How Do I Heal Tendons Quicker?

[TheHound]

I injured both my wrists about 5 weeks ago doing close grip bench press at the gym. It was bad at first but has gotten quite a bit better. Taking a full week off didn't get rid of it however. It hurts when going heavy on any pressing exercise or when holding my arms in front of me with my elbows facing away from my body and bending my wrists back. I've stopped or substituted exercises that aggravate it (bench and overhead)

I've been doing really light wrist curls (5lb dumbbells) for 3 sets of around 30 reps 3x a week and that seems to help. Is there anything else? This is really annoying as I haven't been able to bench or overhead press properly for the last month.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I find red light is the best for this.

 

[Colin Nordstrom]

@TheHound, I'm a physical therapist. I stress nutrition first. Are you keeping your PUFA intake low? PUFA has this crazy knack of slowing the healing process.

 

[EIRE24]

Low pufa, gelatin and also plenty of protein would all help with healing of injuries

 

[meatbag]

I injured both my wrists about 5 weeks ago doing close grip bench press at the gym. It was bad at first but has gotten quite a bit better. Taking a full week off didn't get rid of it however. It hurts when going heavy on any pressing exercise or when holding my arms in front of me with my elbows facing away from my body and bending my wrists back. I've stopped or substituted exercises that aggravate it (bench and overhead)

I've been doing really light (5lb dumbbells) for 3 sets of around 30 reps 3x a week and that seems to help. Is there anything else? This is really annoying as I haven't been able to bench or overhead press properly for the last month.

I find red light is the best for this.

Yeah I've had good experience with this myself for neck and lower back problems. I have a family member with bad joint injuries and redlight provides improvement and relief within minutes, its pretty incredible. There was also a report on the forum of a doctor injecting K2 to speed the healing process,

"Interesting to note: I had three wrists surgeries for tennis in Germany. The doctor injected Vitamin k2 into my wrist after the last surgery. He told me most people experience swelling for 1.5 years after , however, since he started injecting patients with K2 the edema or what have you disappeared within months." - Watson350

I once put Kuinone on an infected cut and the speed at which it healed was insane. Take that for what you will as I have no photos.

 

[TheHound]

I find red light is the best for this.

forgot to mention I've been shining red light on them 3-4x a week. Also tried rubbing pansterone and kuinone on them as well as spraying them with solban. still not gone

 

[TheHound]

@TheHound, I'm a physical therapist. I stress nutrition first. Are you keeping your PUFA intake low? PUFA has this crazy knack of slowing the healing process.

pufa is about as low as it can be for a peat bulking diet

 

[meatbag]

I injured both my wrists about 5 weeks ago doing close grip bench press at the gym. It was bad at first but has gotten quite a bit better. Taking a full week off didn't get rid of it however. It hurts when going heavy on any pressing exercise or when holding my arms in front of me with my elbows facing away from my body and bending my wrists back. I've stopped or substituted exercises that aggravate it (bench and overhead)

I've been doing really light (5lb dumbbells) for 3 sets of around 30 reps 3x a week and that seems to help. Is there anything else? This is really annoying as I haven't been able to bench or overhead press properly for the last month.

Also just throwing this out there make sure you're using correct wrist position when benching. I used to let my wrists rollback when pressing and then someone pointed it out to me. Not only is it helpful to prevent injury but you get much better drive through on the press.

I think this video does a decent job of explaining it;

Another thing you can try is very high amounts of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in water with epsom salt. Its probably not as good as CO2 gas but I found it helpful when I injured my ankle on a treacherous hike.

 

[brigadierbarty]

Do you do any kind of low intensity cardio? A mile or two of walking per day may be helpful. No uphill stuff, just very low intensity. If it doesn't feel refreshing it's too much.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I find trigger point work usually fixes these situations. Working the right TP, then stretching makes them go away.

I like Claire Davies The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook but most of his stuff is now online and you can google around if you don't want to buy the book (which I recommend as almost a Bible.)

https://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment-ebook/dp/B00ECLGALG

 

[TheHound]

Do you do any kind of low intensity cardio? A mile or two of walking per day may be helpful. No uphill stuff, just very low intensity. If it doesn't feel refreshing it's too much.

I do not but I was considering walking 30 minutes a day to help me sleep

 

[Gl;itch.e]

You were probably benching too close as well. Anything inside of shoulder width should be considered stupidly narrow grip.

 

[JoeKool]

Tb500 or BPC157 injections are the real deal... if you want to cross over into the dark side

 

[brigadierbarty]

I do not but I was considering walking 30 minutes a day to help me sleep

Whenever I hear about muscle or tendon injuries that aren't healing, I think about overtraining and Phil Maffetone's work. You may want to look into it, especially if you have other semi-chronic injuries.

 

[lvysaur]

Give your tendons some honey mustie

 

[TheHound]

You were probably benching too close as well. Anything inside of shoulder width should be considered stupidly narrow grip.

oddly enough I wasn't. I was about an inch wider than shoulder width

 

[schultz]

oxandrolone

Maybe progesterone would help as well? It seems to be quite amazing for pain and healing.

CO2 might help too. Get a tank, fill a bag, put your wrists in. Sounds like a lot of work to me, but maybe you're less lazy than I.

 

[Gl;itch.e]

oddly enough I wasn't. I was about an inch wider than shoulder width

All good. Probably just pushing yourself too hard then. When you start getting tired the habit is to bring the bar higher up on the chest and flare the elbow out more to try and get more pec involved to help you keep going. That definitely puts more strain on the wrist than bringing the bar down lower and tucking the elbows more when using a close grip.

 

[tara]

CO2 might help too. Get a tank, fill a bag, put your wrists in. Sounds like a lot of work to me, but maybe you're less lazy than I.

Worth a try if you've got a source of CO2. 15 mins or so once or twice a day should bring lots of circulation and especially oxygen into the area.

 

[tara]

I had some very slow to heal tendon injuries that only recovered during a period of sedentry and more-than-maintenance eating.