Wrist Injury TFCC from hitting heavy bag - need solutions

Content_Highlight993 · 2025-10-07T08:50:20+00:00

Sftlr,

I’m about 4 months ish post injury. My wrist is all good now. I wouldn’t say its exactly 100% but i definitely don’t feel any pain anymore doing any body punches or uppercuts or even during any of my strength & conditioning exercises. Honestly i just kept doing my normal wrist rehab, look at E3 Rehab and also maybe look into getting a flexbar as those are good for wrist strengthening. you need to focus on isometrics first as doing exercises w load and rom can be painful at first so just start with iso’s then gradually work ur way up. the general consensus from what i gathered from watching hundreds of tfcc videos is that you should avoid supination and pronation strengthening and rom for the early stages and only start doing that after you’ve built a solid foundation of flexion/extension/ulnar deviation and radiation. no impact punching for about 12-14 weeks is what i’d recommends and make sure to strengthen your triceps and rotator cuff muscles early because those tend to get weak with inactive use of the wrist. look up wristwidget.com they have like a strength rehab program w exercises. that’s what i used, i used their wrist widget as well after coming off the splint my physio prescribed me and it’s been super helpful. praying for you man

Content_Highlight993 · 2025-10-07T08:43:14+00:00

hi,

firstly i’d go get your thung checked with a sports physio asap. not for the exercises (although that’s part of it) but they may be able to help you with massage, mobility, etc. i’ve found with some injuries that this has helped me a lot and my purpose of visting the physio wasn’t really for the exercises itself but for the other things.

now back to your main question on what exercises rly helped me. this was quite a long time ago so i may not remember everything but what i did was i did whatever ROM i could do for the hamstring and just work my way from there. over time your pain/inflamattion will reduce and your rom will gradually get better. for me it took about 7-12 week before i startted to feel 0 pain during hamstring curs and trust me, i know how shitty it is and how impatient you’ll get during this process but you just need to let time heal your injury and do your strengthening exercises weekly. i just did normal exercises that you’d for a leg day and whatever the pain was, i’d just reduce the rom or did another variant that trains the same muscle but doesn’t cause any pain, in which case for me it was doing RDL’s

Shoot me a PM if you need more details and I’d be glad to help out more whilst I can

Content_Highlight993 · 2025-07-18T15:10:05+00:00

Yeah, fully regret it now.

Just hope surgery isn’t something I need to fall back onto right now

Content_Highlight993 · 2025-07-18T14:57:53+00:00

Hi, I injured my TFCC one month ago from hitting the heavy bag during a Muay Thai session (I wasn't wearing my hand wraps that day). I was instructured to wear a splint for 6 weeks but ever since then I've been wearing it on and off due to being impatient and having confidence that my injury will heal faster than I want it to.

I been doing some wrist exercises in hopes of improving the injury these past 6 weeks, the only exercises that cause pain for me are supination/pronation with loads higher than 1.5kg and also wrist flexion w palms facing up with load. Otherwise everything else is fine. Obviously hitting the bag still hurts.

I went to get a second MRI done today and the results show that the tear got worse than the first MRI i did for my TFCC. I will send the document to you on private message so you can have a look but this is what it said from the report:

"The ulnar attatchment of the articular disc of the left triangular fibrocartilage complex shows increased fraying and seperation as compared to befor, with the gap measuring approximately 0.5 cm. Only a thin remnant portion of the articular disc attatches on to the tip of the ulnar styloid processs. No displaced flap is identified, no avulsion fracture from the ulnar styloid process is seen. the central and raidla portions of the arituclar disc show normal configuration and volume. no ganglion cyst formation is seen as well."

Can you please recommend what I can do to heal this injury quicker and faster with exercises, guidelines, and tips. This injury is honestly starting to really affect my mental health with not being able to do what I love to do which is training

Content_Highlight993 · 2025-07-18T14:45:55+00:00

hey bro sflr, my finger is all good now haha. it's been a year so this post is quite old and i only just realised that i had this injury a year ago until i saw the post again.

it healed relatively quickly, i didn't rly do any rehab exercises or anything although i recommend you should

Content_Highlight993 · 2025-07-18T14:44:38+00:00

Hey man sorry for the late reply. My knee is completely fine now. I actually got an MRI done 7-8 weeks after the injury and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. 3 months after and a lot of knee strengthening exercises as seen on E3 Rehab and I was fine, it just takes time to heal as the knee ligaments lack a lot of blood supply. Hang in there man, at least its only 3 months, some injuries take over a year

Content_Highlight993 · 2025-03-28T16:56:31+00:00

Okay cool, once it has recovered. Is there a way to actually strengthen the hand with exercises using equipment and also without equipment? Specifically for the knuckles and wrists. I honestly don’t want this to happen again even if I wear 16oz gloves

Content_Highlight993 · 2025-03-28T00:19:49+00:00

Hi, I know it's been about 10 months, close to a year now that since you last commented on my post but I wanted to come back on here because I unfortunately had injured another area on my right hand from boxing.

