Wrist Pain

[evnp85]

I'll try to sum up my problem. A few weeks ago I started to notice a slight pain in my wrist, particularly while doing barbell curls. I didn't think much of it because the pain would go away after my first or second set. Well, this week, the pain has gotten much worse. I decided I should take a couple of days off and wait for it to feel better. I did a chest workout two days ago and did not notice any pain while doing it. I woke up yesterday and noticed pain while twisting my hand in either direction like a corkscrew. The pain is on the outside portion of my wrist. There is no swelling or anything like that, just pain while attempting to move my hand in a corksrew-like manner. I am currently unable to even lift just the 45lb bar in 2 hands as I experience pain while doing so.

My question is; has anyone ever experienced something like this? How much time should I take off? I have no idea what is wrong with my wrist, is it possible I sprained it while working out without even realizing it until the next day?

[getfit]

I've had wrist pain for awhile, i wasn't that good in taking time off,avoid curling and if you can get some wrist wraps they do help a little.

[care_bear]

i had the same thing...do as getfit says and drop the curls

[Reala]

I have a simular problem from over doing a punchbag and pressups... I would try wearing a wrist support

[KingWilder]

you might just have weak wrists...

I use wrist wraps and they do the trick

[dinkman23]

i had a similar problem. the doctor told me it was tendonitis. i took a week off, and it felt a lot better, but it still hurts when i curl as of late. I say, get like a week's worth of rest and let it heal.

[kad]

I used to have this problem too. It went away when I started to use the EZ curl bar for curls, and not the straight bar. I haven't done any direct arm work in a few weeks though.

[evnp85]

I dont think its weak wrists. I don't use gloves or anything like that and have never experienced this before. As someone else posted about how they were diagnosed with tendonitis; I think it may be that. I'm going to take a week off and see how I feel after that. I've noticed this starting about 2 weeks ago when I increased the intensity of my workouts (# of sets). It started out as a very slight discomfort that would go away after 1 or 2 sets of curling. However, after my last workout two days ago I am getting intense pain when I twist my wrist. I do not recall any intense pain as if I tore something while working out. It has gotten progressively worse as I have continued to workout. It probably is tendonitis.

I am just hoping that when I work out again after this pain goes away, the problem won't come back.

[Majestic]

This happened to me about 10 years ago. My wrists crack to this day. I couldn't even do open-handed pushups for a while during recovery....I had to do them on my fists, which still hurt.

For me, it was a combination of heavy curls, combined with behaving very stupidly with some 70 lb. boxes on a daily basis at work. Bad angles, bad habits, etc.

Take 10 days off, and when you return, ditch the current bicep exercise you're using, and consider something else.

My 2 cents.....I'm no expert/authority. I'm sure people more knowledgable than myself will chime-in.

[KFeld]

I have the exact same problem as you do right now, my left wrist hurt whenever I turned it in a 'corkscrew' manner. And only the outside part of my wrist hurt. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning the under side of my forearm burns. I was under the assumption it was a sprain, so I bought wrist wraps and tried to continue lifting using only light weights until it healed. After about a month I realized the pain was only getting worse... went to the doctor, and he put me in a wrist brace. I also had some x-rays done and there's a small bone on that side of the wrist that appeared to have been displaced, and that's what has been causing the pain. I'm not sure how to treat it, I have another appointment this upcoming tuesday morning.

[Sensei]

Take time and let it heal. When you come back, make sure to do some grip/wrist work to strengthen the area. Also, you might reconsider your grip for curls - use a EZ-curl bar, or do DB hammer curls, or try widening your grip a little when curling the straight bar.

[dinkman23]

i still have trouble with my wrists when I do curls. is there any way to do direct bicep work without putting a lot of stress on the wrists? i.e. certain machines, weird exercises...

Also, I took a week off and my tendonitis got a lot better, but it's still lingering. If i only do exercises that don't hurt my wrist( basically curls), will my wrist heal eventually because it seems that everything irritates it a little.

[toohot]

for evnp85, hey bro i just did the exact same thing to my wrist that u described above! i was curious if your wrist has gotten any better and if so what exactly did u do to better it and how long did it take! thanx!

[Brad263]

Isn't a straight bar bad for curling? I mean if you look at your arms its a pretty unnatural motion to get both hands palm up, it puts strain on your embows and wrists. Isn't that why a curling bar at the preacher curl is not straight. Your supposed to have your wrists turned. I would suggest using a proper bar for curling and see if goes away.

Barbells are meant for squats, bench and deadlift and oh press. not curling.

[Runty]

This thread is a year and a half old...

[toohot]

no ****, ya ur right, oh well, but he can still let us know how he healed it?

