Wrist sprain? (very long)

[Jayhawk34]

Wasn't sure where else to put this. A month or so ago I started to notice wrist pain after doing some push press. I assume it was during this from bending my wrists back further than they should have been. The following week I noticed pain when I went to release my grip from BB bench. None of the pain was all that bad during this time. Over the last two to three weeks it stayed pretty constant, and last week I made sure to keep my hands more inline with my forearm on all presses, and worked on some speed with lighter weight. I did do one at 300 to make sure I hadn't dropped too far. The pain was much lighter than the previous two weeks, and I ordered some 12" blue mambas (wrist wraps) for a bit more support. My wrists and forearms have always been too small, but my forearms are starting to fill in very slowly.

Anyways, today was chest day and my first day with the wraps. I was extremely pumped to try them out, and put them on for my first set of 225x10. Felt very solid and no wrist pain...until I took them off. Then I had the usual, fairly mild pain. Well I went up to 300 to see if I could move it because I have been on a CKD recently and doing 10 rep sets. To my surprise, I couldn't even get 300-even up without a little help through a mid stick. When I let go of the bar my wrist hurt like HELL. After taking the wrap off it felt like I had a broken bone or something. I even had trouble helping lift off a 120lbs for my fiance. It hurt to just grip the bar. I dropped weight and couldn't unrack it myself at 225, but still got in my reps. Didn't hurt once the weight was over my upper abs/lower chest.

I noticed swelling in my wrist/forearm and moved on to decline for some reason. I was in too much pain after doing a very light set at 185x16 to continue. Being extremely irritated with myself I tried to grab some DBs and do very light incline. Couldn't even stabilize a 50lb db on my leg and gave up. My fiance (soon to be PT) was slightly pissed that I had tried to continue, and I also knew that I had royally f#$cked myself over. So anyways, I have been doing the R.I.C.E all night and can tell that this is going to take some time.

Has anyone had any similar experience with a wrap? Is it possible that it was too tight for the "heavy" lift, considering I may have had some tendonitis going into this, irritating it more or even causing a strain? Or, possibly bending my wrists back too far still? It just seems so odd to me that my wrist is in worse shape now after stabilizing it. Luckily I get married in less than two weeks, and then honeymoon for another giving me some much needed repair time. I am going to skip all upperbody for the rest of this week, and may attempt to move some weight next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before driving to our wedding location. I might pick up some Cissus and see if it helps, as it was wonderful on my shoulders. Sorry for the ramble!

 

[ecosocialist]

Bend both of your wrists down. On the middle of the wrist that hurts, on the top, compared to the wrist that doesnt, is there more inflammation/a larger bump?

 

[pmiller383]

Touch your thumb to your middle finger and then try to get all of your finger tips in that same point. Then take a light rubber band and place it around all your finger and your thumb. Open your hand for a total of 100 times, you can split it up into 4 sets of 24 or 2 of 50 etc. Doing this will help bring blood to the area and train the your wrist in a way that no one ever really does. You could also try rolling it on a tennis ball to seem if that elevates some pressure. Just remember if its is really hurting use common sense and drop these exercise if you think they are doing more damage. Finally how did you wrap your wrist, did you just go around the wrist or did you go around the base of the hand and then into the wrist?

 

[youngandfree]

Is it possible that the sprain hadn't obviously healed well enough to hit the heavy weights yet. The wraps helped support for the lift, but it still just aggravated the sprain worse. When you took the wrap off, it probably felt like it would have if you just did the lift without them. Not sure though

 

[Jayhawk34]

Thanks for the replies. For the first question, yes there was swelling/larger bump in the middle, on top of my injured wrist. I've managed to get the majority of the swelling down there, and on the bottom of my forearm. My fingers are still a bit swollen and numb/tingly, but I think moving them with my arm elevated will bring them back down. I went to see a general practitioner today that had a few x-rays taken, and thankfully there are no fractures. He actually thought that it might be a bit of compartmental syndrome. I think the swelling is coming down fast enough, but we will see I guess.
To the second person-I will try those out for sure when I recover a bit further. Right now I am just trying to get to where I can start my car with that hand lol. I seriously can't even apply enough pressure to put deodorant on with that hand. Also, when I wrapped them, I did cover the base of my palm for stiffness.
Last person-I think it was probably a little bit of tendonitis or light strain, and you are probably correct about aggravating it. It just seemed so odd to me that the same lift last week without wraps gave me no more pain than usual, and then this week with wraps leads to incredible pain and swelling.

 

[ecosocialist]

I would suggest researching deeper into the symptoms of a Ganglion Cyst. Its a stretch, but I have had that same problem...

Girlfriend accidently smashed it against a chair and within about 5 seconds, all pain and swelling was gone! So if that, at a stretch, is what it is, there is quick hope =].

 

[brownstown89]

hey man i hurt my wrist doing push press last year i always wore gloves with the wrist wraps for push press and i figured hey its 135 i dont need it and it twisted back to far.. Anyways u can modify ur workout around it meaning ALOT of back and legs some Tris and maybe pec dec and light DB bench....

however icy hot and take pain killers and keep the wrist wrapped at all times. except when ur lifting take it off.

Maybe take a week off ice heat it keep it wrapped use pain killers. then one day go to the gym mess around see what lifts dont cause pain and slowly work other things back in.