Wrist Problem/Injury

[O-Train]

My right wrist has been bothering me off and on for several months but lately it's gotten worse. Yesterday I tried doing back squats but holding 225 on my back was too painful so I had to switch to front squats. I get the pain right below my thumb in between the hand and the styloid process of the radius. It may very well be carpal tunnel syndrome because I do a lot of repetitive, sometimes forceful motions that require awkward hand positions.

What I think happened is either a repetitive stress injury (like carpal tunnel syndrome) or I sprained my wrist at some point and just never let it heal properly. Has anyone had anything similar? I notice that when my hand is in a neutral position I don't have problems. Today for example I did bench press, shoulder press etc... with no pain. It's just with flexion, extension etc...even waving or similar things are mildly uncomfortable.

Ibuprofen helps so I know inflammation is involved. Which makes me wonder if it's possible that a different injury is causing pressure on the median nerve and creating carpal tunnel syndrome like symptoms. If this continues to be a problem I'll have to get it looked at but I just figured someone else may have experienced something similar.

[tiramisu]

I've had that shit in my mouse hand several times over the last 20 years. Get it checked out, treatment is like tendonitis unless it's full blown carpal tunnel. Off to the sports clinic.

Bigger issue is finding the source of the problem and removing it. For me it's as simple as not keeping my wrist straight when typing/mousing. I've been a geek for 20 plus years and a combination of abuse and weak wrists made them crappy.

A couple of years of stick fighting helped the problem - when the wrists are both strong and flexible they don't injure. Since I stopped going to the club my wrist get achy again. They are strong enough but they lack the mobility.

I'm rambling... You know the drill. Clinic, Rehab, fix the cause.

[O-Train]

Yeah, I know the drilll :(. I won't have coverage from work for at least another month so in the meantime I'll try and figure out some things to help on my own. A few people I work with have had carpal tunnel syndrome. One lady can't do fine motor stuff like pipetting without her fingers going numb. I think laying off the back squats for a while will help. Now that I think back my wrist started getting worse when I switched from a high bar to a low bar placement.

[steve_d]

I have the same thing off and on. Whenever I do squats, and sometimes bench press gets to it. What has helped alot is wearing wrist wraps whenever I do squats, or any pressing movement. after a month it improved quite a bit. its coming back now, so back to the wrist wraps for the next while

[O-Train]

I have the same thing off and on. Whenever I do squats, and sometimes bench press gets to it. What has helped alot is wearing wrist wraps whenever I do squats, or any pressing movement. after a month it improved quite a bit. its coming back now, so back to the wrist wraps for the next while

Good to know, thanks Steve. My wife got me a wrist wrap to wear at work so hopefully that will help too.

[Forever]

I have also found wearing wrist wraps helps give them a chance to heal. I was trying to work through sore wrists and within a month they hurt so bad I couldn't sit still without it bothering me. I took the weekend off training, got some wrist wraps (just the cheap nylon/velcro ones) for monday and spent the weekend wearing a carpal tunnel wrist brace. The carpal tunnel wrist brace was one of the ones with the plastic splint in it to keep your wrist from moving about, I wore this to bed for a couple weeks because I found myself waking up with my wrist twisted in funny positions and in pain.

They feel better now but I still have to be careful. If I bend my hands back to do front squats with an Olympic grip and if I'm not carfull to keep them straight doing pressing movements they still cause me some pain, other then that I'm good. I still wear the wrist wraps as a precautionary measure when doing some movements that used to aggravate them. Soft tissue can take a long time before its fully healed and I don't want to **** it all up and have to start the healing over again.

Oh off the top of my head, Aleve is a good anti inflammatory which can help with the healing process and to some extend pain. I noticed a big difference after taking 2 a day for a couple weeks while babying my wrist.

[macka]

Have you tried switching to dumbell squats? You can cheat a bit and use those chin up hooks until your wrists settle down. Its my go to exercise when regular squats are out because my neck hurts too much.

[Dryvrgrl]

Ice Ice and more ice!!

I injured my wrist doing gymnastics... traing for Nationals was difficult.. wrist wraps AND a wrist brace to stablise the wrist when not in use.. like I wore it for sleeping and driving and even working out!

[O-Train]

I have also found wearing wrist wraps helps give them a chance to heal. I was trying to work through sore wrists and within a month they hurt so bad I couldn't sit still without it bothering me. I took the weekend off training, got some wrist wraps (just the cheap nylon/velcro ones) for monday and spent the weekend wearing a carpal tunnel wrist brace. The carpal tunnel wrist brace was one of the ones with the plastic splint in it to keep your wrist from moving about, I wore this to bed for a couple weeks because I found myself waking up with my wrist twisted in funny positions and in pain.

They feel better now but I still have to be careful. If I bend my hands back to do front squats with an Olympic grip and if I'm not carfull to keep them straight doing pressing movements they still cause me some pain, other then that I'm good. I still wear the wrist wraps as a precautionary measure when doing some movements that used to aggravate them. Soft tissue can take a long time before its fully healed and I don't want to **** it all up and have to start the healing over again.

Oh off the top of my head, Aleve is a good anti inflammatory which can help with the healing process and to some extend pain. I noticed a big difference after taking 2 a day for a couple weeks while babying my wrist.

Good to know. I've never tried Aleve, Ibuprofen seems to do the trick for me so far. I may have to look into getting one of those splint braces for sleeping...still not sure if it's carpal tunnel because I don't get the numbness/tingling like most people describe.


Have you tried switching to dumbell squats? You can cheat a bit and use those chin up hooks until your wrists settle down. Its my go to exercise when regular squats are out because my neck hurts too much.


That may be worth a try, I've actually never really done them before. I'm assuming it's kind of awkward so the 150's would be more than enough. I've switched to front squats (not an oly grip) and yesterday I tried heavy barbell lunges which arn't as hard on my wrists and are a good substitute too.

Ice Ice and more ice!!

I injured my wrist doing gymnastics... traing for Nationals was difficult.. wrist wraps AND a wrist brace to stablise the wrist when not in use.. like I wore it for sleeping and driving and even working out!

Ice is one of those things I know I need to use but I don't do it as much as I should. Good advice.

[O-Train]

I did a bit more research and I'm fairly sure I have tendonitis in my wrist. More specifically I think it's probably DeQuervain's Syndrome. I watched some videos and learned some stretches, massage and exercises that I think will help. Plus I plan on icing it a lot more. Ibuprofen helps too but I'm only going to use it sparingly so I don't become dependant.

This is a good video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WIu9hqFWkM&feature=related
I'm guessing there are other people that may have similar wrist problems.

[MUSCULARMAYOR]

I've had wrist issues for years. I found wrapping the wrists for all heavy lifts and stretching the wrists after every set and through out the day has helped. And if they hurt in the morning, try a brace. mine worked like a charm. I always avoided nsaid's whenever possible.

Ps, fish oil helped the inflamation too