No obvious gags please!
I have managed to strain both my wrists throwing hooks. Doesn't seem to matter whether I throw them with a vertical or horizontal fist, my wrist has a tendency to rotate outwards towards the little finger causing a strain. I think having twisted them a couple of times I have now got proprioception problems which leave me more prone to injury.
What I was wondering is, are there any excercises that I can do (I guess with DBs) that will help to strengthen my wrist in that plane helping prevent injury? Does anyone have any other thoughts?
I experienced a similar problem very early on. The problem with most conventional wrist/forearm exercises is that they don't target resistance to the torsion that is usually what you experience in landing a hook, i.e., the angle is never so perfect that the impact stresses the wrist only in the forward or backward motion that wrist curls or reverse wrist curls strengthen.
Specific to wrists and forearms, I'd recommend something like an adjustable dumbell and only putting weight on one end, then grasping the empty end and moving the wrist in a variety of directions. Baseball players have often done similar exercises, often using a weighted or unweighted bat. If you don't have access to a dumbell that you can set up properly for these movements, a bat or a hammer (some object with sufficient length that is heavier at one end) would be a good place to start.
In my overall weight training regimen, I try also to use a barbell as little as possible. Focusing on dumbells seems to require greater multi-directional stabilization exertion in the wrist and forearms.
Cheers Conch, any more for any more?
Are you wrapping your wrists? If not you definately should!
If your wrists are hurt now, take the time to back off the work load on the shots that are causing the pain. It sucks, but it is the only way to heal the damaged tissues.
I fractured my right wrist in August, throwing an overhand right, and it is still only 95% healed.