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Advice wantedWrist pain when doing bridges
I can't currently hold a bridge but would love to learnt that. But the thing is I tried it on and off and always gave up because of wrist pain. I am not weak and I can easily hold a plank (including side plank), I can do dead hangs for a couple of minutes, I can hang from fingerboard for 15 seconds, do 1 pull up - all without pain. Yet if I try to do 2 sets of bridge (10-15 seconds, because I can't hold longer), my wrists start aching. Question: do I lack flexibility or strength in certain muscles and somehow should train my wrists first? Or am I just doing the bridge wrong? Should I just give up the whole idea of bridges and do reverse plank instead (my wrists don't hurt during reverse planks, they only hurt when they are bend inwards, like in bridge).
Are your palms flat on the ground?
Hardly an expert here, but I can’t see how some wrist warm-ups and stretches would hurt. They made a big difference for me after a bad case of tendinitis a few years ago. Something like this https://fightorflightacademy.com/2021/12/13/functional-wrist-strength-warm-up-exercises/
Having tried the exercises now I think it's flexibility rather than strength issue, because even simple leaning back with fingers backwards was hard and I turned my hands a bit sideways to make it easier.
That’s what it was with me. After keeping my arm partially immobilised for a month to recover from tendinitis, my wrist flexibility as well as arm and back strength had suffered.
What helped was persistent stretching, never to the point of pain but always technically as described. So I wouldn’t turn my hands, but find an angle where it didn’t hurt, even if only my fingertips were touching the mat. And do it again the next day, and the next, and so forth, until I could do the full stretch. And now I’m fine.
Good luck!
That's a good suggestion! Didn't think of it myself. Thank you!
Thank you! I think these are good exercises! I think I should especially focus on leaning back with fingers backward to train my hands to be able to hold my weight in bridge position.