[Rock Steady]

I've had this problem for 8 months. Yes, 8 months. It has slowly been getting better each and every month.

Fortunately, the only time it hurts is doing curls where my palms are parallel with the floor. I hit my biceps by doing chin ups, cable pull downs, bent over rows, and hammer curls. I'm able to deadlift over 400 pounds without straps on a regular basis, but the thought of curling a 40 pound dumbbell isn't pleasant. It's been a pain to deal with, but it's not bad enough that I'm going to take 8 weeks completely off of lifting to let it heal.

(I hurt it by going too heavy on reverse curls last June)

[Rock Steady]

After doing a search, I bought some Inzer wrist wraps to help me get through it.

[BigLarry]

Sorry for bumping this thread.

I have exactly the same problem. The pain is only really there if I twist my wrist or spread all my fingers as wide as I can.

I'm fine with shoulder press, bench etc but any curling is out as my wrist hurts too much.

I've tried resting for 2 weeks and it hasn't got better.

My wrist has always hurt whilst curling but only mildly and I'm not sure if this is where the problem now stems from.

If any of the above posters are still active and got a solution, I'd be thankful if they would reply.

Thanks.

BL

[hobey123]

I'm really glad I just stumbled upon this forum. I've been working out for about 2 months now taking it seriously and I just experienced this happen to me. I think I can almost pinpoint when it might have happened and it wasn't an initial pain. In fact the pain may have started a few days after this.

It's been about 5 weeks now but the pain persists. Some days it's better some days it's worse.

Initially I took about 2 weeks off, but it didn't seem to get any better. The only time I would find complete relief from the pain was when I was soaking in hot water. Then I could find a complete range of motion resulted in no pain. I have been massaging the injury constantly but this only seems to agravate things.

I was about to see the doctor (which I may still do), but it's comforting to hear that this isn't an isolated issue.

When I started working out about a year ago, I noticed a similar kind of pain when doing free weight bicep curls. It wasn't as bad as what I am experiencing now, but it seemed to go away after a while and things fully healed. It seems that either when I was doing preacher curls or free weight bench press I have tried lifting too heavy and subsequently this has resulted in some sort of injury.

If anyone has any further insight or solutions into helping cope with this, please feel free to comment.

Thanks in advance.

[Rodzilla]

Had this problem for 11 months, i had to quit weight lifting, and i lost alot of my size. its amazing what pain will do to you... i tried to stay in the game... but it was making things worse.

Now i lift with a wrist brace, use light weights, and try to be very careful.

The doctors have no clue what it is, but it all started for me with heavy preacher curls. I beleive i partially pulled my wrist joint apart on the outter side.

I have done acupuncture therapy, physio, X-rays, a cast, a splint, rest, ice etc.... its still there but very mild now that i have taken so many months off.

[Wonder Boy]

like other people have said, you guys aren't supposed to curl with the straight bar, it puts unneeded stress on your wrist joints. The EZ bar was made for a reason.

[hobey123]

Mostly I did preacher curls, but I would occasionally use a straight bar, not very often though and there was no pain while doing the exercise. The pain only began the next day or a few days after, so it's not as though anything is torn or broken, it seems more like a strain, which is why I immediately took some time off training. After 3 weeks, it was still the same as the day it start hurting, so it's a strange injury indeed. I'm going to try and steer clear from any kind of bicep exercise and strap the wrists up for a bit and see how things go.

Thanks for the info guys and happy (although not happy for you guys) to see that there are others experiencing the same as me.

If there are any further success stories or tips, PLS post them.

I will get an X-ray and post how things go progressively.

Thanks again guys.

[hobey123]

Hey guys, had a bit of success with this. I saw the doctor the other day and described my pain. He was confident it was tendinitis and prescribed voltaren. The very next day, I was feeling almost no pain at all due to the voltaren. I've been taking it for about a week now and working out with virtually no pain in the wrist at all. He recommended I keep going to the gym, but steer clear of isolated bicep excercises for a month or 2.

Overall this is a successful solution, so if you are experiencing this. Pls go to your GP and get him to give you Voltaren!

Good luck guys.

[EvilKokonut]

yeah I found this thread a few months ago and it describes my pain. The pain started in my left wrist and I took off two months and it slowly went away. Three months later I had the same pain in my right wrist after the left one had healed. I took off three weeks and let it heal enough for me to lift again. However, I still have pain when I twist my wrist (pain only in the outer area like those above). It has been about 5 months and I still have the pain. I don't curl anymore because of the pain as well as skull crushers. Anyways, I'm assuming eventually the pain will go away, I don't feel like taking off another two months.