How to Strengthen Wrists

While we typically spend most of our workout time training the larger muscle groups we need to perform, oftentimes smaller muscles are ignored. But although they are small, they are still imperative to getting stronger and preventing injury. One of the most commonly ignored – but also commonly injured – areas are the wrists. But even performing certain exercises like push-ups or planks can be less effective if your wrists aren’t strong enough to handle your weight. By adding some wrist-strengthening exercises to your normal routine, you’ll not only notice improved performance in sports and training – you’ll notice it in everyday tasks at home too!

Weights

Using weights to strengthen your wrists is just as good as using them for your arms! Doing some wrist curls – with your wrists facing up and down – will add good overall strength to the muscles surrounding your wrists and forearms, making a great shield for weaker wrist bones.

Wrist Circles

Circle your hand around in a circle to the right a few times, then to the left. Repeat this exercise any time during the day or even as a warm up before a workout or game.

Floor Exercises

Planks and pushups are great for your wrists too, but sometimes you need to build up the strength to be able to do the full exercise. Start out by doing one pushup, or a 10 second plank if your wrists are too weak. Then, build up from there adding a few reps or seconds every week. You should be able to hold a plank for at least 60 seconds, and do at least 15 full pushups in a row,

Doing just these three small exercises every day can make big changes in the strength of your wrists. This will prevent injuries like sprains when you fall, help improve sports performance like controlling a tennis racquet or throwing a football and even help you when typing at the computer!