injury from planche

hi everyone!

i am new to this forum, but it looks like there are a lot of competent bodyweight athletes here. ive been doing bodywaight exercises for about two years now and i just discovered coach sommers book; building the gymnastics body witch i found really interresting. therefor i have decided to change the fokus of my training and to try and follow a few of the principles found in the book.

the first thing i have to adress is a injuriy i have been dealing with, and i hope some of you could help me.

ive been training for planche for a while and i found som tutorials where people recomendet that i did the following exercise;

lay on the floor with your feet toutvhing the wall. putt your hands besides your hip and walk up the wall to a handstand. then slide down to a planche using the wall as support. i 45 degrees angle on my wrists.

i did this for a few month, and everytime i felt a sting in my forearm after letting go. i thought at the time that this was fine, but after a while it started to hurt after the exercise as well. looking back i hunderstand that the reason probably was inmobility in my wrists, and this exercise forces your wrist in a position that it might nok be able to hold. 

the pain is located along the bone that goes from elbow to the pinky finger side of the wrist. 

i still train planches but now i have to have the fingers pointing towards my toes while training it. and i now fokus on leans and flat tuck variations that mye wrist feels comfertable with. the only movements that really hurts are; planche with hands 45 deg angle, backlever with narrow neutral grip, and some random movements with hands in an awkward position(tried biceps curls with a friend once and that hurt like hell). 

what could this be? i cant really afford to go to physio. and should i stop training for a while or is it just fine as long as i do stuff that doesent hurt( or hurt too mutch)?. its been going on since last summer. it has been getting a bit better though after i started stretching my wrists/forearms.

sounds like forearm splints to me. i encountered the same problem the first time i started playing around with tuck planches. lots of rest, lots of wrist-flexor-stretching and lots of wrist-extensor-strengthening helped me getting rid of it.

If I was you I would scale it way back. Definitely don't do hands backwards unless you have already seriously prepped your elbows to handle the load or you will get more Injury. Foundation series would solve all your problems but if you for what ever reason dont want to do it or can't afford it then it used to be recommended to build up some sets of 30 second planche leans and then have a good minute holding previous progressions with maximum protraction before going to the next exercise.

thank you for answers!

ausswe said:

If I was you I would scale it way back. Definitely don't do hands backwards unless you have already seriously prepped your elbows to handle the load or you will get more Injury. Foundation series would solve all your problems but if you for what ever reason dont want to do it or can't afford it then it used to be recommended to build up some sets of 30 second planche leans and then have a good minute holding previous progressions with maximum protraction before going to the next exercise.

my elbows are actually pretty strong as i have gradually adjusted planche lean, and tucked plance for the last 8 months so that i dont get an elbow injury, and i always fokus a lot on straight arm strength in my other excercises. i can probably hold a tucked for 30sec and a flat tuck for about 10sec(on a good day) with hands facing backward. 

DieKatze said:

sounds like forearm splints to me. i encountered the same problem the first time i started playing around with tuck planches. lots of rest, lots of wrist-flexor-stretching and lots of wrist-extensor-strengthening helped me getting rid of it.

i have done a lot of wrist-flexor-stretching and some wrist-extensor-strengthening the last months as you mentioned and i can now do tucked planches with hands 45 deg without it hurting, but it hurts if i lean more.

so you really think i have to take it easy? really sucks to slow things down when you are making great progress, but off course, i dont want to risk getting chronicle issues. 

Having to stop training due to an injury is much, much worse than having to slow down.

Back off for a weeks or two - ease up the volume, add in more stretching, give your wrist frequent massages, use a rice bucket, and use a hot-pad on it. 

To really prepare your wrists for planche work, I recommend the wrist prep in H1

thanks guys! i guess theres nothing to do but to slow things down.