How much time do you spend looking after your wrists? CrossFit places some pretty huge demands on our wrists, in ways that most of us have never experienced. Think about the front rack position on a front squat, thruster or clean. How about handstand walks and pushups? These movements require flexible, strong wrists, capable of achieving full range of motion. Now, most of us are pretty good at increasing our weights slowly and allowing our bodies to adapt. Well, your wrists are a part of your body and you are asking them to receive a 200lb squat clean. That kind of weight, in the extreme wrist extension of the front rack, is going to cause some problems if you aren’t showing your wrists some TLC.
Here are some tips to avoid wrist pain at CrossFit.
- Warm up and stretch your wrists. Most of us can’t get into a comfortable, deep squat without warming up our hips. Same goes for your wrists. Check out the videos and suggestions below and just get them moving in every which way possible. As well as just stretching, think about putting load through the wrists.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTuw9RC6osc&w=560&h=315]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lW2IN9_caM&w=560&h=315]
Wrist circles: clasp your hands together and make circles with your wrists.
Prayer stretch: put your palms together as if praying. Keep your palms pressed firmly together and lower. When you get to the bottom, turn your hands fingers down and reverse it.
I like this suggestion by Kelly Starrett: “If your wrists are manky, clean just the bar at least 30 times before you even dream of putting weight on that thing.”
- Technique!
Release your hook grip and receive the bar on your delts when you clean. If you can do this while keeping your fingers around the bar, great. If not, let it roll into your fingertips. The bar should sit on a shelf created by your shoulders. You should release that hook grip when you receive a snatch too, and there’s no need to use it for overhead squats.
When you get to the bottom of a front squat or thruster, make sure the elbows stay up so the bar stays on your shoulders and doesn’t roll forward into your wrists.
When you dip on a jerk or push press, keep the chest up and the bar on the shoulders so 1) the bar can drive up off your shoulders when you extend your hips, and 2) it doesn’t roll forward and jam into your wrists. Ouch.
Also, take a look at the two images below to make sure you are pressing and going overhead with that bar in the correct position in your palm.
- High elbows. If you can’t get high elbows on your front rack, there could be multitude of mobility deficits that are preventing this. Watch this video.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un1PDhrU3h0&w=560&h=315]
- Work on the external rotation of your shoulder. As well as just working on targeted wrist mobility exercises, make sure you don’t have tight shoulders. If you can’t get an externally rotated shoulder on the front rack or overhead squat (think armpits forward), you’re going to have trouble downstream at the wrists. Watch this video by Kelly Starett.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFZv-_pRe2k&w=560&h=315]
- Work on your thoracic mobility. Poor thoracic mobility means more stress on your wrists.
- Try this triceps release. If your triceps are tight, you’ll have a hard time getting a good front rack.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUqulvOWogg&w=560&h=315]
- Use wrist wraps, but not as a band aid. Try only to use them when the bar gets really heavy, and make sure you work on your wrist mobility and strength too. A piece of tape around the wrists can provide a little extra support that makes all the difference too.
- Strengthen your grip. Farmers carries and simply hanging from a bar are great ways to work on your grip strength.
- Try taking your hands a little wider. If you are really tight, or have particularly long arms, experiment with taking your hands a little wider and see if it helps.
- If need be, use dumbbells and paralettes to keep your wrists in a neutral position for handstand work. Sub out dumbbells for a barbell on cleans if you’re having a bad wrist day.
Ongoing pain that won’t go away? Get it checked out by a medical professional.
