It's all in the wrist

Whatever our occupation, wrists are our daily tools which we use all the time. Even when we don't think about it, our wrists are either helping to push us up, pull us up, pick up, and pull things. Everyone uses their wrists for something so we would like to keep them as healthy and pain free as possible.

Most people has had some type of wrist issue so most people would be able to recall the feeling of discomfort it causes to not be able to use their wrists. So to get to the point without filling our minds with jargon, let's get to it

Whenever we look up wrist exercises, or go to a doctor, physiotherapist, biokineticist, or any other health and fitness professional with wrist issues, there are always certain basic things they give you to do regardless of the wrist problem. The difference will come in on the intensity, the range of motion, frequency and the path of building the wrist back up, which will all depend on the type and severity of the injury.

these exercises will include wrist flexion and extension, Ulnar deviation, Radial deviation, and wrist rotations (pronation and supination)

Depending on the severity of the injury (fracture, sprain, or strain) a few additional finger work might be added where you will adduct or abduct the fingers, clench to make a fist or extend the fingers to open the hand up, or some other grip exercises to strengthen or retrain the fingers.

But most of us won't need to go that far as to retrain and restrengthen our fingers so we'll just look at simple wrist issues common to the general population, which will be overuse injuries, abuse injuries (wrist sprain or wrist strain from doing something the wrists are not used to or not so fond of, like a fall, a sudden game of o tennis, lifting something too heavy, doing a handstand after years of not doing it at all...etc)

our wrists are joints, our muscles in the forearm cause them to move, and it is of my opinion that most joint issues (not all, but most) are caused by muscle imbalance. The same goes for the wrist, if there's no fracture, no ligamentous injury known then the issue must be in the muscle and if diagnosed as muscle and restoring muscle balance doesn't alleviate the pain then the issue is obviously somewhere else. Here I would like to add that muscular chain reaction derived from poor posture and bad biomechanics can cause wrist problems even when the problem itself is not in the wrist but in the shoulder or neck, and sometimes even the back's spinal alignment.

There is no need to memorize the muscles to try and sort out the wrists, although understanding it helps make sense of the doctor's orders.

Treating the wrists are quite simple in most cases because there is only so much that can be done. Because most wrist issues will be from overuse or abuse, these muscles are almost constantly in spasm and have a few knots and bumps which are very sensitive to touch. I have found that releasing these knots before working the wrists is much more effective in alleviating wrist pain and keeping it away than simply stretching and working it, although stretching it is important to help the muscle work properly.

The concept works as follows:

- release the spasm

- restore proper movement to wrist to avoid recurrence of

spasm by working the wrists in proper alignment

- happy muscle = happy wrist

There are a few spots on the forearm which almost always produces spasms, and relaxing these muscles through stretching or deep tissue massage or trigger point release techniques will alleviate most wrist problems almost immediately.

these muscles are

• Brachioradialis

• Extensor carpi radialis brevis

• Extensor digitorum

• Flexor carpi radialis

• Pronator teres

To release the spasms, you find the spot which is the most sensitive to touch, and you apply mild pressure. No need to push too hard, but it should be slightly sore and uncomfortable. Hold the pressure for a few seconds (6-10 seconds is the guideline, but I have found it sometimes takes a little longer, but not longer than 20 seconds). You will feel the muscle relax, and will know it is relaxing because the pain will subside and you'll be able to apply more pressure.

Once the spasm relaxes you can apply more pressure and hold it until it relaxes again. If it doesn't relax after 20 seconds, let go and gently massage the arm for a while, stretching it before trying again. Sometimes it works better to get the muscle in a stretch, not too great a stretch and while holding that stretch you can start the process again.

Once the spasm has been relaxed, you can massage the arm lightly to get blood flow going before moving to another spasm. once relaxed you can do a few wrist exercises in proper alignment with slight resistance to work the muscle and sement proper mechanics.

#Pilates #Gymnastics #HealthyWrists #rehab