Exercising With a Hand or Wrist Injury

If you have an injury to your hand or wrist, it will make certain exercises a little more 
difficult. But while you need to take a break from kettlebell and heavy weight lifting, that 
doesn’t mean there aren’t workouts you can continue doing. Here are some tips for 
exercising with a hand or wrist injury.

Choose the Gym Machines Wisely

With a hand or wrist injury, you might think that you can’t go to the gym anymore, but 
that is definitely not true! You just need to be more careful about the type of machines 
you end up using. The main motions that are going to be hard on your wrists are where 
you are having to grip tightly. If you use any machines, make sure they don’t require you 
to grip onto anything. So while the pull-up bar and some of the weightlifting machines 
are probably out, you can still use the treadmill, elliptical, rowing machine, and a variety 
of other machines at the gym.

Focus on More Reps and Less Weight

As your hands or wrists begin to heal following the injury, you will probably want to start 
incorporating more weights to get back into your normal fitness routine. There is nothing 
wrong with doing this, but start slowly. The best thing to do is go for a lighter weight, but 
just do more reps. You are still getting a good workout without putting too much strain 
on your wrists. Start as low as you can, only increasing the weight as you begin healing 
as long as the previous weight is not causing you any pain.

Lower Body Exercises

This is probably a given, but remember if you have a hand or wrist injury, you could 
always just focus on lower body workouts. You don’t need to hold onto any type of 
weights, kettlebells, or resistance bands to get a good workout. This might include leg 
workouts like lunges and squats, Pilates moves on the floor that don’t use your hands or 
wrists at all, and even some standing yoga moves.

Focus on Cardio

A lot of cardio workouts don’t require you to use your hands or wrists, so this can be 
good to keep your body moving with a wrist injury. This includes aerobics or water 
aerobics, walking, jogging, hiking, and even dancing right in your living room to get a 
good workout.

