First of all, english is not my native language, so, i´m sorry if there are some mistakes. Im really glad i found Barbell Medicine. Its full with so much helpful information that i have been reading it these few days. Congratulations for the amazing work.
I will try to be as brief and as clear as possible. I lift weights for more than 10 years and had a few injuries along the way. Some healed, some not. Im here to ask for some advice because i got golfer´s elbow while performing triceps pushdowns. Rested for 2 years and nothing happened. After much research, saw the suggestion of using the theraband flexbar. Used for two weeks until i injured both wrists (got TFCC) doing this exercise. Stopped for months and again, real slow recovery.
After more research, decided to try eccentric movements to strenghten my wrists (i always had really weak wrists) and help with the golfers elbow. I do wrist extension/flexion with 1 pound dumbell, Forearm pronation and suppination with hammer. 2 sets of 10 reps for each exercise. All exercises are done slowly and controlled.
After 3 weeks i raised to 2 sets of 15 reps. Not wanting to jinx it but TFCC is really better and i also felt improvement on the golfers elbow injury. But after i raised to 15 reps, i started having pain in the carpal tunnel area on both wrists (had this problem before). Stopped doing it, and iced it for days until it got barely pain free and started again.
Since im living abroad, my usual sports doctor cant do much. He is fond of not resting 100% because he says it will only make the tendon weaker. After i read the thread about tendinopathy, i could relate to this. My main question is about the routine. I do the exercises everyday, just once per day. Is this correct, or is there a better routine like just doing a few times per week? Should i ice it (after finishing) if i have pain during the exercise? And if i have pain that is not debilitating, should this mean i can continue to do it or wait again until its almost pain free? My doctor said to continue, but i would like to get more opinions since im tired of so much setbacks. Right now im doing wrist extension and Forearm pronation and suppination with hammer everyday, and the wrist flexion every two days (only 2 sets of 5 reps) to avoid a setback on the CTS.
I would like to thank you in advance for all your patience and help.
Wish everyone to stay safe during this caotic time.
First, welcome to the Barbell Medicine community. We are glad to have you and to hear that you have found some helpful information! Have you read our article pain in training? Generally, we would not agree with the recommendation to rest for any period of time following an injury.
To answer your questions:
Exercise frequency: I would recommend doing exercises specific for your wrist at least 3x/week. I recommend focusing on dumbbell wrist flexion with heavy and slow movements. Are you familiar with RPE? I would recommend RPE for these exercises at 8-9 with a tempo component 3-0-3 (so 3” up, and 3” down).
Icing: if it feels good, you can do it. Icing will not speed up your healing or adaptation process, so we generally don’t recommend it.
Pain in training: Again, I recommend reading our article above. I don’t recommend waiting until you have zero pain to resume exercise. Rather, I would recommend keeping your pain within a tolerable amount throughout activity. Auto-regulation is important here, try not to focus on previous training history/amounts lifted, but be truthful to your RPE (pain is a component of RPE) as you progress.
Hope this helps! If you would like more specific advice, we would be happy to consult with you remotely.
Thank you very much for your patience and atention to my post. I had read other of your articles but did not found this one yet. Thank you! I will read it right away. Once more, thank you for all the information you gave me! I will try your advices.
I forgot to ask you a question. When you said: “I recommend focusing on dumbbell wrist flexion with heavy and slow movements.”, did you meant by this that my strenghten exercises should only be wrist flexion curls? I am also doing the wrist extension curls and forearm pronation/supination exercises due to having TFCC injury (now way better), as well as to rehabilitate my CTS. My wrists are overall pretty weak, so i would like to get that area stronger.
Thank you once again for your attention and advices.
Hi Jack, it’s perfectly fine for you to continue with your wrist extension and pronation/supination exercises as well. I was specifically recommending heavy slow wrist flexion due to your specific complaint regarding medial elbow pain.
-Hannah
Got it. One last question, if its not too much to ask already. Can doing those wrist flexion curls with gradual heavy weight make my CTS worse or will it help recover it also? Thanks again! And sorry for bothering so much.
I would not expect the wrist flexion curls to exacerbate any symptoms. This is also where auto-regulation comes into play, if symptoms are occurring, just back off RPE by 1-2 and let that be your guide.
