Wrist problems and false grip

[Eric Kamhi]

Well I have an old wrist thing that is starting to become painful when I do false grip muscle ups. I'm thinking it is some sort of hernia. Its a bulge of muscle that contracts and protrudes out of my wrist when I flex and force the false grip-like movement with my wrist.

Normally it is not painful but after forcing muscle ups, it gets sore, red and I'm afraid of complicating it. If I don't work on my false grip, no problem no pain. If I do sets, I get discomfort for the next few days.

So my question is regarding how this will be impacting my training. I'm 35 so not very young, and I had set myself the goal of being able to do the basic ring positions, muscle ups, planche's etc, and I don't really know how much this will affect my goals and how would this affect carryover strength in other ring positions.

Not being able to work with a false grip, I need to find better tutorials about non false grip muscle ups and how to build up to those, any pointers would be very appreciated. I really don't want to give up working muscle ups, after finally being able to crank sets of three, they are a workout that I really enjoy. However I don't think its worth forcing it and maybe having to go into surgery for something that is otherwise not problematic. Plus I never know how things would go after surgery.

The user B1214N had mentioned a form of non false grip muscle ups in another thread but it's really hard to get the movement down without videos or photos. Most of the things I come across are false grip muscle up tutorials. Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Daniel Burnham]

Well I can tell you for sure it's not a hernia. Unless you have intestines in your forearm. I would go to a doctor and find out what is wrong with your wrist. What you are describing is just swelling and the associated pain from trauma.

I would ice it to reduce swelling, and seperately do some wrist rehab stuff like rice buckets. This is not a replacement for going to a doctor though. Also you could try wrapping your wrists with athletic tape and see if that helps. I often wrap mine with athletic tape for my wrist splints.

[Eric Kamhi]

Hernia is the wrong term but I fail to find the description. The photo is pretty bad too. It is definitely not swelling. It is a lump of muscle that protrudes outward when I flex the wrist in that direction. I can contract it and relax it like any muscle and you can feel this in the lump.

I've had this protruding muscle thing for twenty years. Happened sometime in high school. No pain until I started to force this with muscle ups.

I found this thread http://www.pkire.com/thread.php?id=5656 in which the guy has exactly what I have, on the right wrist, right handed. But there seems to be no explanation and I was not able to get in contact with him to find out what was the prognosis.

[Daniel Burnham]

Ah ok. Well like I said you should definately visit your doctor. There is really know way of knowing without palpating and or scaning the area.

You can do a lot without false grip but Im willing to bet that it will hurt as you get to more wrist intensive movements like planche and most pbar stuff. For pullups pushups dips and rows, you may not have a problem. You can do no false grip muscle up but it is quite a bit harder and requires you to change your grip at the top anyway.

[Brian Li]

No false grip MUs use the same technique as false grip MUs, but just without using a false grip. It just requires more strength in the transition to pull off. A slow or no momentum MU without false grip is very hard, but you can start off with a fast and powerful pull-up to help get through the transition with some momentum and eventually decrease the speed of the pull-up as you get stronger. I recommend doing negatives of no false grip MUs and isometric holds of the transition though.

[Eric Kamhi]

Thanks B1214N. That sounds incredibly hard to pull off. I tried your suggestion of holding the transition pose without a false grip (forearms parallel to the ground) and it was quite impossible with my bodyweight. I had to go on the assisted pull up machine to add some negative weight.

Even doing proper negatives from dips to the transition is something I cannot hold without the false grip. My wrists just bend upwards, and my strength just breaks off.

[Joshua Naterman]

Could be a cyst of some sort. Could also be a problem with your retinaculum, or possible a small torn muscle that has come off the bone and is all rolled up. If MRI has been taken and nothing like any of that shows up, well... O_o no idea

If it's been there for a long time it probably isn't a bug living in your wrist...

[Eric Kamhi]

I was told is is a cyst. So Josh was right on the money.

So no real problem for false grips. I just wrap up my wrist for protection and keeping the cyst from bulging up and getting pain from rubbing against the rings and things seem back in order.

I've spaced out my muscle out training better (once a week focused training) and my wrists and elbows are in much less pain. I think it is better for me to start with this and build up intensity and load in time as I get stronger.

[Nic Branson]

It's not race. Go slow get it right and avoid the pain. Remember not to neglect mobility work. Do your wrist series...

[Eric Kamhi]

I definitely get your point. I really can't say I'm speeding through progressions. Pushing too hard usually means injury and that usually means regress instead of progress.

Over the last month or so I feel the tendons and joints adapting to the new stress. Less fatigue that carries over to the next workout. My elbows and forearms adapted to the L sit and flat tuck plance positions pretty well. I no longer get built up fatigue and pain in forearms and the elbow when I work those FSPs. And this took almost eight months.

One thing I did notice, and I had it in my mind to ask it in these forums, is that the back lever on rings with palms facing down seems to put extra pressure on my biceps and elbows (as it is meant to). On my days that I train the muscle up, I usually do the palms facing up variation of the back lever FSP, otherwise my elbows and strength is really diminished by the time I get to train muscle ups and cant really give 100%. The transition really hurts my elbows if I trained the back lever with palms facing down (which I hear is the right way to actually train the back lever). I'm guessing this will get better in time as my elbow joints slowly adapt to the stress.