Exercises with a healing broken wrist

crista317

Hi there. A little background, at the beginning of March I joined a gym and hired 3 months worth of personal training because I've never lifted or really even been to a gym and have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to strength training. On the way home from the gym, I was in a car accident and broke my wrist and had to have surgery with a plate and some metal screws to put it back together. So much for for my personal training. Ugh!

Anyway, it's been 8 weeks, the dr said my bones are healed and I can resume normal activity within reason and pain tolerance. I've been doing occupational therapy 3 days a week for the last 4 weeks to help with strength and range of motion and I've come a long way, though I'm only back to about 60% of what I was before the accident.

I really want to get to the gym. I'm a runner and have been training for my races but I've lost a lot of endurance and speed. I'm hoping some strength training will be good for getting me back in shape.

My question is, are there any exercises I can do that don't require much use of that wrist?I can't lift too much with it and floor exercises like push-ups would still be painful. I know I could do legs, but with training for races and all the running I'm already doing, I really feel I need to do upper body and core work. I'm just wondering if it's worth paying all that money for a trainer if I can't utilize it to the fullest. (I was refunded for the trainer I couldn't use after the accident.) Or, if you all have any ideas of certain exercises I can do so I don't have to pay a trainer until I'm more healed up.

I hope all this makes sense, and thanks so much in advance!!

hill8570

Would think that just about any dumbbell exercise that is done with extended arms (butterfly chest presses, etc) would work well -- it doesn't take a very large weight in the hand to exert a large force further in. You'll want to be doing work like that anyway (with slow increases) to challenge the bone to heal solidly. Then there are things like situps (inclined or not), back extensions, leg raises, anything involving the chest fly machine. And there is always swimming. Might even be able to use the row machine, but that's a bit iffier.

julie_broadhead

Hi, I'm in a similar situation to yours. I am currently rehabbing tendon inflammation in both wrists. My OT has me wearing braces on both wrists when I work out to keep my wrists neutral. I can do shoulder presses with my palms toward my face, hammer curls, rows, kettle bell swings, and bench press.
For ab work, you can modify almost everything you used to do on your hands to your elbows. My OT has been really helpful when coming up with modifications for my work outs. If you haven't asked yours about work out modifications you should. Hope you heal up and regain your strength soon:-)

crista317

Thanks so much for the helpful replies. I'm looking so forward to finally reaping benefits from strength training. I've never really committed to it before and now I'm ready. Maybe it would still benefit me to hire my trainer again. If nothing else, he can set me up with a solid plan and help me modify the exercise as needed.

I do a lot of reading in these forums (don't post much) but I've learned so much. You guys are a wealth of knowledge so I thank you again!

singletrackmtbr

I had a broken wrist that didn't heal quite right. Pushup stands are a great tool for any floor exercise. They allow your wrists to stay in a neutral position instead of flexed. Give them a try!

tcunbeliever

You can do regular and side planks on your elbows instead of wrists, plus crunches leg lifts and all the other core style exercises. If your wrists will tolerate it try some yoga - many of the poses can be done on fingertips instead of flat hands so that you aren't putting as much pressure on your wrists. Watch out for things like downward dog, might be too much at this time. Assuming your wrist will tolerate low weights for upper body work, do the exercises explosively fast on the push and v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y on the release - plyometric style training will build muscle even at low weights.