help on exercising during wrist injury

[theglue]

recently i injured my wrist, most likely through overuse and over-extending during various planche progression exercises. although i am still waiting on an appointment time to open up to get my wrist checked out by a professional, im pretty sure it's a form of tendonitis and that i will not be able to use my wrist heavily for awhile. thus, im interested in knowing if there are any alternative exercises i can perform while my wrist recovers that can minimize the losses ill be incurring during my recovery period, so that everything iv worked on for the planche doesnt regress too heavily during that time.

i find it strange that my wrist is injured, since in recent weeks i've cut back planche progression exercises to about 3 times a week, with my workouts kept extremely brief and dispersed throughout the day. maybe i just placed too much stress on my wrists each time i was on the ground and my body was unable to recover in time, but i allowed for a generous amount of rest between exercises and workout days, so it still strikes me as strange. iv felt a bit of discomfort in the past, but merely assumed that advancing in these exercises required you to push yourself into unnatural-feeling positions until your body adapted to the stress.

also, will i be able to keep working on body lever progressions with an injured wrist? my wrist hurts too much if bent too far either way, particularly forwards, and the levers dont bend your wrists much, though i suppose tey do place a fair amount of stress on all joints. any suggestions or advice? again, my main concern is to keep myself in shape while my wrist recovers, so that i wont have to backtrack when i return in full force. thanks!

[Coach Sommer]

It is always wisest to discontinue the suspected exercise as soon as a joint issue raises its head. For example, if as we begin pommel horse one of my students says that one of his wrists is feeling sore, there will be no pommel horse training that day. Yes, it will set us back a day's training or perhaps even several days, but that is a far cry short of having to rest for several months due to chronic tendonitis if he continues to "man up" and push through the pain. Most often an issue like this will resolve itself with only a few days rest if action is taken immediately; e.g. avoid the exercise/skill causing the issue, treat inflammation, as well as more stretching and prehab/rehab work.

You may find the following threads helpful:

Re: Frequency & Timing of Join Preparation/Flexibilty work

Slow and Steady is the Path to Success

Wrist Pushups

There are also many other threads available regarding joint health and the appropriate preparation through the search function.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[theglue]

thanks for the reply coach! i wasn't expecting a response directly from The coach sommer =P with that said, i've gone through everything i could get my hands on regarding wrist and overall joint preparation, including the articles youv provided links to, so that i can adequately warm my wrists up beforehand and avoid another injury in the future. what i was interested in finding out was something i didnt really see mentioned anywhere, which was whether were were any exercises i could do to stay in shape or in the very least slow muscle atrophy while i waited for my wrist to recover, ie any engaging exercises for the upper body that dont involve wrist work. for example, lately i've been doing a form of pushup where i have my arms over my head, elbows about eye level, and i push off with my weight on my forearms. the ROM is pretty small, but i am just a beginner in terms of bodyweight exercises so the load is significant enough on my shoulders. i dont know how effective that exercise is, but i just described it to give you an example of what im aiming for here. of course, with my right wrist minorly injured iv been focusing on conditioning my lower body more, but it would still be nice to have the option to work everything out.

also, a question regarding your wrist workouts. are the wrist pushups, dorsal pushups and first knuckle pushups enough to effectively ensure against wrist injuries if worked correctly, or are there other necessary movements that are missing? doubtless, your warmup routine is composed of much more than those three exercises, but i was just wondering, if i were to do a stripped down version of your warmup routine, would those three exercises be sufficient? any input would be priceless, thanks!