Featured Image: Snapped! by Becca Clark
What’s the cause of my sore wrists?
Ever feel like your wrists get sore from tumbling? Especially when doing bridges, walkovers or back handsprings? You may be experiencing pain because you’re lacking overhead shoulder mobility!
Overhead Shoulder Mobility = The range of motion of the shoulder joints when raising your arms up by your ears, with no compensation from other parts of the body (ex: arching your back to get your arms higher).
Poor overhead shoulder mobility can cause you to place more pressure on your wrists when doing inverted & arched skills on your hands (ex: bridges and walkovers). This is because your arms are unable to fully get up by your ears, resulting in a smaller angle at the wrist joint when upside down. If your shoulders are not overtop or past your hands in a bridge, it will sometimes feel like your wrists are “bending too far” or being compressed.
Smaller wrist angle 
Larger wrist angle
Why are my shoulders tight?
Usually, the cause of poor shoulder mobility is having tight muscles in certain areas. Since most of us sit all day and are hunched over looking at screens, the muscles that help us sit in that position get tight.
The major players here are:
- Latissimus dorsi (also called “lats”)
- Teres major
- Pectoralis major & minor (also called “pecs”)
- Subscapularis
How do I know if my shoulders are tight in these areas?
Sit against a wall or flat surface like the photo below. Hold a dowel or stick in an undergrip position with your hands shoulder width apart. Raise your arms up overhead as far as you can without letting your back arch.
Do your arms touch the wall? Nice, you have pretty good overhead shoulder mobility!
Feel impossible to touch the wall? You better get to work!
How do I reduce the tightness of these muscles?
A combination of soft tissue work (like foam rolling or massage), consistent stretching and some shoulder strengthening exercises should do the trick.
See some of my favourite stretches here and some great overhead exercises here.
Also make sure you don’t make these stretching mistakes!
Once your arms can easily reach the wall, you’ll notice tumbling and stunting become waaaay easier. This new found range of motion will allow you to get your shoulders in positions that can more easily bear weight, so your tumbling will become less tiring and your flyers will feel lighter!
What else can I do to improve my mobility?
For dozens more stretches and exercises to help with shoulder mobility, keep an eye out for my Back & Shoulder Flexibility Training Program coming out May 30! This intensive at-home program includes descriptions of each exercise, photos, demonstration videos, a full warm up and more!
If you don’t think shoulder immobility is the cause of your wrist pain, check out my Wrist Mobility & Strength Training Program also coming out May 30! This program includes 11 strength exercises for the wrists and hands, as well as 6 stretches and mobility exercises to improve your wrist range of motion. It also comes with demonstration videos, a discount code for other programs and a whole lot of other great things!
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