For the past 3 months I’ve had pain in my left wrist area, on the pinky side, near where the large joint stands out. I noticed it originally when I started doing close-grip bench pressing from pins and high pulls/shrugs with wrist straps (which tugged the wrist). For some time, I couldn’t do any pressing movement without pain. I boiled it down to overuse but after periods of complete rest (which helped a bit), the pain would come back with certain exercises which previously caused no discomfort.
Currently, the only movements that cause pain are when my left palm is directly pushing against the weight (i.e. fully supinated dumbell curls as well as skull crushers). Rows and shrugs are fine and neutral grip exercises of all forms are fine. EZ-curl bars (narrow or wide grip) hurt somewhat but barbell curls severely hurt my wrist. The pain kind of reverberartes along the leftmost side of the wrist, below the pinky side.
I’m not sure what exactly caused it and my right hand is perfectly fine. Has anyone had a similar issue? Would appreciate any thoughts on causes and ways to strengthen/improve the wrist and alongside this, effective curling/bicep exercises that wouldn’t aggravate the pain.
I don’t want to worry you, but barring solely myofascial causes, you might be looking at a TFCC issue.
Here’s what I’d do in your case:
-check for trigger points responsible for ulnar wrist pain (google it)
-go consult a hand surgeon and make sure to get a 2nd opinion
-you could also look up some TFCC diagnostic checks you could perform if you’re too impatient; just make sure you’ll be careful about performing them, lest you aggravate things
If you can’t take some time off training, at least make sure to
-use wrist wraps (Schiek Sports has some pretty helpful elastic cotton 24" wrist wraps; you could also give the Wrist Widget a try)
-lay off pressing exercises or at least make sure you maintain a straight (and rather neutral) wrist alignment
-use lifting straps for (heavy) pulling exercises
Just be sensible about it and you’ll have the best chances of healing (and keeping on lifting heavy ass stuff). Don’t be too impatient: wrist damage can be pretty life-altering (you need your hands), especially if cartilage damage is involved.
ive had the same thing for the past few months. i can do everything pain free except supinate my left hand. even ez bar curls bother it.
ive just pushed through it, modified my routines. but im gonna eventually have to get back to heavy chins and barbell curls. im gonna get a cortisone shot in the next couple months.
FattyFat,
is TFCC like arthritis or tendonitis? or is it totally different. b/c ive always just assumed that this pain is tenonitis.
I have torn tendons in my wrist before nine years ago training.
Hold a 25lb Db and just lift your wrist up, down side to side see if it has direct pain or weakness in a certain direction, my injury was on downward so it is hard to even hold a 40 if my pal is facing down.
Other possibility is the beginnings carpel tunnel syndrome.
[quote]1000yardstare wrote:
ive had the same thing for the past few months. i can do everything pain free except supinate my left hand. even ez bar curls bother it.
ive just pushed through it, modified my routines. but im gonna eventually have to get back to heavy chins and barbell curls. im gonna get a cortisone shot in the next couple months.
FattyFat,
is TFCC like arthritis or tendonitis? or is it totally different. b/c ive always just assumed that this pain is tenonitis.
[/quote]
To put it in layman’s terms: TFCC is to your wrist what the meniscus is to your knee.
Tendon can be repaired, but you’re usually not that lucky with cartilage.
The symptoms and consequences are different, too. While tendon maladies often lead to swelling and tenderness, TFCC injuries usually don’t: one moment your TFCC is fine, but given a big enough stress, it lesions, meaning: TFCC injury is most often the direct consequence of an acute event instead of it being caused by chronic overstressing (like it usually is the case with tendons).
Keep in mind, though, that I haven’t any medical / rehab background. I’m just recounting from my personal experience and the basic knowledge I’ve gathered about TFCC stuff.
I was thinking about starting to do push-ups again with extra weight on my back. But when tried it i found out that i can’t really twist my wrist outwards anymore and doing push-ups hands in a fist eats my knuckels.
Anyone tried and is this some kind of an issue because push-ups were really easy to do a year a go when i was still light weight.
[quote]1000yardstare wrote:
ive had the same thing for the past few months. i can do everything pain free except supinate my left hand. even ez bar curls bother it.
ive just pushed through it, modified my routines. but im gonna eventually have to get back to heavy chins and barbell curls. im gonna get a cortisone shot in the next couple months.
FattyFat,
is TFCC like arthritis or tendonitis? or is it totally different. b/c ive always just assumed that this pain is tenonitis.
[/quote]
To put it in layman’s terms: TFCC is to your wrist what the meniscus is to your knee.
Tendon can be repaired, but you’re usually not that lucky with cartilage.
The symptoms and consequences are different, too. While tendon maladies often lead to swelling and tenderness, TFCC injuries usually don’t: one moment your TFCC is fine, but given a big enough stress, it lesions, meaning: TFCC injury is most often the direct consequence of an acute event instead of it being caused by chronic overstressing (like it usually is the case with tendons).
Keep in mind, though, that I haven’t any medical / rehab background. I’m just recounting from my personal experience and the basic knowledge I’ve gathered about TFCC stuff.
[/quote]
Turn your hands so that they face each other. Then bend your wrist down. If you see a small bump on your left wrist that isn’t there on your right, it might be a torn ligament. I have something similar going on with my wrist and have for the last 7 years.
