Weak wrists advice

So my daughter has genetic condition affecting her connective tissue which means she suffers from painful joints and fatigue.

E-bike was a wonderful solution to allow her to enjoy biking again but now she is finding it very sore on her wrists. Looking at the mechanics of cycling that makes lots of sense as they have near constant torque on them in a normal riding position.

Anyone come across, or use, wrist supports or grips which could help with this?

Should probably ask physio or OT but experience says they’re not that great at sport orientated stuff and STW is always more knowledgeable than the the experts ;-P

Definitely look into Ergon grips.
I have wrist issues on and off and I find that mine (GA3 I think) tend to help.
They spread the load a bit.

Bar setup will also be important.
You may want to try a higher bar to take weight off the wrists and brake lever position is critical too.

Ergon’s etc are OK but don’t fix issues. No health issues here, but put Ergon GP2’s on my commuter – not stopped numb hands at all for a flat bar bike. No issues riding road bikes on the hoods !

I don’t think there is an easy ‘fix’.

Ergon grips are great! What about changing the handlebars too? A swept bar like the Ritchey Kyote has a much more natural position for the wrists to sit at than a regular flat bar (assuming that’s what she has on the bike now).

Have you tried Alt / ergo bars?

As above there are bars that allow the wrists to be in a neutral position, lots of info on: https://bikepacking.com/index/comfort-mtb-handlebars/

Experiment with grips, ergonomic ones (eg Ergon, SQ lab), fat ones and thin ones are worth trying.

Wrist support can help, wear under or over gloves. Some wrist supports just wrap around the wrist (eg 661 or Donjoy wrist wrap), others incorporate the thumb and have a metal or plastic support that extends up into the base of the hand. It is very much trial and error to find what works. Decathlon have a decent reasonably priced range.

Leatt and Mobius make motorbike/mtb specific supports which are >£150, not seen any in the flesh.

Hope you find a solution!!!

I have a very weak left wrist from a serious injury. I’ve tried all kinds of grips and they don’t make much difference. Backswept bars could help but that’s likely to be more about personal preference.

The game changer for me was a decent wrist brace. I have an Allsport Dynamics and a Mobius brace, neither are cheap but are more than worth the money IMO for what they do. I find the Allsport brace to provide more support but is fussier to use as you need to modify your gloves.

Stack height is worth looking at for how much weight is on the wrist. Going from a 38mm riser bar to a 60mm on one bike made a huge difference for me.

Backsweep and upsweep for getting the wrist in an unstressed position. Going from 8 to 9 degrees backsweep made a huge difference for me on another bike.

I have been diagnosed with serious arthritis in my thumb joints, which has lead to carpal tunnel syndrome and pain up my right arm, so far my left is just the thumb joint. Taking Naproxen morning and night helps, I was taking it in the morning for my knee anyway, and also a wrist brace as mentioned above, with a support strip in it, which has been a great help.

I find the brace a bit cumbersome to wear during the day, so I’m working with a company who specialises in orthopaedics and orthotics to create a lightweight 3D printed brace that I can wear when using my bow, which would also probably work on a bike.
It’s very expensive, and it’s taking time to make, because they’ve never made anything like this before, so we’re making prototypes and I’m a bit of a guineapig in the process. The specialist I’m working with has been to a conference last week with my prototype brace, to pick a few brains.

This is all fairly cutting edge stuff, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll be as effective as I hope!

This is the first design they created, the actual printed one is longer and goes over my wrist and further up my arm:

Definitely look into some Jones style bars. Used them for 20 years and they’ve worked really well for my achey wrists

Retired OT with sore wrists here…

Makes sure that her wrists are in a slightly flexed position and not in a straight line from the elbows; ie. knuckles up by maybe 15 degrees. Brake levers slightly down from horizontal (a bit lower if you do swap to ‘bars with loads of sweep). Slightly flexed is a stronger position and kinder to tendons.

Greater sweep on handlebars is likely to help. 17 degrees will still feel normal; nearer to 30 degrees may feel strange but is likely to be kinder on wrists.

Ditch the lock-on grips and try foam (ESI silicone).

Don’t go to high with the ‘bars as that will screw up wrist angles.

Lighter wrist supports can help keep the joint warm whilst still allowing natural movement (661 Wristwrap).

Range of movement and strengthening exercises for wrist and hands (best guided by a physio but  gentle flexion/extension/ulna and radial deviation is likely to be helpful. One direction at a time and hold at comfortable limit. Grip strengthening by gently squeezing a sponge or similar).

@matt_outandabout ‘s set-up looks perfect to keep wrists happy.

Best of luck with it.

