Supported Wrist Roller

[Joshua Naterman]

I have finally made my supported wrist roller video. As usual, it is probably slightly longer than it needs to be, but I have included instructions in the beginning of the video for locating the most useful parts!

This is a fantastic device for wrist prep. It can't replace Coach's liquid steel™, but this is a great addition to wrist conditioning. You can make it for almost nothing and if you set it up and use it how I explain you will have fabulous results!

I do not go into programming detail, but for those who want to know a bit more I can cover some basics here. Personally, I think that this device's primary value is its usage as a tendon recovery device. Used properly this is also absolutely irreplaceable as a strength and power tool, but that matters mostly for strongman competitors, deadlifters, grapplers and arm wrestlers. For those of us who are focused on gymnastics I believe that the preventative protocols will be the most useful.

I would use this device at the very end of the workout. Recovery/preventative protocols of this nature center around elevating local growth hormone levels so that connective tissue heals faster. Because this is the primary purpose of the protocol the load does not matter. All you are trying to do is elevate lactate levels as high as you can get them. Working one arm at a time for 45-60s and switching with no other rest is the most time and lactate-efficient way to do this. If you plan on doing this 3-4 times a week I think that 3-4 sets per arm is plenty. That should take 6-8 minutes MAX, and absolutely does not have to be done anywhere near the workout if you don't want to. This does not have to be a maximal effort, and if you want to do this more often it is important to keep the intensity lower.

For athletes who need wrist STRENGTH, I would suggest only working strength 1-2x per week. That would involve very heavy eccentrics and perhaps some concentric work. I think that the majority of concentric work would be best performed explosively, and for that reason I would primarily use concentric work as power. I don't know if that is very useful for gymnastics, but it is great for grappling as a lot of arm drags and things of that nature only work when they are extremely fast.

For our purposes here I would suggest that the wrist series we are all familiar with continue to be in the warm up, and that the recovery protocol be used 2x per week at first, perhaps Monday or Tuesday and Friday. If strength work is desired I would only do that once per week, and I would probably look at doing that on a basic strength WOD day. I would suggest ring strength day instead, but I think that for many people that is just too much wrist work in one day. I highly, highly recommend that you pick one particular WOD theme that works for you, whether it is handstand day, ring strength, max legs, or whatever, and perform wrist strength on that day only. Strength work is nearly always more productive when performed more infrequently, which is why we get such good results from the WOD template.

Anyhow, here is the video. I'm sure there will be a few questions.

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[Cole Dano]

Thanks for the detailed post slizz.

I picked up a rubber bar from Lifeline which is essentially the same thing when done as you explain for tendon strength. This helped me get past some wrist problems that wouldn't go away.

[Ryan Libke]

Cool idea, thanks for the post.

[Philip Papandrea]

Hey Slizzardman

Cool video, thanks for posting. I actually built this same setup after you mentioned it when you replied to my other post day. I never even thought of doing it with one hand. What a difference! At first I was using an 18lb kettlebell but I noticed I was able to roll much further into the false grip with my right hand than with my left. I then lowered the weight to 10lbs and was able to get the same range of motion with both hands. My left wrist must be weak. This is probably why i'm getting some pain when I try to do false grip pullups. I will stick with your recomendation of doing the wrist series in my warmup and rolls till i feel the burn after the WOD. Hopefully this combined with dropping the frogstand, doing Lsit on the floor and doing some planche leans with palms backwards will get my wrists back in good condition. Thanks

Phil