Capoeira Case Study: Wrist Pain With Au

About 1 month ago, a capoeirista inquired about ways to help his wrist hurt less, but first, let’s hear about how it started. This capoeirista has been consistently training over the past 8 months, but had a series of training sessions that involved more ground movements and floreios. During the course of this, he began to experience pain as the result of his wrist’s intolerance to overload as he had not been accustomed to that degree of putting weight through his wrist in a relatively short period of time.

Needless to say, it was time for me to analyze! I had him go on the floor and try to shift his weight over his hands, but it hurt before he could move all the way over. Then, I had him shift side to side. Away from the affected wrist didn’t hurt, but towards it—you betcha!

This capoeirista’s pain isn’t enough to sideline him from training, but if you think he’s going to try ‘queda de rins’ soon—yeah, no. I prescribed having him perform exactly what I asked him to do originally; shifting his weight forward and back with his hand flat on the floor, but only with mild pain at most.

Next, I told him to find a kettlebell and hold it upside down to balance it and challenge wrist stability. Holding one for 15 seconds that is decently heavy is no easy task!

Finally, I gave him a modified version of a crow hold. If you’re familiar with this, you would place all of your body weight through your hands while squeezing your thighs against your elbows; except he is alternating lifting one leg up at a time to modify the amount of weight.

So far, he doesn’t seem to be complaining about his wrist after two weeks of these! Note, these exercises are just ideas and are specific to this capoeirista’s specific needs so exercise caution while attempting these. Até já!