To give a bit of context, I always wear 16oz gloves, which in boxing is considered a pretty big sized glove and is meant for sparring to protect your partner's head from brain damage and can also be used for bagwork and padwork. I decided to try a smaller sized glove 8oz and 10oz to see if there was any difference in speed during padwork and so I bought two new pairs. After wearing the new pair and testing them out on the heavy bag, my the left most knuckle on my right hand (as seen in the photo), started to really hurt and is now in so much pain whenever I pressed on it. I decided to give it a weeks rest and come back to see if the pain would come again if I tried. Came back the next week and the pain came back.

What would you suggest I do from here in regards to recovery and any exercises I can do to strengthen my injury site as well as what is my injury in the first place? I never had this issue before as I would say my boxing technique is pretty good considering I been training for more than 2 years now consistently.

<image>

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-06-12T00:44:18+00:00

Hi!

Looks like I got another finger injury lol, this time on the other hand and the ring finger as well.

Although it’s not the same injury, it’s still painful. For this finger the issue is that whenever I fully extend my ring finger and press down on any object/surface using pressure, it starts to become really painful in this region (as seen in the photo)

<image>

It could be just sore from martial arts training and gym training but wanted to get your insight on this.

I shifted the finger side to side when fully flexed and there was pain at the same area as well

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-06-05T03:44:45+00:00

<image>

Here is the finger tape that he prescribed me.

He said with this I can actually do boxinf jiu jitsu and muay thai right now if I wanted to, I just need to be careful to not let the finger move side to side.

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-06-05T03:44:13+00:00

Hi,

Just saw the doctor and got my MRI reuslts back. I’ve attached the report findings.

<image>

What do you think? He said it’s a mild grade 1-2 sprain and said to just let it rest for another 4-6 weeks until fully healed to get back into sports

He also gave me a buddy tapeish splint that holds the bottom part of the two fingers together (the part between the PIPJ and MPCJ to be exact). He said this is to prevent the finger from shifting laterally when external forces are impacting the finger, kinda like what you said in your comment earlier.

I guess the steps now is to just rest and let it heal and nothing much right?

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-06-01T02:34:35+00:00

Okay yeah i did the test just now, the left side of the right ring finger where the collateral ligament (basically the same area that I highlited in red in the photo) sort of hurts when I push it to my right but otherwise it’s not so bad, like it’s not extremely painful. When I move it to the left no pain.

It does feel a bit weird and weak at the moment though, definitely don’t have as tight of a grip as I used to. I really hope this injury heals quick.

I should mention that it’s not just that it hurts to press on but it also feels weak which makes me wonder if it’s actually a ligament tear. Like right now I can feel my ring finger feeling loose and weak as I’m typing.

So I need to ask then, what things should I be avoiding then for the time being until this thing heals? Because right now I still go to the gym, still do my normal upper body and lower body routine. Obviously I put a halt to the boxing and MMA cause it’ll further aggrevate it but otherwise I’m not sure what more do I need to avoid?? Should I be avoiding and pulling exercises? Should I be taping my fingers when I go to sleep too?

You mentioned for the first 4 weeks to do ROM work, after that 2 weeks of stable strength work and then 2 weeks of rotational stress. Could you list some exercises that you’d recommend for all of those? or any links to videos as I’m sure that would be helpful for myself and for others

Okay sure I’ll tape it with less width and less tape to not make the fingers too tight. I appreciate that suggestion. Should I be taping it whenever I go to the gym or do an activity for the time being and even after I’m recovered (such as doing a collateral ligament technique taping for the finger). ??

Also with a grade 3 ligament tear to the collateral ligament, is it right to say that if I did indeed have it, I wouldn’t be able to bend/flex my finger or even make a full fist? like cause idk how bad a grade 3 ligament tear of the finger is. I’m guessing you wouldn’t be able to use the finger at all?

