TFCC exercises/stretches

I've seen a lot of people talking about recovery or torn TFCC in the wrist. Common injury as I understand it, so I was wondering if anyone has gone through the PT for such an injury? What exercises or stretches did your PT have you doing to expedite recovery and prevent a retear?

Just got over it and went to PT. It really lags on, but it is so much better than it was. About 2 months out from the initial onset. No large tear was suspected but no imaging was done either.

Using a wrist widget while climbing instantly made a huge difference, irritation management is key.

Wrist curls seemed to help, along with conscience wrist flexion on easy climbs or hangboarding when warming up.

Keeping a neutral wrist on climbs also makes a big difference in your cragging enjoyment. Big slopers, underclings, cracks all seemed to upset it for me. Climbing nice open hand limestone had me feeling like I was 100% cured, but intense crimping or jamming will flare me up badly. Knowing that, I still do these aggravating style, just in a lesser capacity.

Hope that helps!

Not a PT, but managed to make it back from this injury last year and am fairing well since then. Truly frustrating how painful it can be at time for something that seems so minor. The biggest recommendation I can make is getting a Wrist Widget or similar style of brace and wearing it constantly until the pain is consistently gone. Could be a month, maybe two or more, it really depends on how severe the injury is and how well you are able to keep the area stable. The main issue with getting the ligament to heal is preventing the bones that it connects from separating when you rotate or roll your wrist. The brace acts to squeeze all of the wrist bones together, taking strain off the TFCC and allowing it to actually heal. 

I actually found that wearing it while climbing just aggravated the area more, but keeping the wrist neutral like Adam said is key. The main areas that I found it helpful was general day to day things like using a keyboard, opening a door, sleeping movement. 

Once pain has started going away, I found doing extensor exercises helps to strengthen that area of the wrist fairly well. Things like the IronMind bands, but a few rubber bands can accomplish the same thing.

Hi Jenny -  I had a TFCC injury (minor tear, painful but not really a candidate for surgery) and thanks to my PT I really haven't felt or even thought about it in years.  I used the Wrist Widget as well for support and to "calm down" my wrist during activity but the big breakthrough for me was doing a lot of band work to really activate my upper arm and chest, specifically my pecs.  Think using bands for flys and overhead extensions with the focus being less on heavy resistance and more on keeping the upper arms tense and activated. My PTs approach was that the actual tear will never really heal but we can stabilize and strengthen everything close to it.  My injury came from an undercling where most of the force was focused on the pinky side of my hand, I do avoid those moves whenever possible. 

I'm no PT and can't say I understand how or why it worked, (plus we're all put together differently) but this clearly and pretty quickly helped me a lot. Good Luck!