Cycling UK Forum

Sorry I know this gets asked a lot.

I'm 49 at the moment, and have been into cycling since I was about 15.

The amounts of cycled over the years has varied a lot, probably peaked in my mid to late 30s when I was doing a few thousand miles a year on old racing bikes with drop bars.

Back then my wrists weren't too painful, but for the past few years I have been getting more and more pain with my wrists, doing all sorts of things, like:

- Riding bikes with flat bars (these two viewtopic.php?p=1756765#p1756765), though I have adjusted the position on the bike in the top photo to be less upright since the photo was taken). These days I am prob only riding every couple of weeks or so.

- Exercising on an exercise bike with flat bars but also with opton to lean forwards an rest hands on bar ends pointing forwards a bike in a sort of time trial position). At the moment I'm doing maybe 30 mins every 2 days on this.

- Using a rowing machine. I no longer do this, as we got rid of the machine as it hurt my wrists too much, that was a few years ago.

- Doing press ups or pull ups

- Using light dumbells (e.g. 5kg in each hand)

- I probably have weak wrists - when I was 21 I had a job in a factory. One day I had to take long square metal bars about 1 or 2 inch square and about 4 ot 5 feet long which had been cut, and I had to position each of the cut sides against a wall mounted angle grinder to smooth off the rough edges of the cut sides - after a day of doing this I had v. painful and stiff wrists

The pain is quite sharp doing any of the above, and feels to me like it is getting worse and I feel like it's getting quite restrictive re. the number of acitvities which cause the pain. I realise there are many many worse things in the world and people have to put up with a lot worse - but due to the increasing restrictions I get a bit down about it sometimes.

I know I coud go to the doctors, but feel like there's no point as I'm not dying and would feel like I'm wasting their time.

So I thought I'd ask here - does anyone know of any exercises which can be done to strengthen wrists?

I could look on google but thought I'd ask here first as I have had lots of great advice from this forum over the years.

Thanks

Jim

Are any of those riding positions with cocked (extended) wrists? Photos would help.

Please add a photo pointing with one finger to where the pain is worst.

How long does the pain last after you stop?

Jonathan

I would recommend that you make an apppointment to see your GP about this.
It will take a long time to get your appointment so you might have been able to try other things in the interim, and if it does get worse in the future, you’re “in the system”. The GP can check for any ‘red flags’ etc.
Public forums such as this are no good for medical advice but your GP might not be able to give you the cycling/ bike advice that you can get here!.

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for your reply.

This is how I normally hold the handlebars:



Or sometimes like this:



This is where the wrist pain is - in yellow:



The pain normally lasts for about a day and then wears off.

Thanks

Jim

Yup, see a doctor but if the pain whilst cycling is the main problem a recumbent bike may be a good solution - there's zero load on the wrists

Thanks, Jim.

With pain lasting that long you need to talk to a healthcare professional. I suggest starting with your GP but don't be surprised if the first consultation is with a physiotherapist.

And please don't worry about their time: it's probably one lf the many conditions where prevention will be cheaper than treatment.

Jonathan

Thanks for the photos.

I'd be interested in some on the bike, and more side-on to show the flexion/extension at the wrist.

And some of your whole riding position, hands on bars, feet on pedals. And do you think that the distance from the saddle to the bars might be a bit short for you?

Jonathan

Looking at the photo of the bike in the original post I wonder if the handlebars are swept back too much. I'm sure I would find them uncomfortable for any significant distance. The photo below shows what I've homed in on as being most comfortable for me. Ergotec AHS handlebars with Ergon GP1L grips. These provide two hand positions: (1) On the grips and (2) on the outside corners of the U-shaped bar ends for a slightly more head-down cruising position. Distance from saddle to bars is such that my elbows stick out slightly, any weight is carried on the palms, not fingers, and my grip on the bars is fairly loose unless I'm pushing hard on the pedals.

Have a look at this 3D model of the ligaments and tendons from the sketchFab site.

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/ligamen ... d75f6f1899

You can rotate the 3D model to see a gap below that ligament labeled 4

This one shows the tendons that travel underneath.

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/muscles ... 1c2651f3fc

Is there anything else work or hobbies that you do that could be contributing maybe not showing up till you ride the bike.

I don't mean you're playing a piano while riding a bike but something else that could be causing inflammation? Usually it's something like using a hammer drill or playing a percussion instrument etc.