Wrist brace?

I have a weak wrist from multiple sprains and I am wondering what sort of brace or compression sleeve people use for support while climbing? I have seen Facebook ads for the below brace and I am interested to hear people's thoughts on wrist braces for climbing before I buy anything.

Depends on your injury. I used one of these for an ECU subluxation prior to surgical repair and it helped. PT/Sports Med/Hand Surgeon can point you in the right direction. 

jdejace wrote:

Depends on your injury. I used one of these for an ECU subluxation prior to surgical repair and it helped. PT/Sports Med/Hand Surgeon can point you in the right direction. 

Those look intriguing, I'll check them out.

I have also had issues with my ECU tendon.  Wrist strengthening exercises have helped a lot, but sometimes I overuse it and it gets achy.  When that happens, I use the wrap found at the link below.  It allows great freedom of movement while also providing really good support (needs to be fairly tight).  

https://www.amazon.com/22-103LGSTD-Wrist-Support-Elastic-Pullover/dp/B001707G36/ref=pd_day0_121_6/140-5974961-3612512?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B001707G36&pd_rd_r=a029dae8-a8b7-4c1b-affd-ce424669f581&pd_rd_w=u2hPm&pd_rd_wg=Ua6D7&pf_rd_p=d495c3b6-b08c-488d-b587-92006fef8456&pf_rd_r=V41PFTE1BFZ36JDCW6BA&psc=1&refRID=V41PFTE1BFZ36JDCW6BA

RMB wrote:

I have also had issues with my ECU tendon.  Wrist strengthening exercises have helped a lot, but sometimes I overuse it and it gets achy.  When that happens, I use the wrap found at the link below.  It allows great freedom of movement while also providing really good support (needs to be fairly tight).  

https://www.amazon.com/22-103LGSTD-Wrist-Support-Elastic-Pullover/dp/B001707G36/ref=pd_day0_121_6/140-5974961-3612512?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B001707G36&pd_rd_r=a029dae8-a8b7-4c1b-affd-ce424669f581&pd_rd_w=u2hPm&pd_rd_wg=Ua6D7&pf_rd_p=d495c3b6-b08c-488d-b587-92006fef8456&pf_rd_r=V41PFTE1BFZ36JDCW6BA&psc=1&refRID=V41PFTE1BFZ36JDCW6BA

What exercises were you doing to strengthen the wrist? PT says i have "wrist instability"

Sterling Camden wrote:

What exercises were you doing to strengthen the wrist? PT says i have "wrist instability"

This is also relevant to my interests.

In terms of wrist strengthening, many climbers do standard and reverse wrist curls.  These are certainly useful, but they neglect strengthening in the perpendicular plane.  Wrist exercises with ulnar deviation, and with radial deviation, are key to comprehensive wrist strengthening.  Using a broom or long stick or a baby sledge hammer, and adjusting the resistance by adjusting where the object is held along it's length, works well.  As someone who has been prone to subluxation of my pisiform for decades, this strengthening is essential for my climbing.  More generally, it helps protect against injury on slopers or other hand positions where the wrist is not in neutral.

Tom Addison wrote:

In terms of wrist strengthening, many climbers do standard and reverse wrist curls.  These are certainly useful, but they neglect strengthening in the perpendicular plane.  Wrist exercises with ulnar deviation, and with radial deviation, are key to comprehensive wrist strengthening.  Using a broom or long stick or a baby sledge hammer, and adjusting the resistance by adjusting where the object is held along it's length, works well.  As someone who has been prone to subluxation of my pisiform for decades, this strengthening is essential for my climbing.  More generally, it helps protect against injury on slopers or other hand positions where the wrist is not in neutral.

Thanks for the reply! To be clear the motion you mean with the hammer is moving the hand side to side as if I were hammering something with just my wrist moving or like waving with a hammer in hand ? If so that's pretty interesting because since asking here, I found a lot of research around the dart throwing motion being really helpful for wrist stability. Which seems to involve a similar plane of motion from what I think you're describing. What kind of sets reps etc would you do?

Well words aren't as useful as a video, but here's a description.  Stand on a staircase as if going upwards with your arms pointed to the ground, palms against the outside (not the front, the back, or the inside) of your leg, holding brooms in each hand parallel to the ground with the bristles behind you pointing downwards at the rough angle of the stair.  Raise the broom by moving your wrist in ulnar deviation (move your wrist so the pinkie finger moves upwards towards the pointy bone on the back in of your elbow). Lower and repeat.  

Same thing but stand facing downhill and raise the broom with the thumb moving towards the inside of the elbow.  

Sets and reps depend on extent of injury/joint laxity, and resistance you are using.  Lots of ways to get the resistance, including use of elastic bands, frying pans, etc.  Start easy and build up resistance over time.  Last thought: I'm not a doc or PT.  Just a climber who's had a variety of wrist issues in decades of climbing.  These have been very helpful to me and a number of other climbers.  Good luck

Tom Addison wrote:

Well words aren't as useful as a video, but here's a description.  Stand on a staircase as if going upwards with your arms pointed to the ground, palms against the outside (not the front, the back, or the inside) of your leg, holding brooms in each hand parallel to the ground with the bristles behind you pointing downwards at the rough angle of the stair.  Raise the broom by moving your wrist in ulnar deviation (move your wrist so the pinkie finger moves upwards towards the pointy bone on the back in of your elbow). Lower and repeat.  

Same thing but stand facing downhill and raise the broom with the thumb moving towards the inside of the elbow.  

Sets and reps depend on extent of injury/joint laxity, and resistance you are using.  Lots of ways to get the resistance, including use of elastic bands, frying pans, etc.  Start easy and build up resistance over time.  Last thought: I'm not a doc or PT.  Just a climber who's had a variety of wrist issues in decades of climbing.  These have been very helpful to me and a number of other climbers.  Good luck

That's exactly what I was imagining! Thanks for the tips :) Helpful to know what's worked for people, and this is an exercise I haven't seen many people commonly recommend so it's valuable. Thanks again. If you're curious this is a review of some of the research on that Dart Throwing Motion for wrist stability, which incorporates part of the plane of motion you are describing (but also some radial side wrist extension)

  handtherapyacademy.com/unca…