Are you someone who loves the Gym, CrossFit, Gymnastics or Yoga? Then chances are you have experienced wrist pain that has impacted your training. 

Heavy lifting and repetitive movements place significant strain on the wrist joint. This can lead to wrist pain. As we love our training so much, we often continue to train through this pain causing it to hang around. Sometimes it can become so severe that we can no longer train. Only then do we ask for help. Why do we ignore wrist pain that not only affects our training but also our day to day activities? Maybe it is the dreaded thought of being told not to train that makes us second-guess ourselves. Well, at Active Hand Therapy this is what we do best. We can get you training without pain! As a Hand Therapist we specialise in the treatment of wrist injuries and there is definitely an answer for the reason you are having pain during training.  

Wrist Joint

Lets start by looking into the wrist joint. Believe it or not the wrist joint is actually one of the most complex joints in the Human body. It consists of 8 small bones (carpal bones) that fit together with the finger and arm bones. It needs to allow for movement in all directions. It also needs to be stable to allow our hand to function. We have many muscles that help to move our wrist joint and an amazing amount of ligaments that stabilise it. When we lift weights or weight bear, we place a lot of force through these structures. This can lead to the development of wrist pain. This is where a Hand Therapist can help! Treatment of wrist pain varies depending on the tissue that is injured and the cause of injury. The good news is almost all injuries can be treated while you continue to train!

The most common wrist pain during gym use is ligament strains, often in the back and side of the wrist. These injuries can be treated with:

- wrist wraps or functional braces.

- specific wrist stability strengthening programs

- wrist positioning exercises (often the easiest fix)

- soft tissue massage

- dry needling

- training education

- functional retraining.

A useful exercise if you are feeling a twinge is the:

WATER BOTTLE WRIST WEIGHT.

This exercise is excellent for increasing wrist stability. It helps to strengthen some of the core muscles of the wrist. This can help reduce pain, and improve your ability to perform other exercises.

How to Perform?

1. Find a bottle and start by filling it up 1/4 full. You can add more water or reduce depending on how difficult you find the exercise.

2. Aim for 3 sets of 10 reps for this exercise 2 times per day.

3. Move your hand to the left and to the right. Keep you wrist in a neutral position at all times.

>Your forearm drives this exercise. Your wrist must remain stable in a neutral position. As the water rushes to the side of the bottle the force activates your core wrist muscles. This is the key to strengthening for your gym workout. If you get pain during this exercise, it normally means you are not keeping your wrist neutral. It is a good idea to do this in front of a mirror to start with, to ensure you are keeping your wrist straight.

So if you are dealing with wrist pain during training we have the answers! Come and see one of our Hand Therapists who can diagnose and treat your injury so you can be back training pain free as soon as possible.

Written by Riley Willemse