Menu
Wrist pain is often caused by trigger points around wrist (located in your forearm). These forearm muscles work hard during the day to control your wrist, often with both finely tuned and powerful movements.
And while wrist pain is common, most people look only at the wrist itself when they’re trying to find the cause. But this isn’t always the place to be looking.
The most common muscles to get triggers are your forearm extensors. These are located in the top of your forearm, and they pull the hand and fingers upwards.
The reason they are more likely to get triggers is that they’re not as powerful as the strong forearm flexors, but they’re used more often.
Especially now, with so many people working long hours at intensive wrist work like typing, the forearm extensors get a major workout.
Also, the modern touch keyboard and particularly the mouse require tiny wrist movements. So you can spend many hours with your arm and hand held in a position of tension making tiny concentrated movements. And this can set off trigger points which then cause pain in your wrist.
Trigger points around wrist, in your forearm to be exact, can also cause pain radiating to your fingers. They’re not the only muscles that can do this though. When you’re holding tension in your arm, there are other muscles that have to work hard.
The tension in your forearm can get transferred up into your neck, chest, and shoulders. So, certain muscles in your neck like the scalene, muscles in your chest wall like the pectoralis minor can also get triggers. Trigger points in these muscles can and do cause pain that runs all the way down your arm and into your hand.
To relieve pain in your wrist, you first need to figure out where to find the trigger points. Or you could have a look at triggerpointmaps.com
As you’ll see, some muscles far up in your arm can refer pain right down to your wrist, and sometimes even radiating into your fingers.
Then to treat them, try using the principles of ischemic pressure.
The first step is to watch what movement bring on your wrist pain – it’s likely the same movement that’s causing your triggers.
Musicians – check your technique for unnecessary tension. For typists – make sure your chair’s at the right height for your desk and you have a good sized mouse.
Lastly, remember to take micropauses during tasks and take proper breaks from your work, stretch, and relax.