Well today I decided to do some arm wrestling with a friend of mine for fun at college. Now I've been going to the gym for a while and I'm bigger (and much heavier) then most of the people I know. This guy inperticular has never done much exercises and he self-admits he's very skinny, which he is. It seemed easy enough but when it came down to it my wrists just couldn't hold up. I think there was a factor involving lack of wrist strength but it was primarily the fact that I was feeling a lot of pain in my wrists (hurt more as I applied more pressure), I also tend to feel the same kind of discomfort when I do Bench presses and press-ups. So is there anything I can do about my wrist problem? Any supplements for joints, exercises, forearm exercises or changes I can do? I think one of the problems could be how I do exercises. For example when I do the Bench press instead of gripping the bar and holding my wrist upright I have the bar resting on my lower palm (parallel to my forearm) with my hand wrapped around it (probably due to lack of wrist strength. Any tips?
-Make sure you squeeze the living nejeezus out of the BB/DB/Kettlebell everytime you train -Working out with a thick BB helps -Try doing Towel pullups and plate pinches -Wrap a towel around the pullup bar to make it thicker -Do some rope climbing -Get one of those grippers (COC) -Squeeze a tennis ball Do all the wristcurl variations: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?MainMuscle=Forearms Oh, and Dave Tate recommends Icing your wrists after every workout. Hope this helps.
Your "wrist" doesn't have strength - it's your forearms. Wrist strength is like saying elbow strength. That said, there are two things at work here your forearm strength & pain in your wrists. If you can't keep your wrist straight, you may have weak forearms, which have been addressed in the previous posts. If you have pain in your wrists, you may have a form of carpal tunnel syndrome, which has its own unique cures & prevention techniques.
Do sledgehammer levers. A favorite of arm wrestlers and grip aficionados, it'll help you with what you're looking for.
This might also be an issue of technique in the arm wrestle too. I wrestled with an ex-UK number 2 arm wrestler and he taught me that 1. it's all in the speed at the start 2. pull towards you, not to one side and 3. make sure you are tense all over.
Technique must be a big part someone begining would just tense the arms but someone more experienced would be utilizing most of there muscles. Find someone stronger than you to train with.
