Parents Gymnast wrist experience

[Kcanflip]

So my gymmie is ending her season on a down note. Has had intermittent pain in wrists for a few months but always mild and tolerable. Something changed last week and now she can't even do a handstand or support on bars without pain. So we went to doc and x-rays fine so got the gymnast wrist diagnosis. She's missing her state meet (Xcel Platinum) and will be in brace day and night till pain free. Also on prednisone for a week. If pain not improving in 2 weeks will probably do MRI.

Hopefully the rest really is what is needed and she can return quickly and take advantage of summer training and not lose to much uptraining time.

Anyone else have similar wrist injury experience and if so, what was your recovery time like?

 

[Seeker]

My daughter dealt with this...casted for 6 weeks (which in hindsight seemed excessive and mostly because the Dr didn't know what was wrong). She did PT and was able to compete a shortened season. Post-care advice -- the very best thing we have found to keep things in line and her pain free is weekly adjustments by the chiropractor. She goes religiously every week and he always finds things slightly out of place. By maintaining proper alignment and positioning of all those tiny bones, she hasn't had long term or recurring issues.

 

[Kcanflip]

My daughter dealt with this...casted for 6 weeks (which in hindsight seemed excessive and mostly because the Dr didn't know what was wrong). She did PT and was able to compete a shortened season. Post-care advice -- the very best thing we have found to keep things in line and her pain free is weekly adjustments by the chiropractor. She goes religiously every week and he always finds things slightly out of place. By maintaining proper alignment and positioning of all those tiny bones, she hasn't had long term or recurring issues.

So the adjustments... Are they whole body or just in her wrist area? And guessing since casted couldn't do any wrist strengthening till out of cast. But she did afterwards? Will see where we are in a few weeks and thinking of looking into scheduling pt as she won't do pt on her own or because I tell her too. Gotta love teens!

 

[Seeker]

Yes, the chiropractor we go to adjusts everything -- but we have done chiro care since she was very young so she is used to it. He does a few "extra" things for her since she is a gymnast, so looks at wrists, ankles, knees, etc. It has made a world of difference for her in having those adjustments consistently. My dd just finished L9, so it can be rather intense training. As for the strengthening -- she was totally limited while in the cast. After that, she did 6 weeks of therapy which was very good for her. Since then, she's just done the chiropractor and continued with the stretches and some of the strengthening that her PT gave her. She's been fine this season.

 

[Kcanflip]

Yes, the chiropractor we go to adjusts everything -- but we have done chiro care since she was very young so she is used to it. He does a few "extra" things for her since she is a gymnast, so looks at wrists, ankles, knees, etc. It has made a world of difference for her in having those adjustments consistently. My dd just finished L9, so it can be rather intense training. As for the strengthening -- she was totally limited while in the cast. After that, she did 6 weeks of therapy which was very good for her. Since then, she's just done the chiropractor and continued with the stretches and some of the strengthening that her PT gave her. She's been fine this season.

Thank you.. Good info. Mine does fairly low hours (14-16) and is comparable to a level 6ish but almost 14 and tall for a gymnast so her body takes it hard. Next season will probably be her last so want to get her healthy so she can rock it next season and end positively if she chooses to be done.

 

[Seeker]

While she's down with her wrist, I would recommend she do full practices and have a plan for what conditioning she can do. In our experience, coaches are not great at providing guidance to the injured, so my daughter created her own plan and tried hard to stick to it. She rotated with her group and did what she could and then did the conditioning when they were doing something she couldn't. Focus on core and leg strength, ride the bike if it's available. All of those things will help her when she goes back to working full skills.

 

[GymDad9.9]

Yes, the chiropractor we go to adjusts everything -- but we have done chiro care since she was very young so she is used to it. He does a few "extra" things for her since she is a gymnast, so looks at wrists, ankles, knees, etc. It has made a world of difference for her in having those adjustments consistently. My dd just finished L9, so it can be rather intense training. As for the strengthening -- she was totally limited while in the cast. After that, she did 6 weeks of therapy which was very good for her. Since then, she's just done the chiropractor and continued with the stretches and some of the strengthening that her PT gave her. She's been fine this season.

That's quite a chiropractor you have there. I have a good one too and next time I see him I need to find out whether he does what yours does.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Daughter dealt with wrist pain last year. L4 going to L5/6 up-training, lots of BHS on beam.

No bone issues. Officially diagnosed tendonitis. She was in a brace for about 4 weeks.

I got her tiger paws and skids (below).

https://www.amazon.com/Skids-SKIDSWRIST-1-Wrist-Wrap-Supports/product-reviews/B00600T3NE

She prefers the skids since her palms are free. No wrist issues (knock wood) since. She is also not doing as many BHS reps during practice. We, coach and I think she was over doing it to get the BHS on the beam.

Wrist exercises help too. Though my kid is resistant to them.

Do a search on rice bucket exercise for wrists. Of course once out of brace and pain free.

 

[Kcanflip]

Daughter dealt with wrist pain last year. L4 going to L5/6 up-training, lots of BHS on beam.

No bone issues. Officially diagnosed tendonitis. She was in a brace for about 4 weeks.

