Sprained wrist

This weekend I sprained my wrist which really screws up my workout plans for the next few weeks. I will be OK for lower body and abs, but I dont think I can do any work for upper body. How long should I stay away from the weights? Is level of pain a good indicator? Say if I give it a try after a couple of weeks and the pain is managable, should I continue or should I stay off for a month?

I can pretty much relate. I broke my wrist just under a year ago. I didn’t want to stop training. I was doing pushups just ten days after I broke it (I just had to make sure I used a fist style pushup and kept my wrist in a straight line), and the broken wrist didn’t keep me out of the weight room. Well, here I am today and I have popping in my wrist when I do pullups and pain when doing bench - I never let it heal.


In fact, a funny story is that two months after I broke it I had another X-ray. By then I was back to doing light bench press and machine press. The Dr. told me it didn’t heal properly and wondered why. I told him that one time I tried to work out (HUGE understatement) and he told me that that was very stupid. I was supposed to have another appointment to get it reset, but I never went. Don’t be like me.

Hi Scott. Pain is a good indicator of how your recovery is going, as well as range of motion. Your discomfort will lessen as you heal and your ROM will increase. Frankly, you should stay off it until it doesn’t hurt to work out any more. A soft tissue injury like this can become chronic if you don’t let it heal properly.

I feel for you. I jacked my wrist up playing hockey last year. I didn’t even do very much damage and a very slight sprain had me cursing every time I tried to lift.

After about a month I just taped the shit out of it and went to work. I just couldn’t sit still anymore. Softball started and it nagged me all fucking summer.

At the very least make sure that you don’t get any residual swelling and good luck.