Working Out with a Wrist Injury
Nurse Susan explains that if you have a wrist injury, there are ways you can keep up with your workouts while letting your wrist recover.
Wrist injuries are common among gym-goers, especially if you are in the business of lifting heavy weights or doing lots of intense bodyweight exercises. Whether you are dealing with a strain, a sprain, or a broken bone, there are still many ways to keep up with your workouts while letting your wrist recover. If you feel a little defeated after injuring your wrist, keep these nine tips in mind and try them during your next training session.
Use Resistance Bands
Holding dumbbells or a barbell is out of the equation if you have an injured wrist. But that does not mean you have to forgo resistance training. Swapping out your weights for resistance bands for a few weeks while letting your wrist heal.
You can use resistance bands to do almost all the same exercises with weights, including standard upper-body moves like chest presses, shoulder presses, bicep curls, and chest flies.
With resistance bands, it is easy to keep your wrist in a neutral position and avoid flexing or extending it. Since they are so light, you also do not have to worry about fatiguing the small muscles in your wrists and hands.
Try Kettlebells
Kettlebells are another excellent option for people who cannot grip dumbbells or barbells but still want to strength train. When using kettlebells, keeping your wrist straight and stable is essential.
It makes them the perfect choice for anyone who cannot flex or extend their wrist. Some of the best exercises to do when dealing with wrist pain include:
- Snatches
- Rows
- Overhead press
- Floor press
Modify Planks and Push-ups
Bodyweight exercises like planks and push-ups can be challenging, if not impossible, when working with a wrist injury. One way to continue doing these exercises is to modify them with dumbbells or kettlebells.
Instead of putting your hands flat on the floor, place two dumbbells or kettlebells under your shoulders and grip the handles. If you are in a cast or splint, you cannot take advantage of this modification.
But if your wrists are sore or achy, you can try this hack to avoid skipping push-ups and planks altogether.
Strengthen Your Grip
If you have to take a break from some of your regularly scheduled sessions but do not want to skip the gym entirely, you might want to work on strengthening your grip.
By improving your grip strength, you will strengthen the muscles in your hands, wrists, and forearms. It can help you avoid future soreness and injuries. It will also improve your ability to do exercises like pull-ups, deadlifts, and front squats, which require a lot of wrist strength and mobility.
Some of the best ways to strengthen your grip include:
- Isolation exercises with light dumbbells or a grip strengthening tool
- Farmer's walks with a kettlebell
- Deadlift holds
- Reverse curls
- Bar hangs with a towel
Focus on Reps Instead of Weight
If you can still lift weights but cannot handle going very heavy, take time away from prioritizing weight and focus on increasing repetitions.
It might not be the best option for hypertrophy and muscle building. But, it is better than nothing, as it will keep you in practice and improve your endurance without straining your wrists.
Correct Imbalances
Most athletes tend to have imbalances favouring one side of the body. If you have injured your dominant side, take advantage of your recovery time and prioritize building strength on the weaker side. Single-arm rows, lat pull-downs, chest presses, and shoulder presses are great options for correcting imbalances.
Strengthen Your Core
Instead of focusing on the exercises you cannot do while recovering from an injury, spend your time in the gym focusing on what you can still do. For example, you can do many other exercises to strengthen your core while letting your wrist heal. You can even do planks if you put weight on your forearms rather than your wrists.
Some other great core-strengthening exercises include:
- Kettlebell
- Russian twists
- V-ups
- Supermans
- Swimmers
- Hollow-body holds
- Sit-ups
Do not Neglect Your Lower Body
Do not neglect your lower body while recovering from a wrist injury. Even if you cannot hold a barbell to do deadlifts and squats, you can still work your legs and glutes with bodyweight squats, walking lunges, Bulgarian split squats, hip thrusts, and calf raises.
If you have stability, you can also work on dynamic exercises like box jumps, split squat jumps, and squat jumps. Of course, if you are not experienced in these kinds of movements, it is best to wait until your wrist is healed. You will not have to worry about losing your balance and accidentally re-injuring it.
Make Sure Your Diet is on Point
When dealing with an injury, many people worry about gaining weight while they let their bodies recover. But, it is essential to know that you can prevent a lot of weight gain by adjusting your diet to match your current activity level.
You should eat less if you move less since your body will not require as many calories. In addition to adjusting your consumption to match your movement, you will also want to prioritize protein intake. Protein is very satiating, and consuming enough will help you avoid overeating.
To promote further healing, it would help if you also ate lots of anti-inflammatory foods, such as tomatoes, leafy greens, nuts, fatty fish, olive oil, and berries.
Final Thoughts
If you are struggling with a wrist injury, remember that you do not have to give up exercising altogether. Remember these tips as you restructure your workouts to accommodate your recovery, and you will be back to your regular training before you know it!
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- NURSE, S. (2018) Working Out with a Wrist Injury [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article330.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Nurse Susan has always been passionate about helping people heal. After she retired from a lifelong career as a nurse, that passion did not disappear. She loves to use her expertise to write about the best ways to keep you and your family healthy, active, and happy.