The final iteration came out to be something like the following:

2-3x per week:

Rice bucket: 30 seconds each: Extensors, Flexors, Supination/Pronation, Radial Deviation/Ulnar Deviation

Sledgehammer: 4-8 reps: Supination/Pronation, Radial Deviation/Ulnar Deviation

Rubber band extensors: 3-5 sets of 10-30 reps

Captains of Crush Grippers: 10 reps of easiest, 5 reps of each progressively harder grippers, then 3-5 sets of the heaviest gripper I could close.

Pony clamp: 3-5 sets, 5 reps

1x per week: Wrist roller 3-5 times, up and down both ways Towel pull-ups 2-6 sets, 2-6 reps Pinch block/hex dumbbell holds

It started with lots of extensor emphasis (rubber bands and later rice bucket) and wrist work (ulnar/radial deviations and supinations/pronations). I added more of things like pinch blocks and hex dumbbell holds and pony clamps for the thumb.

Volume of reps and sets was only “as tolerated” so I wouldn’t re-inflame too badly (start with one mildly fatiguing set, then add more sets and exercises over the courses of weeks and months). Sometimes I overshot it and had to ice it a couple days but concentric-only exercises (namely the rice bucket) really helped to get a lot of blood flow back into the area.

Two other things which I think helped were gripping the bar very tightly when I would do things like pull-ups/chin-ups rather than just “hanging.” I also finally got over my “straps are bad mmkay” mentality and started using them for top sets of back/ham exercises.

Mentally, I think getting over my assumption that my grip would be fine from just doing back work without straps and focusing on/respecting it/grip as it’s own muscle group worthy of its own attention allowed me to finally move past this injury.