Hey everybody its Doctor Jo and cool cat Bear, and we're going to show you some
stretches and exercises for wrist tendonitis. So wrist tendonitis is a
general term, so we're just going to do some general stretches and exercises. So
let's get started.
To start off with some wrist range of motion type stretches exercises, start
off with your elbow bent. Now you can put it on the table, you can rest it on
something, you can just hold it up in the air, or you can just place it in your
other hand. So it just really depends on your comfort level, and you can also just
prop it up on your leg as well, but what you're going to do is just at your wrist, is
make a fist with your hand and go down as far as you comfortably can, and then
come up as far as you comfortable can. So again you don't have to put it on
anything you can just do it in the air, but you're going to go down and that's
going to kind of stretch up here, and then come up and that's going to stretch
down there. So with this one it's really just getting that motion, it's not
necessarily a stretch yet, so you can just kind of go back and forth
continuously, but make sure it's a nice smooth motion. If you want to pause for a
second or two at each side you can. So after you go up and down or a flexion
extension, then you're going to go side to side this way. So this is ulnar
deviation, radial deviation. So now just going side to side. So you're going to
stretch it out this way. When you go here that ulnar side and then this way here
that radial side. So you can feel it all the way sometimes down into your thumb.
So I'll do a different angle. So you're just going this way and then this way,
but a lot of times it's easy to prop it up on something and go back and forth. So
with these you can just do about ten maybe five each way, this is really just
to get everything loosened up before you start stretching and exercising it. Then
the next motions are going to be supination and pronation. With supination
and pronation, I like having the elbow bent at your side, when people keep their
arms straight and do supination and pronation, they're really been doing it
shoulder verses at their wrists and their forearms. Bend your elbow, kind of
keep it close to your side so you're getting the movement here versus through
the whole arm. You can open up your hand now and so going downwards this is
pronation, and then coming up is supination like you're holding a bowl of
soup, that's how I always remember it, and so again just this is for motion so
you're just moving it back and forth, another nice kind of smooth motion. If you
want to do a little pause each way you can, but that's just really kind of to
get everything loosened up and get it moving a little bit. So then you're going
to go into a stretch, actually stretching out those wrist flexors and extensors. So
the best way to do that is put your arm straight out. If you come down, you're
going to stretch the top here. If you keep your fingers open, that's not quite
as much of a stretch, but if you make a fist you'll get even more of a stretch,
and if you take your other hand and push it down even more you'll feel a really
really big stretch. Now this one is for stretch, so you're going to hold it for
30 seconds, so you want it to be tension, slightly uncomfortable, but you don't
want it to be painful, and some people might feel it more here, but again with
tendonitis if it's wrist tendonitis all these muscles and tendons go all the way
up to the elbows, so even though it's wrist these are all connected here. So
you want to stretch everything out through here. Then after you do that for
30 seconds, then you're going to go the other way. So it's different when you go
up and stretch these muscles under here, if you have your fists like this,
then you're just getting a little stretch, and if you want even more of a
stretch you open up your hands, and if you want even more of a stretch than
that, take your other hand and just pull those fingers back towards you and
you'll feel a nice stretch through here. So again holding that for 30 seconds and
then you're going to do it three times each way. I like to alternate back and
forth just to give them a little break in between. if this is uncomfortable kind
of bringing your hand over you can always place it on a wall, or
you can even just, if you're on the floor, place your hands on the floor and then
lean forward. So see I'm getting that stretch through there going this way, so
just placing your hands flat going in the other direction,
or then putting the back of your hands down and then leaning back you'll get a
stretch that way as well. So then you can do both if you want to so you can
stretch it that way, or you can just use your hands to stretch it, so either way
whichever one you'd like. So then the next one is just opening up your hand as
big as you can, kind of getting everything stretched and opened up, and
then just close everything into a fist, and you might hear some of my fingers
popping a little bit, that's okay that's pretty normal, but again you're just
opening and closing this. So the tendons in the wrists in the hands are
just kind of moving and gliding, and if I turn this way you should be able to see
them as I open up, you see them this way and then when I close them I stretch a
little bit. So just again this is just kind of a back and forth you don't
necessarily have to hold the stretch if you're really just trying to get
everything moving and opening it up a little bit, so this is a nice one to do.
