Wrist Pain

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hello Doctors,

So about 3 weeks ago, I started doing higher rep work on Bench as suggested for rehab. I had been doing tempo 1-second paused Bench for 5 reps as my standard bench, just do to personal preference. Since I was now doing 12 reps, I did touch and go as to get enough oxygen (12 tempo paused reps would be terrible haha). Midway through the next day, the outside (pinky side) of my right wrist started acting up. Ever since then, my wrist has been hurting some, mostly around that area. I think my wrist wasn’t used to quick changes in momentum that touch-and-go bench provides. It kind of sucks because I am a student and I write a ton everyday, and sometimes it can get aggravated a bit by writing. Doesn’t hurt so bad I have to stop, but is annoying and extremely distracting. Kind of frustrated because it appears my wrist started hurting due to a change in my programming caused by rehabbing my shoulder. The last thing I want while rehabbing is something else to start acting up in response to the changes that are made.

Then on Friday, I did some Romanian Deadlifts for 3 sets of 10 reps. Only my second time doing them ever, and my first time in a number of months. The only reason I was doing these was to lesson the load on my healing toe (small fracture). After the session, the portion of my wrist directly below the palm began to hurt as well. Sometimes it feels like a tickling-sensation when it is not a noticeable, but is more painful other times. I think this upset it due to the fact that I was actively bringing the bar closer to my body instead of letting my arms hang straight down, thus creating a moment arm that my wrist was not accustomed to. I am thinking this is connected to the other pain I was feeling, even though they are in two slightly different locations.

I haven’t had any wrist pain like this in more than a year (previous pain was simply from doing Low-Bar, which isn’t a problem anymore), and I am wondering what the best course of action would be. I was planning on perhaps doing push-ups on my knuckles instead of bench this week and also not doing chin-ups this week (which may be hard on the wrists), and doing lighter-than-usual rows. Wrist hasn’t acted up doing standard Deadlifts, so I am thinking I shouldn’t have to change anything there. Does that sound like a good plan?

Thanks,
ColoradoMinesCole

2

I probably would have had you actually do the sets of 12 on bench with tempo, even if you had to take the load down further.

I would also encourage you to try to put a lot of the things you’ve learned here into practice, as it seems you’re quite hypervigilant and get concerned with every symptom that you experience in the course of training.

3

OK. I’ll try that and see how it goes. I literally had the word hypervigilant in my mind thinking about my wrist not more than 2 hours ago haha. Thanks for the advice!