Continued wrist pain after years of training

I've been following the gymnasticbodies courses on and off for about four years now. I've been consistent though for the last nine months. 

My main limiting factor during all of this time has been my wrists. They hurt a lot with handstand and planche work. I'm curious if there is anything I could buy that would help support my wrists. I've read some of the other forums on this subject and none of the info has been very helpful. I have been doing the handstand courses with the wrist strengthening exercises for years and I still can't do PE4 for wrist pushups because of the pain. It actually feels like it could be damaging my wrists. I've also been stuck on the mobility part of SE2 for straddle planche for the same reason.

Another forum mentioned strengthening the forearms. Rock climbing is my main sport so I have strong forearms and that has not helped. 

 

I am grateful for any and all suggestions!

Hi Chris,

Thank you for reaching out.

Firstly, I would highly recommend to seek advice from a sports physio or other medical professional. The pain you are experiencing is not something you want to push through. 

Once you have cleared things up with your physio, I'd suggest to submit form checks of all the wrist exercises in the Handstand course. 

 

I'm not trying to diagnose you, but some questions to consider:

• What is is your wrist flexion (palm towards elbow) and extension (back of hand towards elbow) like?
• With your forearm flat on a table, and with your palm also flat on the table, can you slide your fingers to the left and right without pain (your wrist bends sideways as you do this). If you get any pain when you slide your fingers towards the little finger side...that could be a problem.
• You're a climber - do static hangs off a bar give you any pain? Static hang off a bar, undergrip/supinated grip/palms towards you? What about the same grip, on rings (this is more provocative to the wrist, as the rings move).

+1 to Pauline's suggestion of seeing a physio.

If it ends up being a mobility issue,the ArmAid might be useful. I'm a massage therapist (sore all the time), and use my armaid all the time, usually before any wrist mobility and forearm stretching work. It doesn't work miracles, but it might help.

Prior to the SE2 element you mention, I go through a specific warmup sequence for wrists, all with locked elbows to maximise the tension on the wrist tendons, and to emphasise mobility through the wrists.

1. Kneel down, palms on the floor, locked elbow: 30-50 slow (2 a second) bounces on fingertips only: at the start my fingertips are on the floor, at the end all of my fingers (but not palm) are on the floor. It's like H1's fingertip walk.

2. Same position, but similar to H1's first knuckle pushup. 30-50 reps. My fingers don't leave the floor, but my palm goes up and down.

3. Same position, on hands and knees, fingers towards my knees, rocking backwards and forward. Then same, but fingers pointing away.

I don't use a lot of weight, maybe 1/4 my bodyweight, as I'm looking for mobility mainly. I hope this makes sense.

Let us know what happens.

Thanks for the responses. My flexion and extension seem good and I don't have any pain in any of the other movements that you mentioned Nicholas. I can do muscles ups all day on the rings and not have any discomfort. 

I've never seen a physio or medical professional about it because I've never had any injury to my wrists, I don't ever have pain in my wrists except for during those specific positions. Even after I do those exercises I only have pain for less than a minute and then no long-term effects.  I have small, skinny wrists so, at this point, I'm wondering if it's just how my wrists are.

One more thing I just thought of. I can do all of these exercises on parallettes without pain. Should I just start training all of them that way and keep doing minor work with my wrists to see if they adapt one day? 

Cheers!

 

Hi Chris,

I still recommend to see a medical professional about this. In the meantime you can do the exercises on parallettes to avoid further aggravation.

Please let us know how you go and feel free to post videos of your training at any time  

+1 to Pauline's suggestion. Get it looked at anyway. A specialist hand physio would be good.

This is pure speculation, but since parallettes cause you no pain, I suspect (repeat, suspect!) your forearm muscles are shortened (maybe not necessarily "tight", but unable to lengthen sufficiently due to your climbing-you probably don't climb with straight fingers....). With your fingers curled around the parallettes, the tendons in the wrists won't be on as much tension, and won't press on all the things that tendons usually slide past. Done on the floor, with the fingers straight, the exercises hold the tendons taut-they have no more ability to extend because of lack of forearm muscle length.

The wrist side-to-side stuff was to check something called the Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex, a lump of cartilage between the ulna (arm bone closes to little finger) and the bones of the wrist. I have a slight tear in mine, and every so often it just aches like hell. Anyway the physio should check this as well.

 

I actually agree with you Nic about my forearm muscles being shortened. I realized the only other time I've had wrist pain is doing a front squat, which puts my wrist in a similar position. I actually can't do a front squat with correct form unless the bar is supported by my shoulders instead of my hands/wrists. Sounds like I need to keep working the stretches and strengthening exercises in the handstand course. And one day I will probably take both of your recommendations about seeing specialist.

Thanks for the responses!