stupid thumb injury

[PandorasVise]

I have skier's thumb(not from skiing, but karate). Basically I hurt the ligament connecting thumb to the hand. It bothers me off and on, it has been bothering me for the last two weeks. Last night while doing a karate game with a kid, he grabbed hold of thumb as he fell. OUCH!

So I am trying to do weight program and when doing lower body exercises like weighted lunges and squats, it is fine, because I can hook fingers around the weight. However any upper body,like overhead presses, bicep curls, lateral raises, ect., I can't hold the weight becasue it bears down on the injury. I HAVE to train. Got a fight coming up. Any ideas how to work upper body without weights?

BTW: I can do push ups, but cant hold the bar for a pull up. I can't even hold a pencil right now.

[fitoverforty]

Sorry to hear about your thumb injury! That is frustrating I know.

I may not be much help but a few thoughts I had were:

tricep dips using a chair or the edge of the couch
variations of the pushup (wide stance, mid stance, diamond, incline, decline, pike)
single arm DB rows (you'd still just be holding the weight with the arm doing the work)
DB shrugs

hope that helps or gives you some ideas.

Get better soon!

[PandorasVise]

Thank you ladies.

[Boss Man]

You may possibly have something called Quervains Disease, (Radial Styloid Tenosynovitis).

You can test for this using something called the Finkelstein test.

1. You flex the thumb into the palm of the hand, palm facing you.

2. Close the fingers over the thumb.

3. Gently tilt the wrist in the direction of the Ulna bone.

If you feel a slight pain sensation on the side of the wrist you're tilting away from, around the base of the Thumb / Scaphoid area, then it's likely to be that.

You can treat it with a brace or NSAIDS and possibly cortisone might be required. It often stems from overuse of the area, or particularly frequent gripping, or utilising of constant grip / ungrip motion like the one used when you use spring loaded wrist strengtheners.

It relates to a tendonitis of the tendon that is part of the Thumb.

[PandorasVise]

Thanks bossman, I tried what you said, twisting in every direction, cause I am not sure what the ulna bone is, even though I cannot fully close fingers over thumb, there is no pain in wrist at all. The pain is all at the base of the thumb and between thumb and finger. I can make a fist, thumb on the outside, butwith punching I have to be careful to only hit with the two knuckles I am supposed to hit with.

Any advice on handstands? I feel sick to stomach when doing them for more than 30 seconds. Part of upper belt requirements is a handstand for a minute

[Boss Man]

The test I mentioned only requires slight movement one way and back the other and the Ulna bone is the little lumpy bone on the lateral side, of what could be called the anterior wrist, the part of the wrist that normally fases you, when your palms are pronated.

I would suggest therefore, that you have a normal Tendonitis of the index Finger. It can be treated with Cortisone in some cases, NSAIDS or worst case a Tendonectomy, where part of the Tendon is removed, an ectomy usually being a removal procedure of some kind of anatomical structure.

The Tendonitis is usually the result of inflammation, causing thickening of the Tendon shaft.

You may however want to get your Synovial fluid levels checked, if that is possible, to rule out the possible early stages of some Arthritic onset.