10 Wrist Strengthening Exercises Physical Therapists Recommend

Your wrists may be small joints, but they power you through your day in so many ways. From helping you button a shirt, zip a jacket, type at your computer, turn a doorknob, or even nail your tennis or golf swing, proper wrist function can be the difference between making a task easy or challenging. One key way to support your wrists is with targeted wrist strengthening exercises that can help minimize pain and improve mobility. 

“A lot of people don’t think about wrist strength, but there are so many muscles that cross over the area — we use our wrists constantly without realizing it,” points out Samantha Stewart, PT, DPT, a physical therapist at Hinge Health. Keeping your wrists strong and flexible can help to prevent injury and reduce your risk of developing conditions such as osteoarthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome.

Read on to learn which wrist strengthening exercises are recommended by Hinge Health physical therapists and how to perform them. 

Interested in getting a personalized exercise therapy plan? Learn more about Hinge Health’s digital physical therapy program and see if you’re eligible.

10 Wrist Strengthening Exercises to Do At Home

The following wrist strengthening exercises are recommended by Hinge Health physical therapists to help enhance mobility, reduce pain, and prevent injuries. Whether you're an athlete or simply looking to support your daily activities, these targeted movements can make a significant difference.

“This is a very simple exercise that’s super easy to do at home,” says Dr. Stewart. It strengthens all the wrist muscles that are involved in grip strength, which helps you do activities like picking up a cup or grabbing a jar from the cabinet.

How to do it:

• Hold a rolled-up towel while your elbow and forearm rest on a table. Your palm will be facing down. 

• Clench your hand to squeeze the towel roll.

• Focus on squeezing as hard as you are able as you hold this position. 

• Relax your hand. 

You may not realize it, but you open and close your fingers a lot throughout the day. “Finger extensions help you strengthen the wrist muscles that attach to your fingers, making it easier to do anything with your hand outstretched,” explains Dr. Stewart.

How to do it: 

• Place your targeted hand palm down on a table with your fingers spaced slightly apart. 

• Lift your pointer finger off the table, as far as is comfortable, and hold before relaxing it back to the table. 

• Lift your middle finger off the table and hold before relaxing. 

• Lift your ring finger and hold, then relax. 

• Lift your pinky and hold, then relax.

This is an opposite movement to the finger extension exercise that moves your fingers toward your palms and also works finger muscles attached to your wrists. “You bring your fingers down toward your palms whenever you grab something,” says Dr. Stewart. “You want your fingers to be strong when they move toward the bottom of your wrist so you can hold and grip things with confidence.”

How to do it: 

• Sit with your forearm on a table and your palm facing the ceiling. Your fingers should be straight and hanging off the edge of the table. 

• Wrap a resistance band flat on the front of your fingers, then stretch the resistance band back and underneath the table with your opposite hand.

• Bend your fingers in toward your palm to stretch the band while keeping your wrist flat on the table. 

• Straighten your fingers back to the starting position.

This move will help strengthen the muscles you use when you turn your wrist from side to side, like when you open a door. As your wrist muscles get stronger, you can do this exercise with light hand weights or a household item like a hammer, Dr. Stewart advises.

How to do it: 

• Stand with your elbow bent to 90 degrees and resting at your side. Your hand should be open with your thumb pointing toward the ceiling. 

• Rotate your hand so your palm is facing the ceiling. Keep your elbow at your side as you hold this position. 

• Return to the starting position.  

• Rotate your hand so your palm is facing the floor and hold this position. 

• Return to the starting position. 

This exercise helps strengthen all the muscles you use as you pull your palm toward your forearm. “It’s an excellent exercise to build wrist stability, which you need in certain situations like picking something up off of the floor,” says Dr. Stewart.

How to do it: 

• Sit in a chair and secure one end of a resistance band around the bottom of your foot and wrap the other end around your hand. Your palm should be facing the ceiling with your forearm resting on your thigh. 

• Bend your wrist as you lift your hand toward the ceiling. Focus on tightening your forearm muscles as you hold this position. 

• Relax your hand back toward the floor to return to the starting position.

This works your wrist muscles in the opposite direction of the resisted wrist flexion move above. “It will make it easier to lift and carry things with your palms down, like when you carry groceries or put certain dishes away,” explains Dr. Stewart.

How to do it: 

• Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Place the end of a resistance band securely under the bottom of your right foot.  

• Wrap the other end of the band around your right hand and rest your forearm on your thigh, palm facing the floor. 

• Slowly lift your hand up toward the ceiling, extending your wrist. Hold at the top of the exercise, and focus on engaging the muscles in your forearm.

• Relax back to the starting position, and repeat on the opposite side. 

• PT Tip: If you don’t have a band, try holding a light weight, water bottle, or soup can for resistance, instead.

Get more information on how to do a resisted wrist extension.

This move works the muscles on the sides of your wrist and forearms that provide strength when you reach behind you, like when you need to grab something from your car’s back seat. “It helps promote wrist stability and reduces your risk of injury,” says Dr. Stewart.

How to do it: 

• Stand with about a foot of resistance band stretching between your hands, with the palms of your hands facing the floor and your arms raised in front of you.

• Stretch the band slightly by moving your hands apart. 

• Without moving your forearms, bend your wrists by moving the pinky sides of your hands out to the side, stretching the band. 

• Bend your wrists back to the starting position. 

When you do daily activities like cleaning your house or gardening, you often move your wrists from side to side. This exercise takes you through a similar movement pattern, setting you up for success when you do these tasks.

