A question about wrists and elbows

Hello all,

First i would like to thank Coach Sommer for his articles, that along with Jim Barthurst's Beastskills gave a new direction to my training.

Now let's get to buissness. I have a question about wrists, after doing a tuck plance on the floor, with fingers pointing forward, my right wrist started to hurt and never really stopped (it hurts for ~6 weeks causing a 6 week pause in HS and HSPU training :<) now I didn't go to the doctor because there is no swelling and I can move the wrist freely, the pain only occurs when I'm extending my wrist to ~90 degrees (a handstand for example) and pressing. the thing is that somewhere in the past (6+ years ago) I had a bone fracture in the wrist. I wonder if this might be the case or did any of You guys experienced the same.

the second question concerns elbows, when i am doing the front lever, well, the advanced tuck with more extended legs to be precise, skin the cat, or especially the back lever (one legger) I'm experiencing significant stress and some pain in the elbows which lasts for some time after the exercise. And I'm always keeping my arms straight.

I don't have anybody else to ask cause noone I know deals with such exercises.

I know that in order for You to answer these questions You might need my training history, so I'm working out for quite some time now, first for a long time (about a year I think) I did pull ups and push ups on knuckles on a daily basis, them I have thrown iron in the gym for also a year (with wrist curls being my bread and butter) I also climb (about 2 times a week, for almost a year now, this enabled me to do adv tuck front lever for example) I am albe to do 15 consecutive full range pull ups and 20 chin ups with ease, 1 hand frenchies, 12+ dips, and a muscle up, given all that it is hard for me to explain the reason behind the pain during front and back levers.

Thanks for bothering to read through this load of text :>

Chris.

Your dip numbers are a bit low compared to your other numbers. A dip is very important in developing bent arm push strength and strengthening the elbow area. Your pull strength sounds good and you can do a muscle up but 20 pullups and 12 dips tell me there is a muscular imbalance there.

Your wrists are just not used to the load. Lay off or work on parallettes ( even this can be tough ). Too much, too soon probably.

You also could have some angle in your elbows where they do not have natural hyperextension but actually round in.

Gymnastics training can be very intense and chances are you will experience joint pain here and there on many different occcasions . No way around it, when it happens try to find a work-around, and if you can't, back off for a while. training through joint pain will make it progressively worse. Elbows hurting? Try keeping them straight but not hyperextended. Still hurts? Back off. For the wrists try the paralettes or the cheap pushup grips with the slant. If it still hurts go do something else that doesn't hurt for a while, like lifting weights.

thanks for Your replyes,

I know i have a muscular imbalance, (it's due to climbing and insufficient training of the antagonists) i will work towards eliminating it.

however I have a problem with that hyperextension thingie, namely when I straighten my elbows to the max they point outwards, meaning that my arm is not completly straight (is that hyperextension?), from what i know it's a common feature, during levers should i keep my hands in a straight line or straightend to the maximum ?

I presume that the pain in elbows is due the nature of the exercise to which my body is not yet accustomed

Once again thanks for Your advice and time

Chris

Training dips , HSPU's, and planche progressions I have always found to be extremely helpful in my climbing. Mainly there are times when it is useful to be pushing on a hold below you. Also, I found that when my muscular imbalances were at there worst, I had tendon issues in my elbow and shoulders which caused me to be weaker and tire out easily.

thanks for Your imput meep

I certainly will train these skills (for the time being the front lever, straddle planche, 1 arm handstand and the flag are my dream skills, apart from climbing 5.12 ofc :> ) as soon as i get rid of that pain in my damn wrist, which is a real problem for me

Check the following essay for some ideas on wrist conditioning:

http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewto ... ?p=270#270

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Chris, it sounds like you identified the culprit of your pain. Your hyperextended elbows are going to recieve a lot of pressure during any of the static holds.

I would not say it's the norm in gymnastics, but there is prevalence for it.

It's been discussed before that this is due to a lack of bent arm strength development over just straight arm strength development. I see this hyperextended elbows naturally in many youths ( who tend to be very weak in their push strength ).

Thank You for Your advice and time,

I already read that article Coach and I will include wrist strenghtening in my traning as soon as the pain stops, guess that nobody experienced a pain like this (lasts ~6-7weeks now, but fortunately its getting weaker now), now I only need to sort out that hyperextension thingie

If the elbow hyper-extension continues to be a significant issue, you will need to set the straight arm elements aside temporarily and focus on increasing your bent arm strength in order to better protect your vulnerable elbow joint.

I would not be overly concerned about this; there have been many fine gymnastics champions who have had hyper-extended elbows (i.e. Vladimir Artemov, 1988 Olympic Champion). The pertinent issue here is increasing your bent arm strength to sufficiently protect those elbows.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks Coach