How To Strengthen Wrists For Calisthenics

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If you’ve ever experienced pain in your wrists during exercises like push ups, handstands, dips, this could be an indicator of a weak and inflexible wrist. To overcome this, you should be doing target work for the wrist joints. 

A systematic review highlights the point that wrist pain is highly prevalent in groups who regularly partake in physically demanding activities, such as manual laborers and sportspeople. This article will cover the ten most important drills to strengthen wrists so that you can train pain-free while reducing the risk of unnecessary wrist injuries during your calisthenics training.

How To Strengthen Wrists

Wrist Circles

First, we will practice dynamic wrist stretches with wrist circles. This will warm up your wrists so that they will reach their full movement potential during the static stretches, and exercise activities.

1. Stand straight with feet hip-width apart.
2. Clasp your hands together by interlacing your fingers loosely at the center of your chest.
3. Rotate your wrists forward 20 times, followed by rotating your wrists backward 20 times. 

Wrist Flexion Stretch 

This stretch will target the muscles through the top of the forearm and the top of the hand. Although this may look like an uncomfortable stretch, over time, your wrist extensors will become more flexible. This is an especially important exercise if you have weak wrists.

1. Begin on all fours with the back of your palms on the floor and fingers facing towards your knees, while keeping your elbows straight. 
2. Rotate your elbows inwards and slowly rock back and forth while keeping the back of the palm in contact with the ground.
3. Repeat this motion for 10 reps followed by holding a backward leaning position for 10 seconds. 

Wrist Extension Stretch

A decent amount of movement into wrist extension is needed for pain-free push ups, handstands, and planche work. This stretch is the opposite of the previous stretch.

1. Begin on all fours with your palms on the floor, fingers facing forward, and elbows locked out. 
2. Slowly rock back and forth with straight elbows. Lean forward as far as you can until the palms of your hands are just about hovering off the ground. This will be your end range of motion.
3. Repeat this motion for 10 reps followed by holding a backward leaning position for 10 seconds.

Wrist Flexor and Extensor Stretch

This stretch is great for lengthening the wrist flexors, and also wrist extensors. Keep the tempo slow and add a mini pause at the end range of motion.

1. Begin on all fours with palms on the ground, fingers facing towards your knees, and elbow joints facing forward.
2. Slowly lean back while keeping your arms straight and palms flat on the ground. Pause for a second at the deepest stretch position. 
3. Repeat this back and forth motion for 10 reps. 

If you have wrist pain when bending back your hands, stop immediately and start with other stretches and exercises instead.

Wrist Deviation Rocks

This may be a movement that you’re unfamiliar with, but it is essential to lengthen your wrist tendons especially if you practice exercises on parallettes. As such, it’s one of the best wrist tendonitis exercises. When the wrist moves towards the bicep, this is called radial deviation, and when the wrist moves towards your elbow, it is called ulnar deviation. 

1. Begin on all fours with your hands clenched into a fist in a neutral wrist position. Ensure that the surface underneath your first is soft, such as a yoga mat, pad, or carpet.
2. Rock backward followed by leaning forward as far as you can handle. 
3. Repeat this movement for 10 reps.

Finger Extensor Stretch 

This exercise will stretch each individual finger to help improve the blood flow in your hands, which warms up the ligaments, tendons, and muscles so that the range of motion increases. 

1. Extend your arms out straight in front with palms facing forward. 
2. Use your right hand to pull the index finger back until you feel a stretch in your finger, wrist, and forearms.
3. Hold the stretch on each finger for 10 seconds before moving to the next.
4. Repeat on the opposite hand. 

Fingertip Push Ups

The fingertip push up is a gravity-defying exercise that is used by martial artists to develop incredible grip strength. This will work not only your fingers but also the tendons in your forearms. You can do knee fingertip push up variation, to begin with. 

1. Begin in a knee push up position, followed by coming up on your fingertips. Keep your fingers as straight as possible. 
2. Lower your chest down to the ground by bending the elbows, keeping them close to your torso rather than flaring them out. Lower down until your chest is just above the floor.
3. Extend your arms to return to the starting position.
4. Repeat this between 8-10 reps. 
5. Once this becomes easy you can extend your legs back into a full push up position. 

Forearm Workout

Wrist Extension With Resistance Band

1. Begin in a seated position with a band underneath your foot. Grip the band and lift it up until the front of your forearm is resting on your thigh, your wrist is extended over your knee. 
2. Extend your wrist so that the back of your hand comes up as far as possible while the forearm remains fixed on your thigh.
3. Lower your wrist back to the starting position
4. Repeat this for 12 reps, followed by switching sides.

Wrist Flexion With Resistance Band

1. Begin in a seated position with a band underneath your foot. Grip the band and lift it up until the back of your forearm is resting on your thigh, your wrist is extended over your knee. 
2. Flex your wrist so that your palm rises up as far as possible while your forearm remains on your thigh.
3. Lower your wrist back to the starting position
4. Repeat this for 12 reps, followed by switching sides.

Resistance Band Wrist Twist 

1. Begin in a seated position with a band underneath your foot. Grip the band and lift it up until the back of your forearm is resting on your thigh, your wrists are extended over your knee. 
2. Rotate your wrist inward so that the palm is facing the floor, with the forearm remaining on your thigh. 
3. Repeat this for 12 reps, followed by switching sides.

The Takeaways: How To Strengthen Wrists 

Strong and mobile wrists are important for everyday activities. Whether you are carrying groceries, driving a car, swinging a tennis racquet, cooking, or anything with your hands, your wrists are used. 

As with all muscle groups, the more you work on them, the stronger they become, therefore, I highly recommend you to follow this wrist strengthening routine before and after your sessions to increase strength, flexibility, and reduce the risk of unnecessary injuries to your wrists. 

Consult with your doctor if you have wrist pain as you would get professional treatment for your symptoms. With that said, if you enjoy reading articles on the topics of stretches and recovery, then you should check out these blogs that I’ve previously written:

• How To Improve Squat Mobility Forever
• Shoulder Injury Prevention Exercises For Calisthenics
• Lacrosse Ball Massage: How To Use This Technique To Speed Up Recovery

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