Another wrist pain question

[Craig Miles]

Hi all,

I'm getting a pain in my wrist when my palm is flat on the floor in pushup position. The pain occurs when weight is put on the big fleshy pad at the base of the thumb. The pain is *felt* on the back of the wrist and a little on the thumb side of the wrist.

It is not really noticeable if holding bars or rings.

Any thoughts on what it might be and how to fix it?

Regards,

Craig.

[Graham Smith]

Craig, No recommendation here, just a warning. I was experiencing mild ulnar sided wrist pain episodically during my training when in support positions. It would get worse if I was doing mushroom training, but if I backed off for a week or two it would get better. I figured that maybe it was an old injury from my youth, or a weakness that would come good in time. In December 2008 while I was experiencing mild discomfort in that wrist, I trained handsprings and the pain suddenly intensified. I was forced to stop training. Subsequently I had every kind of diagnostic test on the wrist available, X-Ray, Ultrasound, MRI, Bone Scan. Cortisone shot was ineffective. I had exploratory arthroscopic surgery in August 2009 with a bit of shaving of the TFCC. The bad news was that the surgeon did not find a root cause. The good news is that the surgery at the very least transferred the pain away from the Ulna. It is now April 2010 and I am only just getting back to being able to do pushups, although it still causes pain in the back of the wrist. I can hold a handstand for about 10 seconds before the load becomes too much. I am confident that the pain I am experiencing post surgery will recede with further conditioning, as it has been to date, although slowly.

Wrists are important, complex, and fragile. If you are in any doubt whatsoever, back off from your training and consult a sports medicine physician. It's better to be cautious than to set your training back 18 months!

Regards,

Primate.

[Craig Miles]

Hi,

Thanks for the warning. I've stopped doing any training where I feel the pain in my wrists at the moment.

If it doesn't come good in a few days I'll see the doctor - unfortunately I don't think we have any sports specialists around here.

Regards,

Craig.

[Amebix138]

Are you doing any wrist prehab like wrist push ups or rice bucket training? If not it would help to start.

[Craig Miles]

I've started doing wrist curls (palm up and palm down), wrist levers and rotations (with a dumbell with weight on just one end).

Also wrist pushups but can't handle much weight on that. Isometrics for the finger extensors. Plus some light stretching.

However I only started these exercises after the pain had already begun so...

Regards,

Craig.