Wrist sprain/strain.. what can I do?

[nixium]

So I did a search on this forum and I found a bunch of posts with people having Wrist sprain/strain because of a bad day at the gym. Those threads never really ended with what exactly they did while their wrist was healing, so I thought to write this one up to figure out an optimal set of exercises.

Background:

I was doing chin ups about three weeks before to failure and must have done something wrong in the last set, because the side of my left wrist hurts. Oddly, only while doing supinated movements (like curls and chin ups.) I can do pronated grip exercises OK (like pull downs.) Either way, I decided to take a few weeks off because these things look like they take time to heal. The pain isn't bad enough to warrant a doctor (I think) and I've been taking ibuprofen recently.

It's taking forever to heal.. and totally derailed my exercise program. I still feel slight pain when I twist my wrist in certain directions, so I'm giving it more time.

Here's a bunch of workouts that I think are possible for the next month till my wrist heals.

General:

Arm workouts (I understand using the good arm helps in neuro muscular co-ordination in the bad arm)

Curls/kickbacks/lateral raises (low weight, high rep - 12..14 range)

Chest/back -

Chest/Back fly machine (this one doesn't involve your wrists. There's a little pad that you rest your entire forearm on, so that your arm is bent at a 90 degree angle at your elbows.)


Legs

Leg press (I hate this thing, but holding a bar for squatting seems wrist related)
Leg curls/extensions (ditto)

Core

Back Extensions
Crunches/reverse cruches
Planks

Cardio:

Running (preparing for an 8K end of May)
HIIT?


Any other ideas? I'd like to avoid Air Squats, lunges etc simply because they're cardio and my running would give me plenty of that.

My goal is overall fitness. I'm 180 and about 25% body fat, so another goal is to get that reduced (That's really by diet cleanup tho, so somewhat out of scope here.)

 

[Zivic]

from my experience it is never good to work through an injury. take the needed time off to fully recover. If you don't, the injury will become chronic and affect you much longer than it would have had you taken the needed time off -> I am speaking from experience.

If your goal is to loose weight, you need to be in control of your diet... that is 90% of it. other than that, I have had a lot of success doing HIIT. 15-20 minutes a day is plenty if done with proper intensity....and again, eating clean is the biggest factor. The HIIT will help you retain what muscle you do have vs doing standard running for cardio. Try to get in to the gym to lift. any additional muscle you can put on will help the weight loss, but as noted, rest any injuries

edit:
I don't really want to critque your workout as I don't know exactly what you can handle right now, but I will say I highly recommend free weights and compound lifts:
bench > any chest machine
Squats > leg press
Squats > leg extension machine
stiff leg dead lifts > leg curl machine

Do what you can, and don't do things that aggravate the injury

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Does it hurt when you supinate (without moving the at the wrist)?

 

[nixium]

Does it hurt when you supinate (without moving the at the wrist)?

I can grip the bar (supinated) just fine, really tight and there's no pain. When I lift (say curl) is when the pain starts.. and gets worse and worse the greater the reps (without moving the wrist.) Suppose I do pushups (where the wrist is bent a little bit) I still feel the pain. I'm guessing it's a sprain at the tendon and not a strain (pulled muscle.) Have you had experience with something like this?

And I say wrist, but it's really the left side of my left hand.


Oddly, pronated grip doesn't hurt the same. I tried pull downs (haven't tried a pull up yet.)

 

[nixium]

On a side note, this was the last f*cking thing I thought would derail me from my program. These little joints and things are so taken for granted.

Heck, a broken thumb pretty much ensures that you can't do SS or stronglifts. And thats like a 2 inch segment of you body.

 

[power_hour]

Had the same problem.I ended up using heat in the morning /cold compresses in the evening for about a week. Also had some massage therapy from the fitness trainer in school. Even on off days, you need to wrap it tight and get the blood going on it. Stretch as much as you can but stay off it for the most part.

Once you feel good again, build up your wrists more. Wrist curls, stretches and keeping it wrapped. Takes time. Measure them and if you don't see progress go get an examine/ex-ray because its probably still injured.

Cheers,

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I can grip the bar (supinated) just fine, really tight and there's no pain. When I lift (say curl) is when the pain starts.. and gets worse and worse the greater the reps (without moving the wrist.) Suppose I do pushups (where the wrist is bent a little bit) I still feel the pain. I'm guessing it's a sprain at the tendon and not a strain (pulled muscle.) Have you had experience with something like this?

And I say wrist, but it's really the left side of my left hand.


Oddly, pronated grip doesn't hurt the same. I tried pull downs (haven't tried a pull up yet.)

