Wrists endurance (including Wrist Pushups pt.1)

[Guest Brusi]

Hello Coach Sommer,

What do gymnasts do in order to make their wrists stronger ?

Ho do you avoid wrists/forearm tendonitis ? ( I hate that word.)

I'm more than happy that your site works now.

Thank you for your help.

[Coach Sommer]

Wrist Conditioning

There are entire series of movements that I use with my athletes for wrist conditioning in one combination or another on a DAILY basis. Some involve dumbbell work, some involve work hanging from a single bar and some are pushup variations. All of the various movements are detailed in the my upcoming book Liquid Steel™, however I will introduce you to two of the pushup variations that I use with my athletes.

 

 - Get into a pushup support position on your fists with your hands turned sideways. As you lower into the pushup, allow the wrists to bend outward and your bodyweight to descend upon the back of your wrists and hands. As you ascend out of the pushup, straighten the wrists simultaneously along with the elbows returning back up onto your fist.

If you find these too strenuous at first, do not be at all ashamed to perform these from your knees intially.

First knuckle - Get into a flat handed pushup position with your fingers pointing directly forward. Descend into a regular pushup, as you ascend push up onto the first knuckles on your hands as your straighten your elbows. The elevation up onto the first knuckles will result in your fingers remaining flat on the ground and the rest of your hand being elevated up off of it. Remain elevated on the knuckles during the top of the movement and then once again go back to a flat hand during the descent.

I prefer sets of ten with these movements, although occasionally I will have my athletes perform sets of up to fifty. For some reason they do not seem to like me as much on those days :?.

Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer

[Guest Brusi]

Thank you for your answer Coach Sommer.

I'm looking forward to your book.

[zennode]

Here is an exercise I do for wrist strength:

False Grip Holds on Bar

[StevenJ]

Lately I have been experiencing some wrist pain in my right wrist, it's fine most of the time, but when I do handstands and sometimes frog stands it hurts pretty badly. I've been doing these conditioning exercises, but I don't fully understand the fist push-up. When I do them, I feel enormous amounts of strain on my elbows, is this normal or am I doing something incorrectly? The first knuckle push-up is intense though, I can feel my wrists burn performing them on my knees.

[Coach Sommer]

As well as performing them from the knees, the intensity of wrist pushups can be still further reduced by piking the hips and pressing the glutes backward during the descent of the movement. The more you pike, the greater the reduction in intensity.

It sounds as though you are attempting to maintain your frog stands and handstands longer than your wrist is comfortable accomodating. Experiment with reducing your hold times to find if there is a window where the pain is alleviated. If such a window does not exist, you will need to increase your basic strength prior to re-engaging in your frog stand and handstand work.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[StevenJ]

Thanks Coach! More wrist conditioning hoooooooooo!

[Guest Brusi]

Hi all

I found another useful tip for performing those wrists challenges:

- find a theraband or bungeeband

- lower your rings, bar...

- attach the ends of the band to the rings, bar ...

- take a push-up stance and put the band under your chest

- push-up

Here's a video that explains the idea : http://youtube.com/watch?v=qPCrgnQsccw

[Bob Sanders]

Ok my right wrist hurt also. Not now but I was practicing the frog stand not as a scheduled training time but working on them from places to places so practice a couple here and then some there. The my right wrist starts to hurt but only when I am doing push up or when my hands are flat out front. Is it ok not to do conditionings? Or is it a requirement?

[Blairbob]

Conditioning and physical preparation are like getting vitamins and minerals out of a proper dietary regimen. If you skip out on the basics, your performance will eventually show it.

[Guest Garre33]

Yeah my wrists started hurting one workout when I did the frog stand without warming up with pushups first. I still stretched first, but I guess that wasn't enough. I've always had weak wrists (or just not as flexible as they should be) So thanks for these exercises!

[Bob Sanders]

Yeah my wrists started hurting one workout when I did the frog stand without warming up with pushups first. I still stretched first, but I guess that wasn't enough. I've always had weak wrists (or just not as flexible as they should be) So thanks for these exercises!

You do push up for warm up before the frog stand? Does it work? I usually rep out high reps of push up just before a plyo workout. Don't know how much taht helps but sure would make my high reps go higher. Me, for forg stand I never really do any warm up. I usually don't do warm ups at all.

