I guess I'm taking some time off from the gym (wrist injury)

[repoman0]

I recently started adding 3 sets of 3 power cleans to the end of squat/OHP/deadlift days because since I deloaded and fixed deadlift form, they are pretty effortless at my current weight (200lbs). One day I started power cleans at 45, moved quickly to 65, 85, 95, and found that 115 seemed like a good place to start. 3 sets of 3 were easy, though my upper-upper back was sore the next day, and I usually am not sore after workouts.

This Thursday was squat/OHP/deadlift/clean day again so I did my usual first three exercises, warmed up for power cleans at 45/95 but somehow on lowering the bar from my shoulders sometime in the first 115 set, I guess it pulled my wrist a strange way as I caught the weight on the way down. I didn't think anything of it because it didn't hurt that much and there was no obvious problem so I did another set and only then realized that it was hurt.

Fast forward to a few hours later and all day today - my wrist is fine in a neutral position, such as while typing this, and it doesn't really hurt bending it all the way forward or backward, besides from stiffness. But rotating it even a small amount kills - it feels like it's coming from that mess of tendons and ligaments near the inside of the arm at the wrist when palms are facing up, and I can't rotate my hand more than about 30 degrees before it hurts a lot. I can't lift anything at all or even turn a doorknob. Strangely, pushing on that area even with a good amount of force doesn't hurt, however. I have it wrapped up in an ace bandage, and there doesn't seem to be any swelling.

Does this sound like a sprain? Do I need to go to a doctor, or just use an ace bandage/ice/ibuprofen for a while? The pain kind of sucks but I can deal with it, I'm more concerned with how long I'll be away from the gym, and obviously preventing any permanent injury.

I might add that I screwed up the same wrist once before - Same sharp pain, and I just used an ace bandage for a couple weeks as treatment. That time I took a fall at the bottom of a hill on my road bike as I tried to turn around a corner that was covered in gravel; I broke the fall with my hand. After it healed it felt perfectly fine and had the same range of motion as before without any pain. That was a couple years ago and I don't remember if it was worse or better than this time around, but I do know that I finished another ~15 miles of the ride without it hurting that bad - it took a little while for pain to set in just like on Thursday.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

It could be a sprain, strain, damage to one of the bones in the wrist, or damage to the cartilage. If you find a picture of a wrist and circle the area, I could give you a bit more info. How long has it been since the pain started? If it lasts longer than 2 weeks, go get a prescription for physical therapy, as that will be able to help you pretty easily, I'd gander. Your history of injury isn't really a surprise because it probably wasn't rehabbed in the first place (not your fault, things sometimes just don't heal well).

Inflammation, especially directly post-injury, is fine for about 3-7 days. I'd suggest not taking NSAIDs because they can negatively affect collagen deposition and reduce your overall recovery. Definitely avoid positions and activities that bother it and see if it's improving by about day 5. You can wrap it in the meantime for some compression and stabilization to see if that helps. Like I said, if it's not feeling much better in about 2 weeks or if that pain gets to be too much, go get a prescription for physical therapy (if that's necessary for your insurance to reimburse for it) or just go see a PT (if that's not necessary).

Honestly, lowering the weight during a power clean is pretty harsh on the ligaments and wrist extensors so I'd think it's a strain or sprain. Those can be pretty easily rehabbed most of the time.

 

[repoman0]

It only just happened on Thursday, and though it still hurts a good amount (6/10?) when I rotate my hand, it's much better than it was yesterday when I wrote the OP, and it's up to probably 60-75 degrees rotation before it hurts. I took a picture and circled two things - the longer circle on the left is a tendon (ligament?) that seems protruding and stiff compared to the other wrist. Under the other circle I can feel a bump that I can shift back and forth without pain - not there on the other side either. It's hard to tell where the pain comes from when I twist my hand - I think it's coming from the longer circle on the left but it's hard to tell. Also if I push on the left circle in the right way I can rotate my hand all the way clockwise pretty pain free; as I release the pressure it hurts more correspondingly. I can put pressure anywhere on the wrist and it hardly hurts (1-2/10).

http://imgur.com/dMrsL

Thanks for the reply. I'll see how it feels in a few days - judging from the difference between yesterday and today it seems like it will be pretty much better in a couple weeks.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

In that area, you have a bone called the pisiform that moves pretty readily. Just wait it out a little bit and, like I said, avoid activities that cause pain. See how it improves over the next few days.

 

[repoman0]

Great thanks. It feels a lot better, range of motion is up to over 90degrees and it doesn't hurt as bad when it hits the end of that range. Hopefully I'll be back sooner than I thought!

 

[the DRIZZLE]

I really hate not being able to drop the bar on cleans. That's part of the reason I hardly ever do them. I know people debate this a lot but I think lowering the weight is just inviting injury.

 

[repoman0]

I really hate not being able to drop the bar on cleans. That's part of the reason I hardly ever do them. I know people debate this a lot but I think lowering the weight is just inviting injury.

Why can't you drop the bar? I was confused about whether to lower the weight or drop it because everyone I see doing them at my gym lowers it but most places online say to drop it. Also my gym has a "no intentionally dropping weight" policy so I didn't want to break the rules.

Is there a way to do power cleans with lowering vs dropping weight correctly to prevent injury? Or when I want to start doing them again, should I find a new place that allows dropping it from the shoulders?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Why can't you drop the bar? I was confused about whether to lower the weight or drop it because everyone I see doing them at my gym lowers it but most places online say to drop it. Also my gym has a "no intentionally dropping weight" policy so I didn't want to break the rules.