I got her tiger paws and skids (below).

https://www.amazon.com/Skids-SKIDSWRIST-1-Wrist-Wrap-Supports/product-reviews/B00600T3NE

She prefers the skids since her palms are free. No wrist issues (knock wood) since. She is also not doing as many BHS reps during practice. We, coach and I think she was over doing it to get the BHS on the beam.

Wrist exercises help too. Though my kid is resistant to them.

Do a search on rice bucket exercise for wrists. Of course once out of brace and pain free.

She's been working a lot on bars trying to get a cast to handstand. I think this is what did it. She does wear tiger paws but obviously not on bars. Did your DD do anything special on bars to help?

Definitely ready to work on her wrist flexibility and strength once she's pain free. Honestly that could be the reason she's struggling with the cast to handstand on bars

 

[Deleted member 18037]

She's been working a lot on bars trying to get a cast to handstand. I think this is what did it. She does wear tiger paws but obviously not on bars. Did your DD do anything special on bars to help?

Definitely ready to work on her wrist flexibility and strength once she's pain free. Honestly that could be the reason she's struggling with the cast to handstand on bars

My girls issue seemed to be flippy things on beam aka those BHS. She was on a mission. And looking back (coach and parent perspective) she was doing too many reps. Of course she seemed to be dealing fine until all of a sudden she wasn't................... Lesson learned for her, and us adults. We now (all of us are mindful of reps).

Hindsight is a great thing. Looking back, I would of done the wrist support before it became an issue and the rice bucket stuff too.

She doesn't know it yet but her preventive exercise is going to worked on over the summer.

 

[QueenBee]

Mine was diagnosed with gymnast wrist a couple years ago. Was off all 'load' activities for about 4 weeks, and worked back to full clearance over another 2-4 weeks. My biggest piece of advice is to follow the instructions of doctor & PT and not try to come back earlier than recommended. Over the years, I've noticed that the gymnast who take the full time to recover come back stronger than those who try to come back before their injury has fully healed.

Gymnasts don't always want to take it slow on recovery...but their bodies need to heal. As a mom, I try to point out the good that can come from enforced rest. My gymnast is always stronger (overall) due to increased conditioning during injury than she was before. During her wrist injury, her legs got so much stronger. Now she is dealing with a foot injury...she is working core strength and flexibility.

Wishing your daughter a full recovery.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Did your DD do anything special on bars to help?

Sorry....... to directly answer. My daughters issue had nothing to do with bars. And she went to gym, conditioned did what she could including bars. Bars were never an issue for her wrist pain, although I am sure doing them didn't help.

Her healing however seemed slow. Because much of gym is about pounding the wrists. I did pull her completely for 2 weeks just to give her 100 % time off her wrist. It just seemed she never got completely off her wrist if she was in gym.

The reality is the wrists are not meant to support body weight. JMO, I found she truly needed time completely off them.

 

[gymmutti]

DD is dealing with this now. She originally felt pain on vault (was wearing tiger paws already) and we did PT. As the pain was not completely going away we went for x-rays which came back negative and she wore a brace for 2 weeks and then a little PT trying to get back to compete Regionals safely. The pain was worse though than before so we went back to Ortho immediately after Regionals and did x-rays again. This time they could see signs of widening of the growth plate so she is casted for 4 weeks (ortho said she could just be braced but the brace was irritating her in a few spots and she is happier in the cast). She continues to go to full practices and does what she can and lots of lower body conditioning. Once the cast comes off, we are planning on 3-4 weeks of PT to get her back to 100%. She just turned 11 an training L8.

 

[Kcanflip]

Mine was diagnosed with gymnast wrist a couple years ago. Was off all 'load' activities for about 4 weeks, and worked back to full clearance over another 2-4 weeks. My biggest piece of advice is to follow the instructions of doctor & PT and not try to come back earlier than recommended. Over the years, I've noticed that the gymnast who take the full time to recover come back stronger than those who try to come back before their injury has fully healed.

Gymnasts don't always want to take it slow on recovery...but their bodies need to heal. As a mom, I try to point out the good that can come from enforced rest. My gymnast is always stronger (overall) due to increased conditioning during injury than she was before. During her wrist injury, her legs got so much stronger. Now she is dealing with a foot injury...she is working core strength and flexibility.

Wishing your daughter a full recovery.

Thank you! Definitely good advice. She's definitely taking a month regardless even though doc initially said a week or two. Just my gut in it needing more based on her pain level. And then she'll take more if needed.

 

[Kcanflip]

DD is dealing with this now. She originally felt pain on vault (was wearing tiger paws already) and we did PT. As the pain was not completely going away we went for x-rays which came back negative and she wore a brace for 2 weeks and then a little PT trying to get back to compete Regionals safely. The pain was worse though than before so we went back to Ortho immediately after Regionals and did x-rays again. This time they could see signs of widening of the growth plate so she is casted for 4 weeks (ortho said she could just be braced but the brace was irritating her in a few spots and she is happier in the cast). She continues to go to full practices and does what she can and lots of lower body conditioning. Once the cast comes off, we are planning on 3-4 weeks of PT to get her back to 100%. She just turned 11 an training L8.

This is my fear... That it's actually worse than thought or that an injury is hiding and not seen on x-ray. Here's to complete healing for them both!