Hand stiffness and pain

[thetruthbeareth1985]

33 year old female. Kettlebells are THE exercise that make me happy. However, I’ve always had stiff hands in the mornings (pre-kettlebells) and a few months ago hurt my hands at work and stopped KB for ~8 weeks. Dad told me he has always had stiff hands in the mornings and it’s never gotten worse for him. I tested negative for rheumatoid factor.) At the hand therapist’s they measured my grip strength to be 90-something R hand and 70-something L hand. They seemed to think that was a pretty strong grip strength. I got prescribed tendon glides, and I used Voltaren, and eventually got better but it comes and goes. Interestingly, knitting is the thing that makes my hands hurt the most, so it’s not really about how hard I grip but the position of my hands. Also curving my right hand around my phone. I never went back to the HT or saw the hand specialist because it’s not affordable to me but I think I had/have tendinitis.

As I sit here this morning with stiff hands and a tender spot on my right palm, naturally thought I’d turn to Reddit for help. If you’ve experienced hand pain, how do you cope with not doing KB (mentally)? What should I do to stay strong to not lose progress? I’ve heard stories of people recovering from hand pain using KB, can I be one of those people?

 

[sun1982]

@thetruthbeareth1985 I can relate to this, I work with my hands so I'm putting my issues down to repetitive strain. Look into wrist stretches and forearm and backarm massage. But I actually believe kettlebells are improving my problems. Also be mindful not to death grip the kettlebell, especially when fatigued.

 

[thetruthbeareth1985]

@sun1982 Thanks. I went ahead and worked out and do not have more pain in my hands after it, and I used my light medium and heavy weights. Hand pain is a drag.

 

[rsully2013]

@thetruthbeareth1985 Had a lot of soreness in my thumb and hands last summer from working outside. It got worse when I did get ups, cleans, or presses (anything that meant the kb handle put pressure on the webbing near my thumb). Took a month or so off from those kb moves and plugged in some dumbbell work since that grip hurt less. It eventually got better. Good luck.

 

[redeemed2007]

@thetruthbeareth1985 Have you ever tried baoding balls? Old Asian people swear by them.

 

[thetruthbeareth1985]

@redeemed2007 I have not I will look into it

 

[happygagu]

@redeemed2007 That's probably a really good thing to try!