How to Protect Your Wrist When Lifting Weights

All lifters know that training sessions involving you having to lift a lot of weight are taxing on the body as a whole. You start feeling sore, the next day your muscles hurt, the recovery takes a few days, and it’s overall a process that you go through each week. With that said, one of the most essential parts of having a long and successful lifting journey, where you gradually become better and better, is managing to stay healthy and injury-free. 

Unfortunately, the wrists are one of the body parts that suffer the most damage during lifting, as they’re vital in helping you perform all kinds of exercises, from front squats and deadlifts to snatches, push presses, and thrusters. What’s even scarier is that it’s quite easier to get them injured – they’re typically a more delicate part of our bodies, and too much weight too quickly can easily cause them harm. 

That’s why in this article, we will be sharing some advice as to how you can protect your wrists during your lifting sessions as well as some tips on how to lift safely. 

5 Ways to Prevent Wrist Injuries 

Let’s take a look at the essential prevention techniques you need to know in order to avoid getting your wrist injured – regardless of how much or how often you train. 

Maintain Proper Form 

You’ve probably heard this a million times, but correct form is vital to remaining injury-free. Many injuries are a direct result of improper form when lifting that ends up causing too much stress on the joint or the tendon, thus resulting in your wrists hurting. One great tip here is to film yourself while you perform each exercise so that you can look at what you’re doing wrong and work on fixing it. And if you can afford to work with a professional coach, then that’s even better, as they will be able to correct your form on the spot. 

Slowly Add Weight 

We all know that ego lifting is unnecessary and that it’s basically just to show off. It brings no major lifting benefits and can result in you badly injuring yourself. That’s why some of the best advice we can give you is to add weight slowly and gradually. That way, your joints, and tendons will get used to the stress of the weight over time and will be better prepared to take on more as your performance improves. 

Work on Strengthening the Muscles Around the Wrist 

Another thing you can do is work on strengthening the muscles around the wrist. This can easily be done by holding a light dumbbell and doing several reps of wrist curls and reverse wrist curls, while alternating hands. It will help you build strength in the forearms, and it will also allow your joints and tendons to get used to having more stress on them. Performing wrist curls is fairly easy: 

• Grab a dumbbell and rest your forearm on your thigh or on a bench with the wrist facing up.
• Roll the dumbbell to your fingertips and allow the wrist to bend backward.
• Raise the dumbbell up and down for several reps. 

If you do this just a few times a week, you will definitely see results in no time. 

Use Lifting Straps

When you use lifting straps, you’re essentially giving your wrists extra support during the movement.  And you’re compensating for any lack of strength in your forearms. When placed correctly, the strap will help you lift the heavy weight with proper form while not risking injuring your wrists in the process. They’re also particularly useful in cases where your upper body can already lift more weight, but your forearms aren’t strong enough to take it on. In such situations, lifting straps allow you to lift safely and with as much weight as you can. 

Don’t Forget to Stretch 

Everyone dislikes stretching, we know. It hurts, takes a long time, and is generally considered to be something that slows us down, and most of us are always chasing something, always late for the next thing we have to do post-workout. However, the reality is that one of the best ways to prevent any injuries (including ones to the wrist) is by warming up before your session and then stretching the muscles after it. Besides stretching, doing some mobility will also help you remain injury-free. It will improve your range of motion and enable you to continue lifting with proper form (which we all know is vital for safe lifting). 

In Conclusion  

Protecting your wrist from injuries is vital if you want to train consistently and achieve better results. Hopefully, the advice we gave in this article will be helpful for you and will give you the essential tips to follow to keep yourself safe during your heavy lifting workouts.