ENOUGH WITH ALL THESE BANDED MOBILIZATIONS FOR WRIST EXTENSION! All you need is your other hand! It’s more specific, you get better joint play, and you can find YOUR specific joint restriction. This is part 1 of 3 in our front rack mobility series with @barbellrehab! If a specific motion (in this case wrist extension) is limited, it can be caused by one of 3 things: soft tissue restrictions like muscles, joint restrictions like the joint capsule, and/or bone. Soft tissue restrictions can be treated by a physical therapist with techniques like soft tissue mobilizations (STM) via strumming, rolfing, tac-and-go, active release, or instrument assisted STM (i.e. graston method). Similarly, joint capsule restrictions can be treated by a physical therapist via joint mobilizations. Specifically for the wrist, the proximal row of carpal bones in your hand is comprised of the scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, and pisiform. When you move your wrist into extension, these bones GLIDE relatively in the PALMAR direction, or towards your palm. In order to increase wrist extension, you want to mobilize these bones in the PALMAR direction (towards the ground in this example) HOW TO: Rest your arm on your lap to relax the muscles. Make sure you aren’t mobilizing directly downwards, the joint line is angled ~10 degrees palmarly (ie towards your elbow) so you must be mobilizing in that direction. I drew a line on my wrist for easy identification. Happy mobilizing!
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