Summer often means spending more time outdoors, whether you’re gardening, golfing, biking, playing pickleball, tackling home projects, or participating in recreational sports. While these activities are great ways to stay active, they can also put additional stress on your hands and wrists.
A sore wrist after a busy weekend may not seem like a reason for concern. But when hand or wrist pain doesn’t improve, keeps recurring, or begins to interfere with everyday tasks, it may be time to have the problem evaluated.
Understanding common hand and wrist injuries and recognizing when symptoms deserve medical attention can help prevent a minor issue from becoming a longer-term problem.
Why Are Hand and Wrist Injuries Common During Summer?
Your hands and wrists are involved in almost everything you do. Summer activities can introduce repetitive gripping, twisting, lifting, and weight-bearing movements that your body may not be accustomed to performing regularly.
Activities that may contribute to hand and wrist pain include:
- Gardening and yard work
- Golf, tennis, and pickleball
- Cycling
- Home improvement projects
- Recreational and competitive sports
- Lifting or carrying heavy objects
Some injuries happen suddenly. Falling from a bike or slipping during an outdoor activity, for example, may result in a wrist sprain, hand injury, or fracture.
Other problems develop gradually as repetitive movements place continued stress on the muscles, tendons, and joints of the hand and wrist.
Hand & Wrist Injuries From Summer Activities
Summer activities can put extra stress on your hands and wrists. Whether pain started after a fall, sports injury, yard work, or another activity, persistent pain, swelling, weakness, or limited movement shouldn’t be ignored.
With OSMC’s FREE HURT! App, you can connect with an orthopedic specialist for guidance on your injury and what steps to take next.
Still hurting? Get answers with the HURT! App and get back to doing what you enjoy.
When Persistent Wrist or Hand Pain Needs Attention
It can be tempting to dismiss discomfort as ordinary soreness, particularly when there wasn’t a specific accident or injury. Persistent symptoms, however, shouldn’t automatically be ignored.
Consider seeing an orthopedic specialist if you notice:
- Hand or wrist pain that doesn’t improve
- Swelling or bruising
- Difficulty gripping or holding objects
- Reduced wrist or finger movement
- Weakness in the hand or wrist
- Pain that returns during certain activities
- Numbness or tingling
- Increasing pain with repetitive movements
- Tenderness following a fall or impact
Pain that interferes with work, exercise, sleep, or normal daily activities can also be a sign that your hand or wrist needs further evaluation.
Don’t Keep Pushing Through the Pain
Continuing the activity that caused your symptoms may place additional stress on an already irritated or injured area. Instead, pay attention to how your hand or wrist responds both during activity and afterward.
Taking breaks, gradually increasing activity levels, using appropriate equipment, and paying attention to technique may help reduce your risk of repetitive-use injuries. Protective equipment can also be important for activities where falls are more likely.
If pain continues despite reducing or modifying your activity, an orthopedic evaluation can help identify the underlying problem and determine appropriate hand and wrist injury treatment.
Get Back to the Summer Activities You Enjoy
Persistent hand or wrist pain doesn’t have to become your new normal. OSMC provides orthopedic care for conditions affecting the hand and wrist, along with sports medicine and hand therapy services for patients throughout Northern Indiana.
For more immediate orthopedic injuries, OSMC also offers walk-in orthopedic clinics in Elkhart, Goshen, and the Granger/Mishawaka area.
If a hand injury, wrist injury, or persistent wrist pain is keeping you from the activities you enjoy, consider having it evaluated by the orthopedic team at OSMC.