I often hear new personal training clients complain that their wrists hurt when they do a push-ups or high plank. Luckily, I have some go-to moves to help strengthen the wrists.
Personally, I’ve suffered from tendinitis on and off for a decade, so I tend to avoid any moves that will put pressure on my wrists, but more recently, I’ve been working on improving my wrist strength with five exercises. I do them as often as I can.
However, having strong wrists isn’t just important if you have a weakness or health condition. We need them to lift and carry, to do certain exercises and also for grip strength—an important marker of health and longevity.
Plus, when the muscles around the wrist and hands are strong, that means we reduce our risk of sprains and strains. Here are my five favorite wrist exercises you can try at home today.
The wrist workout
The five moves:
- Wrist waves
- Finger crunch plus starfish stretch
- Wrist rotation
- Palm up wrist extension
- Palm down wrist extension
Aim for 6-8 repetitions of each move when you first start, building up to 10-12 reps as your wrists get stronger and more flexible.
These are fairly gentle stretches, so you don’t really need recovery time, but if you do feel like you need a rest, then take as much time as needed between exercises.
How wrist training could improve your workout performance
Wrist training is often overlooked but strong wrists mean we have better control and stability, especially when lifting weights. Without strength in this area, it makes it very hard to progress to heavier weights.
Having strong wrists reduces the risk of injury and means you can activate muscle groups more effectively.
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