Wrist surgery is often performed after Carpal tunnel syndrome. If you have just done hand surgery or are suffering from Colle’s fracture then exercises are a great supporting option to make your rehabilitation superfast. Colle’s fracture is basically breakage or fracture of the wrist bone, it means basically the specific bone is being displaced. And in this case, hand therapists often recommend surgery to set and stabilize the bone position. After surgery they recommend a few exercises to speed up the rehabilitative process. These exercises are very important to restore range of motion and hand functionality after injury.
Before going deep dive into the topic, let’s define the Colles fracture
Table of Contents
What are Colles’ fractures?
Colles’ fracture is basically a fractured or broken wrist. Medically it is termed the distal fracture with dorsal angular. It is a painful and serious hand injury. If you come across this condition, take the help of a hand therapist or a nearby orthopedic surgeon. It often occurs if you have an outstretched fall that hurts your wrist severely due to accidents. In this case, two small bones called lunate and scaphoid gets misplaced and cause a wrist fracture.
Women after the age of 60, who are suffering from osteoporosis are most likely to come across Colles’ fractures due to sudden falls after losing balance. Low bone mineral density and osteoporosis make their bone very weak, therefore, a minor fall can even develop Colles’ fracture. Doctors said that osteoporosis, calcium deficiency, and low bone mineral density are responsible for sudden wrist fractures. These can be prevented with proper nutrition and hand strengthening exercise.
Male also can have Colles’ fractures, due to trauma like car crashes. horse riding, bike riding, accidents in sports. Therefore, experts suggest taking some precautions like a wrist guard before onboarding to sports.
Physiotherapy is a great option to minimize Colles’ fractures. These physiotherapy exercises improve hand and finger movements and increase wrist strength gradually. Physiotherapists help their patients to regain the wrist’s normal range of motion.
They often offer at-home exercise programs for Colles’ fracture rehab. They use different advanced equipment to support and enrich patients’ physiotherapy treatments as well.
In this article, we’re going to talk about the top 4 best exercises after wrist surgery and Colles’ fractures.
1. Wrist range of motion exercise
When you wear a splint or simply a cast, you may feel a tightness around the muscles and joints of the wrist. It is Common. Therefore, your hand therapist will recommend exercises after the removal of the splint to restore and regain the wrist’s range of motion. Range of motion means the basic flexibility of your wrist joints
Regain range of motion by doing the following steps:
- Keep your hands in front of you
- Gradually bend your hand and finger to signal a person to stop
- Then hold this hand by your non-injured hand, and keep this position for a minimum of 5 seconds the relax
- Do this procedure again at least for five repetition
- Next, flex your wrist down by moving your arm in front of you
- Next, gradually put pressure by holding your hand and clenching it again into the position. Maintain this hand posture for 5 second
- Do it 5 times a day for better results.
Along with this therapist may recommend a few exercises to turn your hand over; simple exercises like carrying a bowl of soup can be considered. Before that, your therapist will focus on improving wrist flexion and extension, even if it bends down and up.
2. Forearm and wrist strengthening exercises for betterment
After a wrist injury, muscles around the wrist and forearms may feel sensitive and weak due to injury. Therefore, you cannot move your wrist properly due to immobilization. Therefore, your physiotherapy recommends wrist strengthening exercises with dumbbells to overcome immobilization and improve grip strength. Here you need to initiate slowly with minimum weight. When your wrist gets decent strength, you can work with heavier weights. Talk with your physiotherapist to ensure you are using the right load or resistance according to your wrist condition.
3. Exercise with putty for fingers and thumb
Using putty and playing with it is a great way to strengthen fingers after Colle’s fracture. Therapeutic putty is a very good hand therapy exercising tool preferred by rehab care therapists. Now therapeutic putty is available with multiple resistance. You need to pick them according to your finger strength, Take the help of a therapist to pick the right option
4. Hand grip exercise
When your therapist removes the cast, you may feel difficulties in holding or grasping things. In this case grip strengthening exercise with a hand-held dynamometer.
Photo by from PxHere