Is there a way to do power cleans with lowering vs dropping weight correctly to prevent injury? Or when I want to start doing them again, should I find a new place that allows dropping it from the shoulders?

You need bumper plates to be able to actually drop the weights - you can't just use any normal weight. Also, lowering the weight is fine if you're not doing high rep cleans. You'll need to be at the appropriate level prior to doing it (i.e. well healed, able to use it for all other lifts pain free, etc), but it should be fine. Dropping it from the shoulder every time is unnecessary. Some of the strength gains are due to the eccentric control of lowering it. Start with lower reps and with lowering it and work your way back to normal when you get to that stage.

 

[SandEagle]

SociallyChallenged, you deserve to be a mod here in the HF forums. i commend you for providing consistently sound advice.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

SociallyChallenged, you deserve to be a mod here in the HF forums. i commend you for providing consistently sound advice.

Agreed

 

[SociallyChallenged]

SociallyChallenged, you deserve to be a mod here in the HF forums. i commend you for providing consistently sound advice.

Thanks, appreciate it. Dunno what I'd do differently with mod-dom though

 

[repoman0]

SociallyChallenged, you deserve to be a mod here in the HF forums. i commend you for providing consistently sound advice.

Agreed, I've gotten great advice from Mr. SociallyChallenged a bunch of times!

Anyway I was considering going back to the gym tomorrow, wrist feels a whole lot better but is not 100% so I think I've decided not to push it and wait until the weekend or next week.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Thanks, appreciate it. Dunno what I'd do differently with mod-dom though

Crush your enemies and hear the lamentation of their women and children.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Agreed, I've gotten great advice from Mr. SociallyChallenged a bunch of times!

Anyway I was considering going back to the gym tomorrow, wrist feels a whole lot better but is not 100% so I think I've decided not to push it and wait until the weekend or next week.

Also, work your way back up to your exercises. Start at about half the weight of normal, and increase the reps. Let pain be your guide - if it hurts, don't do it. Each session/week, add more weight and decrease reps.

 

[repoman0]

Thanks again SociallyChallenged. I went to the gym today and did an easy 5x10 benches at 95lbs which felt fine. Squats at 155 (a few less than where I was before since I haven't been in a while) were perfectly fine too since they really don't require any wrist movement.

But, I couldn't do more than a few BB rows at even 65lbs, about half my old weight. Failure.

Anyway I'm starting to get a bit concerned because the tendon/ligament under the long circle in that picture is still protruding and about twice the thickness of the one in the other wrist. Also I can feel it until about halfway down my forearm where the other one goes away at my wrist. I don't know if it's thicker because it's stronger from playing guitar for nearly 10 years or if it's messed up. Any insight?

Edit: I should mention that it seems like it's connected to my pinky which has definitely gained a lot of strength from guitar, it's possibly that I've just never noticed before and am overreacting

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Honestly, tendons that get used more tend to be bigger. I wouldn't worry too much about it, unless the area around it is soft is swollen. In that case, it would just signify inflammation. I don't think that's the case though because that's not evident in the initial picture.

 

[repoman0]

Awesome, thanks again. The wrist is very close to having full range of motion back already but there's still a sharp pain if I turn it too much. On Tuesday I squatted 160, backed down to 85 on the press just in case, and went straight back to 200 on deadlift, which doesn't irritate it somehow.

I'll start power cleans again on squat/OHP/deadlift days in a few weeks. Any tips for avoiding this nonsense next time?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Awesome, thanks again. The wrist is very close to having full range of motion back already but there's still a sharp pain if I turn it too much. On Tuesday I squatted 160, backed down to 85 on the press just in case, and went straight back to 200 on deadlift, which doesn't irritate it somehow.

I'll start power cleans again on squat/OHP/deadlift days in a few weeks. Any tips for avoiding this nonsense next time?

Make sure you move your wrist through its full range 30x a couple times per day. That should enable you to keep the motion. Doing wrist curls/extensions might be good too (lighter weights of course - not pushing it with the wrist). Glad to hear it's feeling better. It will still take some time to heal. It's not quite perfect, but it sounds like it's getting better.

 

[repoman0]

I've been doing the suggested wrist rotations, and did 5x10 65lb rows last Friday and 5x8 95lb rows today (all other lifts feel perfectly fine). It pretty much feels fine now and I should be back up in the 135 range for rows on Saturday, can't wait!

Thanks again for all your help, it has definitely been valuable for not screwing something up further during recovery. And maybe I'm crazy, but the low weight, high rep stuff seemed to really promote healing, especially the 5x10 rows last week - they were a little uncomfortable to do but it felt much better than usual the next day.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I've been doing the suggested wrist rotations, and did 5x10 65lb rows last Friday and 5x8 95lb rows today (all other lifts feel perfectly fine). It pretty much feels fine now and I should be back up in the 135 range for rows on Saturday, can't wait!

Thanks again for all your help, it has definitely been valuable for not screwing something up further during recovery. And maybe I'm crazy, but the low weight, high rep stuff seemed to really promote healing, especially the 5x10 rows last week - they were a little uncomfortable to do but it felt much better than usual the next day.

Kudos to you for being persistent. The light stuff really helps promote blow flow, flushes out inflammatory compounds, induces collagen synthesis (and therefore healing), tensions collagen so fibers form in the line of stress (which is optimal), etc. You've been doing a good job. I'm glad to hear you're feeling better.