Fit Tip - Push-ups and Wrist Pain

If you are one of the many who avoid push-ups due to wrist discomfort, this is the Fit Tip for you!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of My Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted, Fit tip,
push ups and wrist pain. Now, if you've listened to
previous episodes of Fitness Disrupted, it should come as no

(00:22):
surprise that I am in enormous fan of the push up,
did a whole show about it, and I have been
doing them, as I have said many times before, since
I was fourteen years old and read in Sports Illustrated
that herschel Walker did three hundred push ups and three
hundred set ups every day and he said he didn't
lift weights. Still find that hard to believe. Nevertheless, I

(00:45):
started doing them and found how effective they are, and
at fifty one, I'm still doing them frequently, not every day,
every other day pretty much. But some people have wrist
pain when they do a push up. Back when I
was training clients, I had these clients, and today talking

(01:05):
with friends and just there are a certain number of
people and you may be one of them who can't
do a push up because you have this risk pain.
So there's no one solution to things in fitness and
exercise and nutrition, and that's one of the problems when
you have an expert saying, oh, you have chin pain,
here's exactly what the reason is. Oh you have plan

(01:26):
or fasciitis. Oh, here's exactly how to fix it. No,
but there are things you can try and that might
work for you. And this fix has worked for a
huge percentage of the people that I have worked with
that have or had wrist pain when doing the push ups.

(01:46):
So it all comes down to the risk position, right,
So when you do a push up, your risk is extended, right,
So just think about it. As I'm speaking, I'm putting
my wrists in that position. So you pull that wrist
back right and then it is basically almost ninety degrees
and then your body weight is on top of that right.

(02:09):
So oftentimes it's the risk position that is leading to
the wrist pain. So a simple yet super effective fix
is this. You can hold onto something like a dumbbell
to put your wrist into a neutral position. So let's

(02:29):
do that. As I say this out loud, I'm doing it.
Picture or hold your arms as if you are holding
dumbbells and then doing a push up. You can see
that your wrist is now straight, it is not extended.
Your fingers are not pulled back towards your wrist. Your
hand is in line with your arms straight right, so

(02:52):
when you do a push up holding dumbbells, that wrist
is in a totally different position. And for many people
that is the solution, as crazy as it sounds. So
for those of you who are like, oh, I'm kind
of happy. I never like to push up and since
I can't do them without pain, well I'm not going

(03:12):
to do them, try them this way. So many people
have found this to work for them, putting that risk
in the neutral rather than extended position in doing a
push up. You can use other things as well, So
dumbbells are super easy because so many people have them.
Make sure ideally they are dumbbells that aren't going to

(03:34):
roll on you, so be careful with that. So dumbbells
are either round or you know, they have flat sides
to them. Flat sides are better so they don't roll
away from you, so always be careful. And then you
can go out and purchase things if you want. I'm
not a big fan of spending money when you don't
have to on exercise equipment, but there are push up handles.

(03:55):
There is, yes, if you want to brand name the
perfect push up, and as I say that, I should
do just a show on that one um but or
a quick fiit tip so you can use that as well.
And all of those things put your wrist in that
neutral position. So dumbbells, push up handles, product like the
perfect push up. Those devices can help alleviate wrist pain

(04:22):
when you are doing push ups. And there you have it,
risk neutral versus risk extended. Use dumbbells if you have them,
or you can go out and purchase something as well.
Up to you. But push ups are so effective I'm
gonna be doing them until the day I die and

(04:42):
eighteen all right, so there you go. Let me know,
by the way, if you are someone who has risk
pain when you do push ups and you try this,
let me know if it works for you. You can
reach out to me Tom h Fit is both Instagram
and Twitter for me Fitness disrupted dot com. You can
reach out to meet there as well. Thank you for listening.
I love these fit tips. Hope they're helping. It's all

(05:03):
the little things done consistently that get you results. There
are no small steps. Please rate the show if you
have not already subscribed to the show, so you don't
miss an episode, and thank you for listening again. We
control three things, how much we move, what we put
into our mouths, and our attitudes, and that's awesome. I

(05:25):
am Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself.
Fitness Disrupted is a production of I heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

(05:46):
favorite shows.