Wrist Stretches and Strengthening Excercises
Wrist Stretches and Strengthening Excercises
Danny Abramovitch and Roger Avedon, August 10, 1995
Wrist Stretching Excercises
(These excercises were taught to the Stanford Self Defense
Class by Roger.
They are derived from the wrist stretches taught at
Stanford Aikido.
Danny drew the diagrams.
Roger added the text. Please address comments to either
Danny or
Roger)
The wrist being stretched is on
the stretching hand. The hand applying pressure is the
free hand. If you get confused by geometry, remember that the
free hand is always in a very natural posture. If it feels like the
free hand is in an awkward position, something is incorrect.
Please do all stretching slowly and carefully. Exercise caution and
your own judgement in the use of any of these techniques. We accept
no responsibility whatsoever by providing this information.
Wrist Twist Stretch/Kote Gaeshi
Turn your stretching hand so that the thumb points away from you and the fingers
point up. Wrap the fingers of your free hand around the thumb. Place the thumb of the
free hand between the second and third knuckles of the back of the stretching hand. Push
with the thumb of the free hand as you turn the palm of the stretching
hand away from you. Pull both elbows down towards the ground to increase the stretch.
Yubi Tori Stretch
Turn the palm of the stretching hand up so that the fingers point away from you.
Grasp the fingers of the stretching hand with the free hand by placing the fingers
of the free hand across the fingers of the stretching hand and the thumb on the
back of the stretching hand. Push up with your thumb and pull down with your fingers so that
the stretching hand pushes out and then down, as if the back
of your stretching hand was riding a roller-coaster. Your
elbow should straighten. Feel the stretch in the fingers
and the back of your wrist.
Bar/Front Flex Stretch/Ikkyo
Let your stretching hand hang down so that the thumb and fingers point
toward the ground. Grasp the stretching hand with the free hand
by placing the fingers of your free hand across the back of your
stretching hand and by pressing the thumb of your free hand against the thumb of your
stretching hand. Use the free hand to push the stretching hand toward its own elbow.
Life your elbows upward to increase the stretch.
Cross Twist Stretch/Nikyo
Hold your arm out in front of you, thumb up, fingers pointing away from you, as
if offering a handshake. Now, rotate the hand inward so that the thumb points down
toward the ground.
Place the thumb of the free hand on top of the stretching hand and wrap the
fingers of the free hand under the stretching hand. Make sure you capture
the thumb of the stretching hand with the fingers of the free hand. Pull the
stretching hand towards you. Push your elbows down toward the floor to increase
the stretch.
Hand Twist Stretch/Sankyo
Turn your thumb down with your palm facing away from you. Wrap the fingers of
the free hand over the stretching hand, with the thumb of the free hand on the
back of the stretching hand. There are two ways to do this stretch:
- Push the stretching hand away from you with the thumb of the free hand
while pulling backward with the fingers of the free hand. Your stretching
hand should rotate inward so that the thumb moves away from you.
- Apply a screwdriver motion to the stretching hand in the direction of
the elbow. In other words, pretend that the free hand is a wrench and that
the stretching hand is a screw. Torque the "screw" into the elbow.
Another Yubi Tori Stretch
Hold your hand in front of you, thumb pointing towards you, and fingers
pointing up. Push the fingers of this hand against the palm of your free hand.
Wrist Strengthening Excercises
(These excercises are ones I have been doing in the weight room for a couple
of years. I have found that they have helped me better tolerate some of the
wrist manipulations that we do in The Stanford Self Defense
Class. -- Danny,
8/11/95)
Wrist Strengthening Excercises Using a Dumbell
Below are a couple of excercises that you can do in the weight room or at home
to improve the strength of the wrist. All that is needed is a place to sit
and a dumbell weight (i). The exercises are done while sitting down, legs
forward. The forearm lies on top of your thigh (right thigh for right
forearm, left thigh for left forearm).
Wrist Curls
The first excercise is a wrist curl. This is done by holding the weight palm
up with your hand hanging off your knee. Raising and lowering the hand (j)
while keeping the forearm flat on your thigh strengthens the inside part of
the wrist. A variant of this that also strengthens the fingers is involves
letting the fingers partially uncurl as you let the weight down and then
curling them back up as you raise the weight (k). Obviously, you want to keep
the fingers curled enough to hold onto the weight.
Inverted Wrist Curls
To work the back side of the wrist, flip the weight over (palm down) (l).
From this position, raise and lower your hand keeping your forearm flat on
your thigh. (For most people, the amount of weight they can lift with this
excercise is less than in the normal wrist curls above.)
Copyright 1995 by Danny Abramovitch and Roger Avedon. This document
may be freely distributed as is via the Internet. It may be freely
distributed within the Stanford Self Defense Class and the Stanford Aikido
Class. Any other distribution, distribution of a modified version of this
document, or sale of this document without the written permission of the
authors is prohibited.
A note about copyrighting these notes:
We have put a copyright on our notes, but obviously not on the
techniques themselves. (We are not sure if one can copyright
a technique.) Even if this were possible, it would be quite silly for
us to put a copyright on techniques that we have been taught by a
different instructor. Quite the contrary, we
have tried to list all our sources of the techniques above.
However, the notes are Danny's drawings and Roger's interpretations of what was
being taught. Thus, these notes -- this presentation of the material
-- is copyrighted.
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