Broken Wrist

[tumbleweed77]

Hello fellow cyclists I suffered a pretty nasty left wrist fracture back in July and was casted for 9 weeks, a brace for 4 and now i'm 2 weeks into physical therapy. My problem is that my hand is so weak that I can't shift with my left hand.... which makes riding kind of hard sometimes. Does anyone know of some good strengthening exercises I can do to increase that strength? my therapist wasn't much help... she just told me that it'll only get stronger with time and that I can't really acclerate that process... my opinion is that there is a lot i can be doing to increase muscle strength, but want an exercise to target that specific motion if possible. any help would be great! any home exercises you have done?

 

[kdelong]

Hello fellow cyclists I suffered a pretty nasty left wrist fracture back in July and was casted for 9 weeks, a brace for 4 and now i'm 2 weeks into physical therapy. My problem is that my hand is so weak that I can't shift with my left hand.... which makes riding kind of hard sometimes. Does anyone know of some good strengthening exercises I can do to increase that strength? my therapist wasn't much help... she just told me that it'll only get stronger with time and that I can't really acclerate that process... my opinion is that there is a lot i can be doing to increase muscle strength, but want an exercise to target that specific motion if possible. any help would be great! any home exercises you have done?

Get a squishy ball to squeeze. You can find them at discount stores in the fitness section. Any exercise that strengthens your grip will help the overall strength of your hand. You also might try doing wrist curls with a dumbell. This works best if you are seated. Lay your left forearm along your left thigh with your palm facing up. Use your right hand to place the dumbell in your left hand. Let your left hand hang down over your left knee. Using only your wrist, curl the dumbell up without lifting your forearm off your thigh. Do eight to twelve reps of this in your workout and you will see your hand strength improve. When you have regained enough strength in your left wrist and hand, use a barbell and exercise both wrists at the same time. There are also inverted wrist curls that are the same exercise but are done with the palms facing down. You won't want to do these until you have your normal hand strength back.

One last thing, if your fingers are weak, you can exercise them by using a simple rubber band and looping it around two adjacent fingers. Then you just spread your fingers apart against the resistance of the rubber band.

The really important thing though, is not to over do any of these. If you feel even the slightest discomfort, stop and assess what is going on. You may need to reduce the resistance or you may need to wait for your wrist to heal a little longer before resuming the exercise. Broken bones are not fully healed after only 15 weeks. They knit together enough to be stable after nine to twelve weeks, but are not fully healed for 25 to 30 weeks. Your doctor took off the cast and brace so that your muscles would not fully atrophy, and your therapist may have been reluctant to help you for fear of you possibly re-injuring your wrist.

 

[tumbleweed77]

ya, i know it takes a long time for a broken bone like what i had to heal completely... it stinks... blah... i like the rubber band thing... that's a good idea and i'm going to do it. lucky for me though, i play piano and have been playing ever since my doc removed my long arm cast... he even made my 3rd cast so that i could spread my fingers out more and it had a lower profile on the palm just so i could play easier and longer... thus my fingers are not stiff at all. i got a a set of adjustable dumbells so i could start doing wrist curls... thx for the help.