Swept bars worked for me. I was told to angle them down slightly.

Power ball?

Realised you asked for supports etc, all great advice above ^

Strength will really help with wrists. Kettlebells are by far the best bet for building grip (forearm…) strength and useful arm strength – over silly grip ball things – but obviously require commitment (ideally a local gym will have a kettlebell class?)

Remember carrying things – even just a few kg of shopping in a swinging plastic bag – involves the entire posterior chain. That’s why kettlebells are SO effective at building ‘actual’ strength – they mimmic real world situations (‘heavy’ things swinging around)

No ailments here but there is a reason why lots of bikepacking riders use Jones bars.

When doing 12+ hours a day in the saddle they help immensely for comfort. I use my with ergon grips but the Jones foam is also very squidgy.

IMO definitely worth looking into.

If you are Manchester based ask at keep peddling

On the off chance the op don’t know planet x are good for trying swept bars on a budget. In the past I’ve had 2 mary bars and more recently a Geoff. It’s heavy but over £100 cheaper than the equivalent Jones. Infact in think it’s £400 cheaper than the carbon one

Handlebars

Thanks all. Hadn’t thought about the swept bars making that much difference but worth a try with some planet x bars.

I see the advantage of strengthening but don’t think it’ll work for H as it’s not weakness it’s more looseness of joints. Kettlebells would probably dislocate her shoulders!

Might try some wrap type supports with a swept bar to start with. The super dooper braces look good but a lot of cash if they don’t work.

A word of warning about the on-one Geoff bars: they are incredibly stiff as the tubing is way thicker than most bars (to the point of not being able to get regular bar end plugs in!) which may not be ideal for you daughter…

The OG bar is less swept but probably a better option, or the Ritchey Kyote which I find have a nice amount of flex.

Depending on how much sweep you’re looking for, Ergotec do some reasonably priced riser bars with more sweep than normal. I have a couple of pairs of their bars with 12° backsweep, they’re much cheaper than SQ Labs

Yeah was looking at getting an OG V2 as proof of concept.

@LD – some of the local crew might have bars to borrow.. Unfortunately I gave a set to recykabike last year!

silly grip ball things

If you are limp-wristed, your always going to have an issue. I’ve found power balls to be really good for computer related RSI and general wrist/grip strength.

She does have one MF but struggles with the technique to get it going.

as it’s not weakness it’s more looseness of joints.

I have a “loose” knee from a massive off in the 90’s, it still gets loose now if i don’t keep on top of the strengthening exercises. It can help. (But depends on where the looseness is, of course!)

Kettlebells would probably dislocate her shoulders!

That’d be one to ask the physio. Might also be worth asking the physio anyway, or trying a new one. I’ve had a few, over the years, some are only interested in getting you back to work, others are interested in the underlying causes/issues and getting you back fit and able to do *you* things as well.

I’ve got knackered wrists from osteoarthritis caused by my radiuses being a touch too short and some knackered ligaments.  They clunk and click and hurt to rotate and  feel loose and get much weaker if I don’t do any resistance training with them, as if the muscles switch off due to the pain.

Eventually I’ll need the bones fusing but in the meantime I’m managing with steroid injections and naproxen when the injections wear off.

Anyway I’ve found that I’m able to strengthen them and stop a lot of the looseness and click/clunking with weight training, but with no rotating or levering movements on them like you get with standard bar or dumbell curls, or any dumbbells, kettle bells would be hell other than basic swings.

Basically if I do straight pushes or pulls they’re more or less ok. Sometimes with lat pull downs I feel one pull and clunk out a bit (so I stop).  It only really works with barbells for me as dumbbells always put some sort of levering moment on the wrist even if it’s just getting them to the right position for the exercise. I also use a rolling thunder lifting pin for keeping my grip up. I do use dumbbells for a hammer grip curl and a rope grip for triceps extensions as I can keep a neutral wrist position (no rotation).

I actually found that I was ok when I tried some olympic lifting as it’s essentially straight pulls and pushes, until it flared up my knee with OA🙄

Anyway, all that to say when I didn’t do anything due to the pain my worst got a lot loser, more painful and I lost most of my grip. Now doing the weights (at a proper gym) doing straight pushes, pulls and some rolling thunder they’re much improved and the grip has come back and it’s not as bad riding my bike (though only tame tracks and trails) but I am still having naproxen when needed in-between yearly injections.

Anyway there might be some helpful elements in my waffle to consider. Strength work definitely helps if you can find the exercises that are compatible. I was shocked at how bad my grip/coordination had got before with struggling to manipulate things like Allen keys for the bike or even a cup if tea or knife and fork at times when they are really bad.