Then you're going to go into some strengthening stuff once you get this
the wrist loosened up and get it stretched out. So you can do this a
couple different ways, one is a ball squeeze. So you can take any kind of ball
you want, this is a racquet ball. You can go lacrosse ball, a tennis ball, some
people like the firmer balls like a lacrosse ball, and some people like
a little more squishy like the racquet ball or a tennis ball, but just place it
in your hand and all you're going to do is just squeeze. And with this one you're
going to hold for about three to five seconds, so nice big squeeze, hold it, you
don't have to squish the ball completely, but just so you're getting that squeeze
in there all the way around, squeeze and hold, and you should be able to feel all
those muscles through the wrist and the forearm activating. So just probably
three to five seconds doing that five times. If you don't happen to have a ball
handy, you can roll up a towel and do a towel squeeze, so same kind of concept,
just get your fingers all way around and squeeze as tight as
you comfortably can and relax. Some people find that the towel is too
squishy, and that's okay, if it's too squishy another easy and cheap
alternative is a piece of a pool noodle. If you've seen some of my videos, you
know that the pool noodles can be used in a whole bunch of different ways, but
this is great because it's a little squishier than some of the balls but
it's firmer than the towel, so you're getting that kind of in-between,
so again just spread your fingers out a little bit, squeeze hold it for about
three to five seconds, and then relax. So doing that five to ten times really just
getting some strengthening in that area and then closing. Then you can go to
having just a rubber band, nothing fancy about it it's just a simple rubber band.
Put it around all your fingers like that and your thumb, and then you're just
going to open it up as wide as you comfortably can. Now if I go too much
wider, the band's going to roll down my fingers, so I don't open it all the way
up, but the key is to slowly come back in so you really want to make sure that
you're not just popping it back in, but you're controlling that movement to get
that strengthening and those fingers and that wrist area, so nice slow controlled
and going out and in. So since these are smaller muscles, even though it's just a
rubber band, you don't really want to do a whole lot of them, you just want to do
about five or ten really just to get those little smaller muscles working. So
that does a great job as well, and then to do some more strengthening getting a
little bit heavier with objects each time, you can just use either a soup
vegetable can. If you happen to have a one-pound band, you can use a one-pound
can, a one-pound weight, you can use that as well because this is about one pound.
So again you can prop it up on something, people tend to like to do this
especially if they're really sore in that wrist,
but just make sure that your wrist is hanging off the edge so you have that
free movement to do that extension. If you feel pretty good, you can just hold
it up in the air and do it this way as well, but again you want to do a nice
smooth controlled motion going straight up and down, but if you feel like you're
getting a lot of movement then just prop it up on something, come all the way down
that full motion all the way down and that full motion all the way up.
So again just starting off with ten of these, if that's easy the 2 sets of 10, three
sets of ten, two sets of fifteen, but if you get to doing 20 - 25 and it's pretty
easy, then you can go up a little heavier on the weight. Then you're going to turn
your hand over and do the same motion, but now you're getting those flexors, so
just nice and slow coming down and then nice and slow coming up, so it doesn't
have to be a huge motion, but really try and get that full motion of your wrists
because if you've got some tendonitis in it you might only be able to do that,
which is fine, but eventually hopefully you'll get to go a little bit further
because it's okay if it's uncomfortable, but you really don't want it to be
painful. So that nice big movement in there and then for the radial deviation
you can turn it this way and then drop it down and come up. I like if I have a
weight where I can hold it a little bit tighter I like having my thumb up on top
when I do it, it's a little harder to do it with a soup can because it's bigger,
but just make sure that you feel that you're in a comfortable position, and so
sometimes if my thumbs more on top going like this, it's a little more comfortable
because this gets a big stretch over that thumb area, but if not that's
okay, but I do prefer when I have weights to have that thumb up on top. So
just coming all the way down and coming all the way up, and then the last one is
for the pronation supination with a little bit of weight. So you can use a
hammer if you want to. A Hammer's nice because it has a big weighted top so
when you bring it back and forth, it gives that a little bit
of extra pressure, but if you don't have a hammer handy which you might not, you
can take the weight or the soup can and hold it where most of it is up on top,
and then keeping that elbow by your side or just kind of over the table or over
your leg, and then just roll over going into that supination, and then coming all
the way back into that pronation, so when you have more of the weight up on top
when it comes over, it's just going to give you that extra stretch and that
extra resistance where you have to bring it up and then come back the other way.
So if you even want to do it right here you can do it that way as well so that
works pretty good, but if you want a nice solid handle you can use a hammer
to go back and forth with that as well. so remember that with any kind of wrist
exercises these are smaller muscles, so you don't have to go overboard if you're
not feeling anything while you're doing it, it doesn't necessarily mean you're not
going to be sore or painful later, so start off with just a little bit, and if
you feel good the next day then you can start progressing up from there. So those
are your stretches and exercises for wrist tendonitis. Don't forget to
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