How to Manage Wrist Pain While Exercising

Working out with a hurt wrist is an exercise in frustration. Every dumbbell and machine seems like it's out to bend your wrist at a painful angle. But there are things you can do to manage wrist pain while you exercise. Keep reading to learn what to do, what to avoid and when to reach out for help.

What You Can Do Before You Workout

Managing your wrist pain during a workout starts before you do your first rep. Three things you can do are to warm up, stretch, and strengthen. Let's go through each one. Warming up your wrist means performing simple movements, such as rotating your wrist in small, slow circles. This helps blood flow.

Stretching is similar. A good stretch to start with is gently bending your fingers backward to make your wrist more flexible. Strengthening involves doing wrist curls with light weights or grip squeezes with a tennis ball to build forearm strength. Stronger forearms put less load on your wrists, easing your pain. You can also wrap your wrist to prevent it from twisting.

Understand the reason for your wrist pain. Then treat your wrist pain. These simple steps can go a long way.

What You Can Do During Your Workout

Once you are in the gym or your workout space, you can try even more things to manage your wrist pain. You can change your form or grip. Sometimes using an underhand grip or an overhand grip is less painful. Try a few different grips and hand positions to see what works best for you.

Lifting light weights often makes keeping your wrist in a neutral, straight position easier. You might need to perform each motion a bit slower to focus on better form, but the payoff is usually less pain.

Vary your workouts to spread out wrist movements over different kinds of exercises. Repeating the same movements with the same weight can wear out your forearm and aggravate your wrist.

Importantly, listen to your body. If you feel pain, adjust the workout or stop completely. Trying to push through the pain can damage your wrist and make future workouts more painful.

What You Can Do After Your Workout

Managing your wrist pain doesn't stop once you do your last rep. There are things you can do post-workout to feel less pain between exercise sessions.

Here are a few things you can do:

• Rest
• Ice your wrist
• Avoid overuse

Between workouts, continue to strengthen your forearms and wrists. Over time, and with a few small adjustments, many people find that their wrist pain eases and their workouts are much more enjoyable.

If your wrist pain is related to an injury or condition such as arthritis or stress fractures, these tips will help but may not make pain go away completely.

When To Reach Out for Help

If your wrist pain gets worse or doesn't go away after a week or two, reach out to your Baptist Health orthopedic care provider. If you do not have a provider, you can find one by visiting our provider directory.