Advice requested concerning returning wrist pains.

[Geoffrey Wielingen]

In the past 1.5 years, I have been suffering of a wrist injury, that does not seem to get better permanently. I do not remember what started it, but I think that it I did some front squats after which my wrist started hurting. I have attached a picture that shows where it hurts. It mainly hurts in the middle of the wrist and near the thumb area and mostly during flexion. During the most painful periods it will also hurt during wrist extension.

The first few months after my wrist started hurting, I rested a lot, however the pains only got worse. I went to a physiotherapist for treatment, but his treatment had no effect. It was not until I started playing with frog stands, that I felt that the pain was getting less, up until at some point I thought my wrist was cured.

A few months later I started working on my master thesis and the pain returned again. I think it was owing to not too ideal computer work conditions combined with less training. I tried consulting a second physiotherapist, but his treatment also did not work. Afterwards I tried resting again, but resting only made it worse. So I started with frog stands again and the wrist pain got less, however it never got to the point at which it never bothered me.

Some more months later F1 was released. Doing F1 work did not bother my wrist much, but it also did not do much to heal it. It was not until I tried H1 wrist work that my wrist started feeling better. At first, the first one or two set did hurt a little, but after the third set, most of the pains were gone. After about 1.5 weeks of doing the wrist work every day, my wrists felt like they were in top shape again.

About two weeks ago I started an internship that requires a lot of programming. In order to save time in my F1 workouts I limited the H1 wrist work to only the H1 days. And again I can feel the pain coming back. I am paying more attention to wrist position while typing, and notice that the pain is reduced almost immediately after a few sets of H1 wrist work. Also wrapping my wrist at night seems to be helping a lot as well.

The fact that the wrist pain keeps on returning tells me that my wrist is either not healing completely or something I am doing keeps reinjuring it. I am hesitant to consult another physiotherapist since I have already consulted two physios in the past year and none of their suggestions have really helped. I feel that doing the H1 wrist work seems to be helping, however the first few sets of mainly wrist pushups are quite painful, even if afterwards the pain is greatly diminished. Should I stop doing the H1 wrist work? Since resting or less training seems to be correlated with pain, I would like to continue working the wrist. If I should stop H1 wrist work, what should I replace it with? And what else I should do or who I should consult next to finally cure my wrist?

[Coach Sommer]

With all of the typing that I do, I have found the following very helpful; intermittedly doing finger flexions with rubber bands around the tips of your fingers whenever you are doing computer work. I place a 1/2 twist in the rubber band in between each finger to better isolate each digit. Work each hand separately.

Examples of exercises:

- completely open all the fingers and hold for 60 seconds

- open and close the fingers against load 10 times (1, 2 or even 3 rubber bands)

- hold an individual finger up for time (with the hand placed on a flat surface)

- lifts (flexions) with an individual finger (with the hand placed on a flat surface)

- flexions with paired alternating fingers at the same time (thumb and middle, index and ring, middle and little)

- elevated holds for time with individual finger

- elevated holds for time with paired alternating fingers

Performing the same with a rice bucket may also be helpful, but not nearly as convenient during desk patrol.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[José Ignacio Varela Suárez]

Very interesting. Would it be useful for a dorsal wrist impingment? I have been doing a lot of mobility work but  I still have pain. Of course, I have cutting all axial load work.

Are all theese exercises made with normal rubber bands? or are they special for fingers?

 

Thank you 

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

Good advice.

 

I work 8-10 min in the rice bucket every day & it helps my wrists a lot (they are a bit damaged from impact, locks, etc...)

For the past 4 weeks, I was unable to follow my routine (renovating the home gym/dojo), and I feel it.

 

Heat cream works well for me too, but I am using the extra spicy one.

[Geoffrey Wielingen]

I guess I will be in the office shop tomorrow for some rubber bands and in the asian store for a bag of rice! Thanks for the advice!

[Graham Smith]

I saw a rehab device once which was essentially a ball with rubber bands attached, whereby you loop your fingers through the bands and then alternate squeezing the ball, and then stretching the bands, so that you encounter resistance with both opening and closing the grip.  I can't remember where I saw it, so if anyone could direct me to something similar that would be awesome.  Very handy to have sitting on the desk at work.

[Blairbob]

http://www.roguefitness.com/hand-x-band.php

[Sean Whitley]

Reviving an old thread. I think the thing Primate mentions is called the Metolius Grip Saver, marketed at climbers.
http://www.bananafingers.co.uk/metolius-grip-saver-plus-p-106.html

I've considered getting one in the past, but it seems pretty expensive for what i could do with a tennis ball and an elastic band separately 

[Ciaran Regan]

The metolius grip saver breaks pretty easily.