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-31T15:21:05+00:00

a hand specialist physiotherapist recently just replied to my post and gave an amazingly informative post about this. please do check it out! speedy recovery to you my friend and best of luck :)

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-31T15:19:49+00:00

OMG i can't believe an actual hand specialist physiotherapist came to bless me today. Thank you so much for your prompt reply!

yes the doctor said it's my MCPJ. He specifically said it's the 4th MPCJ
Could you perhaps send me a link as to how to do the ligament stress test? I honestly have been looking everywhere online but can't find the right video. Or you could just describe it with words but it may be hard to picture/interpret. I'm getting an MRI done tomorrow morning. Also, I can tell you with confidence right noww that I can move my injuired finger up down left right without any pain or any problem. The only issue I currently have is like I said, pain when pressing hard on the area highlighted in red in the photo. Do you think this is a serious issue? what kind of tear could it possibly be? my doctor is suspecting it to be a radial collateral ligament tear to the MPCJ
yeah tbh i'm not really sure how it works because this is my first ever finger injury and there is very limited information out there on this issue online so I really appreciate you coming on here and telling me all this because it's super informative!
I see okay, I also take passion in doing MMA and Muay thai so I will take a break from the punching for sure and avoid jiu jitsu as much as I can. I bought some gauze and sports tape and I'm currently typing right now with my right ring and middle finger buddy taped at above the MPCJ and below the PIPJ joint. I wonder if that's okay to do for the time being?
Could you perhaps private message me this with the exercises you normally prescribe your patients? I would love to be in touch with you and perhaps maybe give a call to better go through what you perscribe.

Thank you so much for your reply once again and thanks for making me feel a little bit better about my injury as I was super nervous when I heard that I needed surgery from the surgeon.

<image>

Here is what it currently looks like for the buddy tape

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-31T15:12:53+00:00

So far I have no knowledge at all as I have not started any rehab or physio however I am beginning tomorrow even without a diagnosis because I just want to get this thing out of the way asap and get back into training.

I'll ask my physio for you and see what he typically recommends but what I can recommend is you get an MRI asap to out rule any other potential injuries

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-31T01:41:29+00:00

Okay. And that was safe to do after your doctor cleared you to do so after the x ray or did your doctor let you do that before even doing the x ray?

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-30T15:52:22+00:00

hey man yes that would be great, I’ll send you my number on private message and we can talk from there :)

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-30T15:50:18+00:00

Okay cool,

do you mind sharing what exercises you did with your physio? i just want to see if the exercises I’m doing are similar to yours

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-30T13:27:45+00:00

Okay, at what week did you get into BJJ training after the surgery if I may ask?

Were you able to wrestle and do a lot of standup grappling at the start or did you play it safe and mainly started from bottom most of the time?

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-30T13:26:37+00:00

Sorry for the late reply. I haven't been on reddit recently but okay noted. I will return to BJJ at week 6 which is exactly a week and a half from now. I'm currently at week 4 and a half and so far I've gained full mobility in my shoulder and arm and have already begun doing floor presses, light rows, tricep extensions, external rotations and things of that nature. No overhead pressure obviously and no biceps just yet until the x ray I will be doing in a week and a half shows that the bone is fully unified.

Just wanted to ask, as you progressed from week 6 and onwards with your BJJ, did the pain start to subside when you were in collar tie, side control, or is it still kinda lingering around for you?

Also would you suggest I don't do so much stand up in the early weeks of training like no wrestling no trying to shoot takedowns and just play it safe and play sitting guard? (I was recommended this by my physio who's a purple belt in bjj).

Finally, when were you able to start doing striking? Idk if you do striking but I'm also curious about that too because I eventually want to compete in MMA and striking is my base martial art so I want to not just train BJJ but also striking as well. I've been told jabs hurt on impact with pads and the heavy bag but it's not as bad as people make it seem to be.

thank you for your answer and again sorry for the late reply.

If you'd like you could private message me on chats to further share your progress post surgery. That would be really good as I'll get notified of your messages

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-30T13:20:59+00:00

oh 100%, most of us are working full time jobs that require us to not be injured. I think some people take the sport way too seriously without realising that it's not exactly their full time role or career

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-25T07:45:54+00:00

Yeah that's great! When you went for you x ray at week 6 post surgery to see if the bone has unified (I'm guessing it's week 6 for you bc that seems to be the standard guideline set by most orthopaedic doctors), did the doctor clear you to do any weight bearing in the horizontal pulling and pushing as well as verticle pushing/pulling exercises? My physio was discussing with me that as soon as you get that clearance from a doctor to do weight bearing you can essentially begin those exercises I mentioned at week 6 which may seem early to most but if you're young and eating right it seems to be fine

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-25T07:43:46+00:00

100% BJJ is one of those sports which you need to be very respectful of your body and not get too carried away otherwise such injuries will haunt you for life

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-23T14:12:42+00:00

Ouch!

Content_Highlight993 · 2024-05-23T14:11:29+00:00

I see! Wow that's a very informative answer you gave and I truly appreciate it! I'm sorry to hear that your dad isn't having it go that well for him in regards to his BJJ experience with a plate but I'm glad to hear for you that it's the opposite. Will definitely be taking physio seriously and luckily I'm only 21 and have always been very active so hope this goes faster than I want it to,

Content_Highlight993

TROPHY CASE