Backround: I hurt my right outside wrist at the end of may. Saw a doctor (diagnosed as strain), took 4 weeks off and ingested 2400mg of ibprofin a day, iced it a lot, didn’t lift upper body only legs. It’s been 4 weeks, my wrist is better but still hurts a lot when i twist it, so curling is out, chins are out, but im pretty pissed off so im starting back up on all other upper body lifts and im going to see if i can do those lifts now without further injuring myself. I don’t know if i expect the problem to go away or what, but i figure by the time it heals summer will be over and i’ll have wasted it.
Problem is, this extremely slow healing process is very common for me. I’m 17, i should heal fairly quickly. I can get cut by something and have the mark there for 1-3 months. I can strain a muscle and be out for 3 months. It’s ridiculous. Doctors tell me “only about 2-3 weeks then you’ll be fine” and 2-3 months later im still in pain. Is there anything i can do to speed up recovery? Supplements, food, activities, anything? This isn’t normal, but no doctor i mention it to ever seems to think its a big deal.
One thing I would do is drop icing and anti-inflammatory medication. This will slow healing. Heat or contrast baths might help get blood in that area (along with simple wrist movement).
Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be any main stream fixes for this. There are alternative therapy supplements like systematic enzymes (Wobenzym) or Tribulus (increase GH might be lead to better recovery), but these are alternative (ie who knows if it works).
I would just do the contrast baths a few times a week and do simple wrist movements. Cut out exercises that cause pain. Sadly, I’m a slower healer and well and have tried everything you can think of. Nothing really helped accept what I suggested.
Also, anyone have suggestions as to what i should be doing right now in terms of lifting? Like i said, i’ve already taken a month off. The last 3 days i’ve been lifting and now my wrist hurts more, so im probably going to have to rest it until it’s healed in another month or 2. I can work through it fairly easily on 98% of lifts, but afterwards it is painful, so thats likely not a good sign.
Should i just do single arm stuff for my left arm, do leg lifts and hope for a faster recovery? During the first month of rest i didn’t do any single arm stuff. Im now going to have my wrist wrapped at all times, instead of just at work, so we’ll see if that helps, as well as stop with the ibprofins/ice. Im also planning on stretching my forearms.
Im still pretty bummed that im basically forced to waste 3 months of quality lifting time because of a stupid wrist.
in ANY move where there is pain
a) reduce load
b) reduce speed
c) reduce range of motion
if you can convince whoever has the cash in your family to help here, go see a movement specialist to get you doing some more work for whatever your strength goals are - there’s a TON of stuff we can do for strength that doesn’t involve pressing iron. Band work can be powerful and gives you lots of attachment options, for instance. Can help you heal faster
THere’s a bunch of coaches who know how to do this kind of training in colorado if you can make the trip, or some of us consult via the web, but the take away is to keep moving as much as possible.