Weak wrists?

Weak wrists make arm and body weight exercise quite difficult. There is nothing worse than feeling pain in an otherwise healthy joint when you are trying to exercise. 

This problem commonly limits people in their enjoyment of yoga, pilates and especially boxing style classes. While some are happy to do push ups and planks on their fists instead, if you’re in a reformer class or doing certain hand balances in yoga that isn’t always an option. So, what can physiotherapy do for weak wrists? 

1.     Ensure that it is a wrist related issue 

Firstly, we will discuss and assess your wrists, to ensure that it is actually a wrist issue. Pain can be tricky and sneaky; where a tight neck, shoulder muscle knots or an irritated nerve can all cause wrist pain. Physios are expects at joint and muscle pain diagnosis.

2.     Mobility assessment

Your physiotherapist will check that your joints can all move through the expected normal range. Remember everything is connected so this includes wrists, elbows, shoulders and neck joints. This includes movement in flexing, extending and the more subtle rotating and side-bending. If you don’t have enough movement, physiotherapy will involve hands-on therapy and exercises to enhance your overall flexibility. If you have too much movement, Physiotherapy can help you understand when to stop!

3.     Posture assessment 

Once you’ve got the movement that you need, we’ll have a look at your ‘wrist posture’. Here we’ll look at the activities that are giving you grief, this can be anything from computer work or using your phone to planks, down dog or holding a barbell for squats. 

Here we work on improving your ability to put weight evenly through your hand; in a yoga class this is where you’ll often hear the instructor talking about putting weight through your index finger, or not ‘dumping into your wrists’. 

4.     Strengthening

We’ll look at the strength through not only your wrist muscles, but also at the strength in shoulder and upper back muscles. As they shoulder work to support the wrists. Any weaknesses through here can be addressed with targeted exercises to help you build up to being able to put more weight through your wrists and for longer.