Take Care of Your Wrists in CrossFit


My wrists have been fatigued and sore. We have some front squats and push ups recently and I think it has led to a bit of strain on those wrists. I don’t do nearly enough mobility and I type all day long at my computer — so I read some good advice about taking care of the ole wrists:

It’s true. The receiving position of full clean can be brutal on your wrists, not to mention front squats and the worst of all, thrusters. It’s not uncommon that athletes end up with some sort of wrist tweak from one of these movements from time to time.
There are a few things that you can do to PREVENT significant wrist hurtage.

1) Warm up your wrists! These poor boys are the linkage between your 400lb front squat and your hips. Be cool and show them some serious love before you start red-lining. Think of your wrists as conduits for some very high tension wires. Most of the time for wrist neutral activities, you can count on your wrists not needing much care and feeding, but as soon as you even start thinking about some high speed wrist extension some alarms should start sounding.

-Be sure your core temperature is up. If you have a sweat going, chances are you’re wrists are warm enough too. Cold tendons, confined tendon boxes (wrists), and at high speed is uncool. Very un-dude.

-Start your wrists slowly (not dynamically) into the position of emphasis. You’ll probably notice that just getting into a front squat rack position is a little tough on your wrists. So don’t go jamming them into a challenging position with an additional speed insult. Doode, be cool.

-Give your wrists some slack. Make sure your thoracic spine is mobile enough that you don’t have challenge your wrist positioning unnecessarily. (see below)

there are even more tips at the San Fran CrossFit blog. Check it out…