Take my wife ('s wrist) please . . .

[Brian Jones]

Good day SS Coaches.

For a few years now my wife has experienced intermittent "issues" with her right wrist. The area is where the radius, lunate and scaphoid join. She describes the pain as a constant dull pain that is exaggerated and increased when the wrist is in flexion. She puts the pain at a "6" on a scale of 10 when the wrist is flexed towards the elbow.

She works at a computer from 6 to 8 hours a day - more during Hurricane/storm season. She has a friend that is a Physical Therapist that has fed her different types of PT bullshit. She is ripe for a conversion to barbell (dumb bell or band) training/therapy for wrist rehab.

I think I can knock out two birds with one stone:

1) Help her out with her wrist issue

2) Convince her to take the plunge herself into barbell training.

Currently she does no type of formal physical training - but she is in good shape. She used to work in a Physical Therapists office years ago and has friends that are PTs and OT's an all have some different bullshit telling her to do.

I initially was going to have her start with some small dumb bells or possibly just the barbell and do some wrist curls - flexing the wrist, then some full curls keeping the wrist locked . . then I thought "Wait -- let me ask the pros before I jump off on some incorrect trail and screw her up more"

What say you, folks?

[Tom Campitelli]

Has she been given a diagnosis yet? Hands can be tricky. I had a girlfriend who started to have pain in her wrist which got progressively worse. It was originally diagnosed as tendonosis, but was later found to be Kienbock's Disease, which is where the lunate starts to die as a result of a lack of blood flow. That required surgery to fix. Kienbock's is quite rare, so I wouldn't be worried about that, but 6/10 is pretty damn painful and probably warrants getting someone knowledgeable to examine her. I can also say that barbell training can have a positive effect on hand and wrist pain due to computer usage. Before I started to train seriously, I had mild hand and wrist pain associated with sitting in front of a computer. Once you can deadlift something heavy, typing won't be as likely to cause problems.

[Brian Jones]

What would 6 on the pain scale be to you, Tom? Maybe she has a skewed spectrum..lol

[Tom Campitelli]

Well, 10 is the worst pain imaginable just short of death. Think of being skinned and eviscerated without anesthesia while they pour molten sulfur and lead into your recently excavated abdominal cavity. One means you can feel it enough to identify it as pain. It is probably a safe bet that most humans probably will never experience 9, let alone 10, because it can always be worse. I think of five as being quite painful.

[Brian Jones]

Thanks. I think we are going to start a training regimen for a few weeks to see where that takes us.

[Tom Campitelli]

If her wrists are hurting, I wouldn't necessarily go after the problem with isolation exercises. I'd have her give Starting Strength a go and let the squats, presses, deadlifts, and pullups do their thing. Little isolation exercises don't really do much because they lack ability to meaningfully disrupt homeostasis. If her wrist worsens, then see a doctor. Hell, once again, hands are complex structures. If the pain is significant, it might not be bad to make sure nothing more serious is wrong and to see a doctor anyway.

[Trewarin]

Women generally under-report pain compared to men I've noticed.

My ex had problems with wrists that would "move" a lot; would need being worked on by an osteopath/cracked often and were always painful and weak.

Her simply getting stronger forearms from benching/pressing/dead-lifting resolved these issues in two months.
Emphasis on a straight wrist during the former two was essential; I would often cue this by grabbing and turning her wrist during the set to return her to a position that wasn't over-extended, as initially she couldn't feel the difference between a correct grip and an incorrect one.
Wrist wraps during the first week or so too.

She could open jars on her own, turn handles, braid her own hair etc without pain for the first time in her adult life.
To my knowledge she now uses that strength to jack-off British cops; the filthy pirate hooker.

[Milo's Ghost]

Tre, buddy ... Time to let it go.