You're probably right that it's more of a tendon issue than a muscle strain, especially due to its location. You said the left side of your wrist hurts... Which hand is it and more importantly is it the medial (side by closest to your body) or lateral (side farther from your body) when your hand is supinated/palm up. If you help me understand where it is, I can give you some suggestions as to what it is. Either way, you're gonna have to let it rest a bit and start with some light, focused rehab.

 

[nixium]

You're probably right that it's more of a tendon issue than a muscle strain, especially due to its location. You said the left side of your wrist hurts... Which hand is it and more importantly is it the medial (side by closest to your body) or lateral (side farther from your body) when your hand is supinated/palm up. If you help me understand where it is, I can give you some suggestions as to what it is. Either way, you're gonna have to let it rest a bit and start with some light, focused rehab.

Left side of the left hand. Here's a pic that shows the area:

<deleted to save forum space - see pic below>

I'm counting it out for at least the end of Feb. Do you think the exercises I outlined are good? Have you any others to recommend?

 

[nixium]

Had the same problem.I ended up using heat in the morning /cold compresses in the evening for about a week. Also had some massage therapy from the fitness trainer in school. Even on off days, you need to wrap it tight and get the blood going on it. Stretch as much as you can but stay off it for the most part.

Once you feel good again, build up your wrists more. Wrist curls, stretches and keeping it wrapped. Takes time. Measure them and if you don't see progress go get an examine/ex-ray because its probably still injured.

Cheers,

One stupid thing I did was to do absolutely nothing for the 3 weeks after the injury. Ive only just started ibuprofen and icing. Next week, I'm getting to a doc and getting an x-ray, just in cae.

1. How long did it take you to completely recover?

2. What exercises did you do for the rest of the body during this time? Or did you just take the time off from the gym?

 

[nixium]

*bump*

 

[Koing]

Just got to rest it mate, it's a pain in the ass.

I just hammered squats. I couldn't do real lifting but I could front squat and do back squats. I just did that 3x a week and that was pretty much it. Took me 6 weeks to recover.

I couldn't curl the 20kg bar so it wasn't worth doing anything. If it hurts don't be silly about it. Just rest it.

Koing

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Left side of the left hand. Here's a pic that shows the area:

I'm counting it out for at least the end of Feb. Do you think the exercises I outlined are good? Have you any others to recommend?

The exercises you outlined completely avoid the actual issue. A picture of an x-ray doesn't help me as much as a picture of your hand with an arrow. I can guesstimate what soft tissue is around the bony structures, but I can't locate it very well, especially with the diffuseness of the oval.

It will take time, but it typically won't go away on its own. Take a picture of your hand and draw an arrow and then I'll try to explain some exercises.

 

[nixium]

The exercises you outlined completely avoid the actual issue. A picture of an x-ray doesn't help me as much as a picture of your hand with an arrow. I can guesstimate what soft tissue is around the bony structures, but I can't locate it very well, especially with the diffuseness of the oval.

It will take time, but it typically won't go away on its own. Take a picture of your hand and draw an arrow and then I'll try to explain some exercises.

OK, I've isolated the area. If I bend my wrist that way and put my finger on the red circle, that's where it hurt. It feels a lot better than before, but sometimes, at particular angles, it still hurts.

Thanks! so far, I've been doing the exercises I outlined but I really miss a back and chest exercises. I can't even go high on squats because I don't want to risk lifting the heavy plates.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Hm, if it ONLY hurts there, it's either the tendon of the extensor carpi ulnaris muscle or one of the several carpal ligaments within the area. It could even be flexor carpi ulnaris, especially if the pain is a deeper. If you can touch a certain ropey structure that's painful, that will likely be the location of injury. It's good thing if you can find it because you'll be able to do a cross friction massage, which is a massage perpendicular to the tendon/ligament. That will maximize the functional alignment of collagen fibers within the injured tissue. To be perfectly honest, it's a bit difficult to know what to do since I can't 100&#37; identify the tissue and the mobility of that affected tissue. If it's tight, you need to lightly stretch it. If it feels unstable, you need to strengthen the surrounding musculature in a way that doesn't re-injure. You can do some light wrist flexion and wrist extension exercises (with a can of soup or nothing to start), maybe some radial and ulnar deviation exercises, and some pronation supination exercises with the humerus stabilized. Look up those movements and just move your wrist in those movements. You can position your hand in different ways to modify gravity's effect on the musculature being used. I'd say do 2 sets of 10-15 of each of those will help. Sometimes you can do both motions at the same time so it shouldn't take long. Hope that helps - sorry I couldn't be more useful.