How to do it: 

• While standing, stretch a resistance band down from your hand to the bottom of your foot.  

• Bend your elbow and place it at your side with the thumb side of your hand facing toward the ceiling. 

• Use your opposite hand to support your forearm.

• Without moving your forearm, move the thumb side of your hand up toward the ceiling, stretching the band. 

• Lower the pinky side of your hand down toward the floor to return to the starting position. 

This is a more advanced version of the towel squeeze exercise that activates the wrist muscles that extend higher up into your forearms, says Dr. Stewart.

How to do it: 

• Hold a rolled-up towel with your hands about a foot apart and your palms facing the floor. 

• Twist the towel by moving your right palm down toward your left side as your left palm twists slightly up and away from your body. 

• Untwist the towel to return to the starting position. 

• Twist the towel in the opposite direction, adjusting your grip on the towel as needed to get a good twist. 

• Return to the starting position.

“This exercise strengthens all the muscles around the wrist that help you do small movements,” explains Dr. Stewart. “It teaches your wrist muscles how to stabilize in a more advanced position, protecting you against stress and strain from daily activities.”

How to do it: 

• Stand with a resistance band stretching between your hands, with your palms facing each other and your wrists straight. Your elbows should be at your sides. 

• Move your hands apart from each other to stretch the band as you focus on keeping your wrists straight and your elbows at your side.

• Move your hands back together to return to the starting position. 

The information contained in these videos is intended to be used for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice or treatment for any specific condition. Hinge Health is not your healthcare provider and is not responsible for any injury sustained or exacerbated by your use of or participation in these exercises. Please consult with your healthcare provider with any questions you may have about your medical condition or treatment.

Benefits of Wrist Strengthening Exercises

Wrist strengthening exercises can help all the structures in your fingers, hands, and forearms that play a role in so many everyday functional movements. Maintaining strong and healthy wrists has many benefits for your body and quality of life, including:

• Increased wrist stability. Weak wrists can eventually lead to wrist pain. But if you have strong wrists, you’re less vulnerable to overuse injuries from activities like texting on the phone, typing on your computer, or even gardening, says Dr. Stewart. “We use our wrists a lot, both at work and around the house,” she stresses. “Wrist strengthening exercises give you strength and stability in your wrists so that you can confidently do your day-to-day activities.”

• Improved grip strength. Your grip strength — the amount of force you have when you grasp an object — is more important than just having a strong handshake, says Dr. Stewart. It can offer crucial clues about your own overall fitness and health. Research shows that people with low grip strength also tend to have more problems walking up and down stairs. “If you have a weak grip, it’s often an indication of not just weak wrist and hand muscles but weak muscles all over your body,” says Dr. Stewart. Other studies link a decline in grip strength to health conditions like heart disease, osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes.

• Better overall arm strength. Your wrists share muscles with your forearms. These include muscles that let you move your wrists up and down, and in and out. “If you have weak wrist muscles, it will have a trickle up effect throughout your entire arm,” explains Dr. Stewart. “Strong wrists will make you more successful with motions that you use your entire arm for, like playing tennis.”

• Greater ease with daily and recreational activities. A 2018 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that a six-week wrist strengthening program helped to increase motor control among the study subjects. “The stronger your wrist, the more you can improve wrist motion and mobility so that you can more easily do challenging daily activities like using your hands to help you get up off of the floor,” says Dr. Stewart.

How Hinge Health Can Help You

If you have joint or muscle pain that makes it hard to move, you can get the relief you’ve been looking for with Hinge Health’s online exercise therapy program. 

The best part: You don’t have to leave your home because our program is digital. That means you can easily get the care you need through our app, when and where it works for you. 

Through our program, you’ll have access to therapeutic exercises and stretches for your condition. Additionally, you’ll have a personal care team to guide, support, and tailor our program to you. 

See if you qualify for Hinge Health and confirm free coverage through your employer or benefit plan here.

This article and its contents are provided for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice or professional services specific to you or your medical condition.

References 

1. Cetinus, E., Buyukbese, M. A., Uzel, M., Ekerbicer, H., & Karaoguz, A. (2005). Hand grip strength in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 70(3), 278–286. doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2005.03.028

2. Chu, E., Kim, Y.-S., Hill, G., Kim, Y. H., Kim, C. K., & Shim, J. K. (2018). Wrist Resistance Training Improves Motor Control and Strength. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 32(4), 962–969. doi:10.1519/jsc.0000000000002019

3. Leong, D. P., Teo, K. K., Rangarajan, S., Lopez-Jaramillo, P., Avezum, A., Orlandini, A., Seron, P., Ahmed, S. H., Rosengren, A., Kelishadi, R., Rahman, O., Swaminathan, S., Iqbal, R., Gupta, R., Lear, S. A., Oguz, A., Yusoff, K., Zatonska, K., Chifamba, J., & Igumbor, E. (2015). Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. The Lancet, 386(9990), 266–273. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(14)62000-6

4. Li, Y.-Z., Zhuang, H.-F., Cai, S.-Q., Lin, C.-K., Wang, P.-W., Yan, L.-S., Lin, J.-K., & Yu, H.-M. (2018). Low Grip Strength is a Strong Risk Factor of Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women. Orthopaedic Surgery, 10(1), 17–22. doi:10.1111/os.12360

5. Sallinen, J., Stenholm, S., Rantanen, T., Heliövaara, M., Sainio, P., & Koskinen, S. (2010). Hand-Grip Strength Cut Points to Screen Older Persons at Risk for Mobility Limitation. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 58(9), 1721–1726. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03035.x