I’ve started having severe wrist pain during and after a long paddle. Not carpal tunnel, the pain is on my baby finger side and on the bottom (palm) side. Some wwelling again below my palm and on baby finger side. I have the most pain when I turn my hand/arm and wrist over (palm up and down), not when I flex my wrist and move hand up and down, or back and forth.
I’ve been doing endurance and distance paddling for years and have never had a problem before. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Dawn
Shorter?
Outside of rest & maybe a med. opinion, the only things I can think of are making sure you’re not flipping up with the wrist, but lifting with the elbow. Sometimes dropping a cm or two can help with wrist, forearm and elbow problems (if paddle is adjustable). Going only a little shorter (2cm) has really helped my elbows. Good luck.
Dwan
Have you been pulling harder than usual?
Might be taking your wrist beyond it’s usual zone. Take it easy for a couple days and it should go down… IME
Some Ideas…
First, I agree with what onno said. My personal experience is that 5 mph = no pain and 5.3 mph = wrist pain.
Other experience includes knee pain and cycling. For years I did speed and endurance biking then suddenly developed tendonitis in the knees. Doctor said it was because I was 40 years old. He told me to have plenty of warm up before pushing hard. It makes a difference.
Ibuprofen helps. Ice also if it’s really bad.
i’ve had wrist pain for over a year …
i’ve been doing the same type of paddling for essentially my entire paddling career. i don’t paddle particularly hard, maybe 4-4.5 steadily and like to paddle 20-30 miles. my wrist hurts all the time no matter what i do, short of stopping for a month or more which i’m just not willing to do.
i attribute it to old age. i can’t take ibuprofen … it eats my stomach up. i can’t take vioxx or bextra because they’ve taken the darn things off the market. too bad … they were the only meds that worked and didn’t eat my stomach up.
the older i get, the more pain i paddle in. bette davis was right, “gettin’ old ain’t for sissy’s”.
Try this (among other ideas)
My wrist gave out after longish paddles, hurt really bad for several weeks so I couldn’t pull at all. Finally did several kayak paddle changes: 1) Lift the elbow more than normal when exiting the water, it helps keep the wrist straight. 2) I use 75° twist on the blade, that plus elbow lift give very little wrist rotation. 3) Bought a vinyl bowling brace “Robbies” brand, comes in exciting colors like bright blue and red. Has an aluminum insert and velcroes on snug. Wore 2 out, wife made a canvas copy that lasted 2+ years for the aluminum insert. This helps keep the wrist straight. I wear it in canoe and kayak.
Now, mostly pain free but sometimes know when I worked too hard for 2-3 too many days.
Good luck.