The wrist joint is complicated.  The wrist joint can be stubborn. The wrist joint is highly susceptible to overload and injuries.  And no two wrist injuries ever present the same way. 

Did you know that stunt performers have the only job in the world with a 100% injury rate?

For most of us, a wrist injury means taking it easy for a while, popping a few day’s worth of anti-inflammatories, and keeping loads on the wrist relatively low.  But for someone like my client Toni, a professional stunt woman, a damaged wrist can be a life-altering jolt to her career.

Toni had been suffering from her right wrist injury for a few months and recently got her MRI results back.

Take a look at Toni’s MRI!

 

You can understand, based on her MRI results and months of frustrating, painful setbacks, why Toni might start catastrophizing her professional future

However, I firmly believe there is a treatment solution to every injury problem. The body is a miraculous healing mechanism, especially when placed in the right environment.

I had an idea:  Write out a suggested prescription for Toni, hoping her doctor is considering non-surgical interventions. Toni can share this with her doctor at her upcoming appointment. Trust me, doctors love a clear summary of their patient’s symptoms and problems and a plan-of-care (POC) to ease their evaluation.

My Rx for Toni:

• Protect. Wear a protective, “cock-up” splint, but have a goal of weaning from it over a 6-8 week period.
• Nutrition: Take in foods that turn your body into an anti-inflammation machine, and ingest the right minerals and nutrients to support muscle, bone, and tendon growth.
• Mobility: Maintain as much natural actor range of motion as possible with daily soft tissue massage, gentle stretching, finger gliding, and nerve flossing.
• Isometrics: For the first 2-3 weeks, stick with isometric strengthening for the wrist joint, exploring all planes of motion, and timing your wrist periods, 4x/week. These exercises should not irritate the wrist!
• Isotonics: Focus on keeping everything above the wrist, your elbow and shoulder, strong with isotonic strengthening, 2-3x/ week
• Grip:  Add grip strengthening to your training routine, 2-3x/week. The goal is to get the grip strength of the injured hand within 10% of the non-injured hand. These exercises should not irritate the wrist! Read our bite-sized blog: GET A GRIP: 6 Very Cool Things About Your Grip .
• Heat 🆚 Ice: Heat for mobility. Ice for inflammation emergencies, but do not chronically ice.

Richard Symister, MSPT, CSCS

MovEvolultion.com