Wrist Pain

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays. Baffled? Intrigued? Charmed? Discuss here.
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RobbyRob
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Wrist Pain

Post by RobbyRob » Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:53 pm

Hey all,

Well, two weeks in, I started getting this shooting pain along the back of my hand and in my wrist - not only while shugging, but it carried through the rest of my day. I suspect it is a return of the old tendonitis that gave me trouble during my first year of rowing, a long time ago.

I rested for a few days, and that seemed to help. Now it's been almost a week, and the pain is pretty much gone. But I want to make sure I'm being safe before I start up again.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Any advice for a novice shoveler? I'd be much obliged!

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JWL
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Post by JWL » Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:49 pm

1. Take it easy. Go slow. Leverage is your friend, put your hand closer to the heavy end of the hammer.

2. Take the time to stretch your arm muscles, esp the wrist, before you start. If you had any anti-tendonitis stretches from your physician, do those.

3. At the first sign of pain, switch gears and do something else.
JWL[.|@]Freakwitch[.]net

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Thu Nov 17, 2005 1:05 am

Hi Robby,
I'm a massage therapist, so I hope I can point you in the right direction...
Which side is the shooting on, the palm or the dorsum of the hand?

I agree with all that Freakwitch mentions...
I will add my two cents once I get your reply :)
Peace,
8) Deb

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:48 pm

Maybe try less reps and a greater variety of movements?

I don't understand much about tendonitis, but from what I understand it has to do with intense repetition.

Hope you get through this soon. Keep us posted.

Reinhard

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Jammin' Jan
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Post by Jammin' Jan » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:16 pm

This is what I experienced from my very brief (but still too long) stint at the french fry station at Chez McDonald's. Too many repetitions with a heavy weight. I backed off anything heavier than a fork after that, and I am fine now. Do some other stuff for a while, then ease back cautiously.

RobbyRob
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Post by RobbyRob » Thu Nov 17, 2005 6:32 pm

Thanks everyone!

I went back at it this morning after about a week's rest, and took it slow and easy, just as you guys said. I changed up my rep counts, too (ie, only 25 shoveling motions on the left, but staying at 50 on the right), so that any time something began to hurt, I stopped on that side.

Also, I think my big mistake before was doing a kind of twist at the end of the shoveling motion, as if I was dumping dirt from the shovel into a pile at my side. I kept my knuckles in a straight line with my forearm today, and that seemed to help.

Deb, it's on the dorsum side. Let me know if there are any specific things i should do or worry about.

...oh, and by the way, sorry about the previous post, in which I thought I had "invented" the paddle-the-canoe. I guess I hadn't done my homework! I checked out the history the other day, and there were infinitely better variations on that motion already posted (I especially like the balance ball - it'll give me a reason to use that thing!) Anyway, I hope I didn't step on any toes. I guess great minds think alike!

Thanks!
Robby

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Thu Nov 17, 2005 9:13 pm

Hey Robby!
Unlike other, possibly irate, creatine/red bull drinking, testosterone laden, steroid pumping weight training sites/groups, this is a very low keyed and classy group! If you step on someones toes, no one wil rip your head off in a muscle bound rage~
LOL..

Well, if you are getting shooting pain, that's usually from some nerve entrapment, stabbing pain or dull achey pain would be something more along the lines of tendonitis...

If it's in the back, then you are talking about the radial nerve and not the median nerve, which causes the "infamous" carpal tunnel syndrome...
Maybe you have trigger points and tendonitis somewhere up in the supraspinatus muscle of the scapula, which could cause pain down the whole arm, and it could continue throughout the day...The exercise would just be the trigger for the pain... If you have triggerpoints in any of the muscles along the pathway of the radial nerve, then you can get referred pain along that pathway all the way down to the wrist...

I really encourage you to find a good therapist who knows how to do triggerpoint therapy, and knows how to do resisted isometric muscle strength testing, and get evaluated in person...
If you have had tendonitis, then you probably have trigger points as well..
They usually go hand in hand...

Glad that your mindful movements helped today... Yes, neutral wrist position is always what you want anyway... Maybe you have something called "Dequairvains Tenosynovitis", in which the thumb extensor muscles are overstretched and under load??? Hmmm????
Ice massage to the whole forearm, is great for relieving tendonitis...
Circular movements with a dixie cup filled with ice.. do it till you are numb, then take a break for a few minutes, then do some more..
Always keeping the ice moving around, not in one place...
That pumps out all the metabolic waste and brings fresh blood to the tissues...

Shovelglove actually helped me totally rehabilitate my right arm after having some serious muscle degeneration, which had followed a bad injury a few years ago.. I started out having a rough time with Shovelling, so I just left it out... After SG'ing gently and mindfully, and leaving out that painful movement, I rebuilt a lot of muscle strength in that arm and the pain completely disappeared... This took about 4 months or so....

Have a great day!
Peace,
8) Deb

RobbyRob
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Post by RobbyRob » Sat Nov 19, 2005 4:25 pm

Thanks for all the information, Deb!

It is starting to feel better, with the slow, mindful movements. As you suggest, though, I'll have it looked at sometime soon. Luckily, I'm in grad school and most of this stuff is free!

Have a great day!

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Sat Nov 19, 2005 6:40 pm

Wow... Lucky duck!
Free is good :)

Peace and Love,
8) Deb

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