If your wrists are hurting you it won’t take you long to realize how many exercises are challenging to do (even if the rest of your body is feeling strong!)
Here are my top 3 modifications for the most common ab and upper body exercises that may put a lot of strain on your wrists.
Wrist pain can be made worse when you have weakness in your upper back, core, and shoulders, but until you can build up that strength try changing them up like this…
1️⃣ Modify whatever you can down to your elbows. Many plank exercises can be done on your elbows instead.
✅ Easy swaps – Elbow plank instead of full plank – Dynamic planks on elbows instead of hands – Bicycle crunches or dead bugs on your back instead of mountain climbers or bear plank ste
2️⃣ Use dumbbells or pushup handles to support a neutral wrist
✅ Most people have increased pain or limited mobility when they have their wrists extended (hands flat on the floor). Using dumbbells to support neutral wrist pouts can help distribute the pressure differently so you aren’t dumping it into your wrists. See video for proper positioning
3️⃣ Use theraband or wrist weights
✅ If your wrists are SUPER painful I will sometimes use a theraband wrapped around the hands, or wrist weights on the forearms instead of gripping dumbbells for upper body exercises. This is a good temporary solution to continue to work your upper body while letting your wrist and thumb rest to calm down the inflammation and stop making it worse.