Exercise Can Strengthen Wrists in Women

The wrist comprises eight separate small bones called the carpal bones. These bones connect the two bones of the forearm, called the radius and the ulna, to the bones of the hand and fingers. The metacarpal bones are the long bones that lie mostly underneath the palm, and they are in turn attached to the phalanges; the bones in the fingers and thumb. Each one of these bones attaches to another bone creating a lot of “joints” in the hand and wrist.  Each joint is also easily damaged. When you break a fall with your hands or you jar your wrist in any way it changes the way that the ligaments relate to the rest of the wrist and that can take a long time to heal if it ever heals completely.

Now that we have reviewed the general anatomy of the wrist lets now examine why women may have more problems then their male counterparts.  Women in general tend to be more flexible with looser ligaments and tendons.  This in itself can be a major contributor to a higher risk of injury.  Just think of any appliance that you have in your house, the more moving parts that it has and the bigger the range of motion that it has the more likely it will break right?  The same concept applies to women; we have a greater range of motion and therefore need to be more aware of how we treat our wrist.

Women are genetically 33% smaller than their male counterparts.  That includes muscle mass bone size and weight. When you take a joint that has numerous joints that attach a bunch of bones the size of PVC piping to the size of a toothpick and take 33% of that size away we are dealing with very small muscles and joints.

Not to fret ladies, although we will never have the massive wrists of men, there are a few things that we can do to strengthen our wrists so that we can open our own jar of pickles or do pushups without having to rub your wrists afterwards.  Plank exercises will be a piece of cake and cutting into a fresh delicious pineapple will be a breeze.  Here are some exercises and stretches to strengthen your wrists.

1. Position your left forearm perpendicular to the floor and let your wrist flop forward. Take your right hand and press your left hand down as if you are trying to get your left palm to touch your left forearm. Once you are in this position take your left hand and press up against your right hand. Do this 10 times then switch hands
2. Pick up a pair of small weights, 2- 3 lbs will be fine, if you do not have hand weights go to your cupboard and grab 2 soup cans. Stand with your shoulders back and down, lift your forearms so that you are in a half curl position. Your elbows are at a 90 degree angle and your upper arms are at your sides. Hold the soup cans so that your palms are up. Drop your hands so that your wrist is limp, and then curl your hands in towards your forearms without moving your arms. Build up to 3 sets of 15.
3. Take the same position as #2 with your elbows at a 90 degree angle and your palms up. Now without moving your arms flip your hands so that your palms are facing the ground, then flip your hands so that they are facing up again. Build up to 3 sets of 15.
4. Take your left palm and face it forward with your fingers down. Make sure your hand is lower than your shoulders and your palms are facing away from you. Grab your fingers and pull them back toward your body. Hold the stretch for 20 seconds and then switch sides.

Do this routine 3 times a week and in no time at all you will start to see a huge difference in your ability to grip, twist, turn, and plank on your wrist.

Katie Stumbo, a nationally certified trainer with the National Council of Strength and Fitness, is the founder of FitLife, a Phoenix-based personal training business that offers in-home customized workouts as well as structured Boot Camps. Katie also holds certifications in yoga, Pilates, Aikido, Shinkendo and is a U.S. certified swim coach. 

Katie Stumbo is founder of FitLife.  She can be reached via email at katiestumbo@live.com.  For more information, visit www.succeedwithfitlife.com/.

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