Hello everyone, looking for some guidance on some wrist pain I’ve been experiencing over the past 2 weeks or so. I’m 31 years old and have been training consistently for about the past 6 months with intermittent training for the past few years. The pain is generally absent throughout the day but when it started, it was most pronounced when doing barbell curls. It is located in the ulnar side of my wrist bilaterally, sometimes on the ventral side too. I can tolerate bench and overhead press with wrist wraps and a bulldog grip but even light weights on barbell curls (or even light stress that extends my wrist when my arms are supine) bothers it significantly. Any guidance would be much appreciated. It’s tolerable with hammer curls for the most part but even light stresses like picking up my backpack from the ground can trigger the pain.
Right now I’m just trying to work around it and am hoping it’s something common that will resolve gradually. The reason I’m asking here it to make sure that it is in the range of normal lifting related pain and isn’t putting me at risk for more serious issues down the line. I’m also wondering if there are any interventions that would be recommended to address the pain and aid in recovery.
Rustomha,
Standard medical disclaimer applies here, i.e. you’re not my patient, this is edutainment, and so on. This is also not a diagnosis.
Wrist pain like this does happen with some regularity in training, though it’s not in the top 3 for pain sites (back, knee, shoulders). Assuming no acute trauma via accident in the gym, the most common issue is overuse.
Useful exercises include (but are not limited) a forearm roller, gentle/tempo DB wrist extensions, push-up progressions, and so on. Addressing ergonomics at work may also be useful.
If you can find an entry point for modifying training that helps tackle your symptoms, great! I’d probably favor adjusting bench and OHP work towards lighter variants by adjusting reps, tempo, and exercise itself. I’d also likely stick to DB and cable variations for direct arm work in the interim.
Lastly, and this is just in case, but I would not be running LP if that’s the program you are using.
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