[Guest Garre33]

Well I used pushups as an example- In coach sommer's "Building an Olympic Body through Bodyweight Conditioning" he mentioned putting static exercises at the ends of workout sessions... That helps my wrists get completely warmed up before putting all of my weight on them.

Here's the quote if you don't remember

"Static holds can easily be placed anywhere in your current routine. My preference is to place them at the end of our physical preparation time. Once you have progressed to the more demanding planche pushups and front lever pull-ups, they should be placed in your workout in an appropriate spot for that exercise and body part and the static holds can continue to be placed at the end of the workout."

[Guest jhgym2]

Is there a certain degree of active flexibility required to maintain high levels of training on the pommel horse? I've been prescribing the usual pro/sup wrist exercises to build strength yet some of my gymnasts are still experiencing major wrist problems while circling and tumbling. DLC work and tumbling frequency has been greatly reduced as a result; is there something I'm missing?

[Coach Sommer]

I have a wrist series that I perform with my athletes every single day. This is essential; the only time I have ever had wrist issues with gymnasts was one time when I strayed from this habit.

The following essay and video will help to get you started.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Guest jhgym2]

Every day it is; time well invested. The wrist and dorsal pushups should address the flexibility requirements for pommel training, as I will ensure to encourage max ROM. Thanks for the timely response!

[Coach Sommer]

Slow and Steady is the Path to Success

A common mistake is to allow the athletes to perform these movements quickly. This is incorrect, rather emphasis should be placed on performing the Dorsal Pushups as slowly as possible; this will serve to progressively increase the intensity of these movements and continue to build the gymnasts wrist strength.

Also, I recommend that you review the video that BlairBob posted which contains my floor wrist series in its entirety. Begin with Dorsal Pushups, then Wrist Pushups, then First Knuckle, then Finger Pushups and finally Fingertip Hopping.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Bob Sanders]

Slow and Steady is the Path to Success

A common mistake is to allow the athletes to perform these movements quickly. This is incorrect, rather emphasis should be placed on performing the Dorsal Pushups as slowly as possible; this will serve to progressively increase the intensity of these movements and continue to build the gymnasts wrist strength.

Also, I recommend that you review the video that BlairBob posted which contains my floor wrist series in its entirety. Begin with Dorsal Pushups, then Wrist Pushups, then First Knuckle, then Finger Pushups and finally Fingertip Hopping.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

What is the Dorsal Pushup?

[IvanPS]

Slow and Steady is the Path to Success

A common mistake is to allow the athletes to perform these movements quickly. This is incorrect, rather emphasis should be placed on performing the Dorsal Pushups as slowly as possible; this will serve to progressively increase the intensity of these movements and continue to build the gymnasts wrist strength.

Also, I recommend that you review the video that BlairBob posted which contains my floor wrist series in its entirety. Begin with Dorsal Pushups, then Wrist Pushups, then First Knuckle, then Finger Pushups and finally Fingertip Hopping.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

What is the Dorsal Pushup?

Check this post.

http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewto ... =4433#4433

[Ron]

Heya

What kind of joint & flexibly work do i need to do if i can't perform the- dorsal pushups correctly? it seems i can barely rotate my hands 90 degrees inwards.

Cheers

Ron

[Coach Sommer]

Degree of Rotation

Do not despair if you are unable to completely rotate the elbows forward; simply perform the dorsal pushups utilizing the degree of rotation of which you are currently capable. As with most other things in life, these will continue to improve as long as you are consistent in your focus.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Ron]

Got it, will do.

Thanks for the fast reply.

Cheers

Ron

[Kamali Downey]

Degree of Rotation

Do not despair if you are unable to completely rotate the elbows forward; simply perform the dorsal pushups utilizing the degree of rotation of which you are currently capable. As with most other things in life, these will continue to improve as long as you are consistent in your focus.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach,

is there any video on the dorsal pushups? I'm having a hard time visualizing the exercise...

Also, when does the Liquid Steel™ book come out? I really am looking forward to that!!....IMO, this type of prehab work is gold for someone who wants to train injury free.

[Kamali Downey]

bump..anybody?

is there any video of the "dorsal pushups" I'm having a hard time of visualizing this move...

Also, how many sets of each move in the series do you recommned Coach?

[Rikke Olsen]

Pushups holding sticks/staffs (holding them so they are somewhat vertical) instead of placing your palms directly on the ground, are pretty effective too. (Couldn't find a picture on it).