Hours after lifting, and especially by bedtime and when waking up the next day, my wrists are killing me. My forearms and even my hands get tight and contracted, almost cramped. I am also a professional musician (piano/keyboards), and it seems that the more my fingers work and contract in either activity, the worse things get.
Anybody else have wrist/forearm/grip issues and any effective strategies to deal with it? I am thinking of wearing some sort of wrist wrap or brace for lifting, and maybe even use straps, which I’ve never tried before. Then maybe ice my wrists afterwards…I looked at wrist wraps, straps, and braces on amazon; there are dozens of kinds, neoprene, elastic, rigid, with stays or without, gloves with wrist wraps, etc. If anyone has any experiences or advice to share, I’d like to hear it.
I’ve had wrist pain in the past. Icing them after a workout helps. I also use wrist wraps on certain exercises. But the most important thing is to avoid or minimize exercises that aggravate… for me this means no straight barbell curls and even have to be careful with ez curls.
Everything that involves gripping something – most exercises in the gym. Rows, presses, pullups, pulldowns, curls, dips, deadlifts…everything for upper body except the lateral raise machine and a pec dec machine where I can push the weight with my elbows/arms. Military press might be among the toughest on them. Oh, and deadlifts.
I wouldn’t even dream of doing straight bar curls. Been using DBs. But I haven’t thought of effective alternatives to military press or deadlifts. Or all the other rows and pulls.
I just asked a similar question… the only things that seem to have helped me personally are wrapping the wrists on heavy pressing, using a rubber band to work the finger extensors, and working the wrist extensors. I’d advise the rubber band for you, as you probably get a huge volume of finger flexion with the amount of musical practice you do.
I remember a good stretch from the few days I tried p90x w/ a buddy (so are everyone’s eyes rolling?): get in the quadruped, all fours position, and simply externally rotate your hands so that they are still palms down, but attempt to point your fingers back toward your knees. Then work the stretch by leaning forward, to the sides, etc. DO NOT GO HARD ON THIS ONE, it doesn’t take much to put pressure on your forearms and wrists when your whole body is over it and you’re in that position.
I swear, my body conspires against me in my sleep. I’ve had issues with this arm years ago (ulnar neuropathy, elbow tendinitis). Whenever there is any irritation, I wake up in a worse state than I went to bed. I have woken up with my hand, forearm, and upper arm maximally flexed. I also woke up with my traps contracted. !!!
Last night, I went to sleep with a light fleece jacket on…woke up and it was on the floor. I do always use a down comforter though. But I think I need to put a sleeve only on the arm, because I get too hot with a long-sleeved top.
Shall try some of your AR-R. I have never heard of, or seen, ibuprofen gel.
I skipped a couple days of training last week thinking that grip overuse was contributing. But during that time, it actually got worse from playing piano. (Perform/work on weekends.) I tried a neoprene wrap on wrist while playing, but don’t think it helped that much.