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Posted in: Workouts / Goal Setting

Wrist problems and push-ups

Are there others here with permanent wrist impediments and, if so, do you do push-ups?

I've been doing half push-ups for many years on my fists and I can do a decent number. But with the new push-up workout that came out yesterday and the commentary on the different muscle groups a half vs full push-up works, I decided I wanted to try full push-ups again.

It was pretty bad! :) My muscles ARE super weak and focusing on the negatives was a great tip that let me feel like I was doing *something* at least. But, the wrists/fists thing is gonna be a problem, too. My fingers and knuckles were getting impacted and I definitely had to stop sometimes to stretch them out and back.

I can continue making some progress but I wonder - for those of us with wrist problems that do push-ups on fists, can you ever do as many as you'd be able to do flat-handed? Are there people that do 100 push-ups in a row on their fists? Or should my goals just be more modest and I may never develop those push-up muscles the same way as if I didn't have wrist problems?

I've read the expert article here, which I appreciated. While I can probably make some improvement for my wrist, unfortunately, working back toward normal is just not a possibility. If anyone has other great resources on push-ups (or tricep dips) with wrist problems, I'd love to hear about it. I'm always curious if there are other things I could be doing than just using my fists, or if there are adjustments I should be making when on my fists, but I have no idea.