Tendinitis occurs when the bands of connective tissue attaching bones to muscles in your wrist become inflamed from overuse or improper sports technique. Exercise and stretching are among the treatments to strengthen your affected wrists and mitigate tendinitis symptoms.
Range of Motion Stretching
Range of motion stretches help ease the discomfort of wrist tendinitis. Hold your forearm straight up and at a 90-degree angle with your upper arm, then begin to rotate your wrist in gentle circular motions, pivoting your hand around the wrist joint. Keeping your forearm in one place, alternate letting the wrist and hand gently wave front to back, bending at the wrist joint. As your hand bends backward during this stretch, extend fingers straight out. As it bends forward, close your hand gently in a partial fist.
Stretching with Two Hands
Stretching exercises involving the use of both hands together also aid your wrist tendinitis symptoms. Self Care Navigator website recommends placing the hand of your affected wrist across the palm of your other hand, forming an L or cross shape. Then, using the healthy hand, gently push the affected hand backward to its limit, straighten the wrist and repeat. Pushing too hard could hurt, so go slow and know your limits.
Wrist Extension Stretching
Wrist extension stretching using a table or countertop helps stretch out affected tendons. For this exercise, stand in front of the table or counter surface with open hands pressed down on the surface and arms completely straight. With hands and arms stationary, bend your body slightly forward and backward, allowing the motion to gently flex your wrists back and forth.
Resistance Stretching
Holding on to a small weight, such as a soup can, during stretching exercises helps restore strength to your affected wrist while therapeutically stretching the tendons, according to Self Care Navigator website. For this exercise, hold the can of soup in the affected hand and rotate the wrist back and forth and side to side.
Preventive Stretching
Stretching exercises -- such as those noted above -- do more than ease symptoms of those already suffering wrist tendinitis. They also help prevent the condition if performed regularly by those whose activities put them at risk for tendinitis. If you type, sew or perform other repetitive actions with your wrist several hours per day, you're at risk for tendinitis, according to University Sports Medicine, a division of the University at Buffalo Department of Orthopaedics. Performing wrist stretches every hour for two or three minutes helps prevent injury and increases your productivity in the end, Hand Health Resources notes. And if you're an athlete using constant wrist motion, such as a baseball pitcher or tennis player, observing proper technique during play prevents injury, according to University Sports Medicine.
