the bar when doing deadlifts. Towards the end of a set of deadlifts with a normal grip, The bar would slip down my fingers until it was literally being held up by the most distal joints on my fingers. I'm guessing that this was the main source of stress to the joints. So, be careful when you do those deadlifts that you've got a full grip on the bar and you aren't just holding it with the tips of your fingers!

That aside, I just got my splint taken off today. I can't properly bend the finger just yet (and I've still got some stitches in it) but I should be able to start some basic squatting soon. Man, I've been missing it. Anyway, that about wraps it up.

Adaptation

I was reading some literature on the compressive loads experienced by the spine during deadlifts when I came across some interesting data from a study by Granhed et al. (1987). They calculated loads on the L3 vertebrae of experienced powerlifters (all of the lifters in the study were pulling over 200 kg, with a few over 300 kg). What I found interesting was that the authors reported the the annual lifting tonnage from the lifters' training records. I've re-plotted the data below:
This is essentially Granhed et als third figure, although I've switched the axes to reflect my belief in the causal variable, and included the weights for the lifters and data for control subjects.

The data isn't exactly surprising, and there's good evidence that resistance-exercise makes bone stronger (Suominen, 1993). Of course, the study was cross-sectional, so it's unclear how much increase in bone mineral content these lifters saw over the course of their individual training. It's entirely possible that only lifters with strong spines ever manage to lift a lot of weight over the course of a year, and that they experienced little or no adaptation in bone density from lifting heavy weights. Undoubtedly, this bias exists to some degree; the deadlift is an incredible selective pressure after all (I can count on one hand the number of people I've seen deadlift in my gym over 2 years; ok, that's true only if I exclude the Crossfitters, otherwise I would need two hands). Nevertheless, data from longitudinal studies in athletes suggests that increases in bone density are indeed related to training, suggesting that the above plot isn't entirely correlational.

Oh, and the forces on the lumbar spine during the conventional deadlift? No surprise, they are huge, and the worse your form, the more force you are exposing your spine to. Calculated loads for competitive powerlifters exceed 20 kilonewtons. Climbers will recognize that this is close to the rated strength of many carabiners.