Upper body strength exercises- bad wrist

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I've been doing MFP on and off for several years and found a lot of success with weight loss. Most of my exercise is walking or jogging and I have very little upper body strength. I'm avoiding the gym right now (thank you, COVID) and I have a bad wrist that can't bend all the way or support my weight, so dips and push you pushups are out. What are some exercises I can do at home to increase upper body strength that avoid putting pressure on my wrist?

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  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Some wrist injuries/issues are only a problem if bent badly, like with pushups or dips.

    But have you seen the pushup bars that allow rotating to best angle for you, but also allow straight wrist usage, no tilting.

    For many with injuries, that straight wrist (same as you would get from hanging for pullups, or bodyweight rows) allows doing all the normal push lifts like bench or overhead press, and even there a straight bar could be not best, so the ability to rotate forearms is what makes it possible.

    Outside of that, you have all the pull motions - bent over row, pullups, upright row, delt isolation lifts.
    All with water filled jugs for weight if starting out.
  • RashadLavelle
    RashadLavelle Posts: 46 Member
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    Jme03 wrote: »
    I've been doing MFP on and off for several years and found a lot of success with weight loss. Most of my exercise is walking or jogging and I have very little upper body strength. I'm avoiding the gym right now (thank you, COVID) and I have a bad wrist that can't bend all the way or support my weight, so dips and push you pushups are out. What are some exercises I can do at home to increase upper body strength that avoid putting pressure on my wrist?

    I have a injured writ too, due to falling off the bike. Unfortunately I cannot do push-ups, except when I use push up grip bars, because it's the only way to keep my write from bending. I also use dumbbells with an exercise ball to do chest flys and chest press. Just as long as keep my write straight, it's fine. Another option is to invest in resistance bands with an door anchor. You can do a lot of check workouts, (inclines, declines, press, flys), depending on the position of the anchor. These are inexpensive compared to dumbbells and I still can get a good workout and burn with these. It's a lot safer on the wrist as well.