Before You Bowl: Wrist-Strengthening Exercises

According to the Hand and Wrist Institute, bowling too many times and too rapidly can magnify the occurrence of wrist tendonitis. Any time you have repetitive actions like those in bowling, you find yourself susceptible to injury if you are not taking proper care of yourself.

In this premium video lesson, Leah Zahner, Certified Personal Trainer (NASM), demonstrates multiple wrist strengthening exercises that can be done before you bowl to help avoid injury.

Wrist Rotations

Start by making a fist and rotating it around in a circle from clockwise to counterclockwise. You can also go up and down and side-to-side.

Flex Bar

Starting with your elbows pulled into your side and the flex bar in the palms of your hands, flex your hands inwards towards each other.

The flex bar provides resistance, which builds strength, and you are working pronation and supination with this exercise. This is just a way of identifying which way your palms are facing when doing wrist-strengthening exercises.

Supinate = palms up
Pronation = palms down

A good way to remember this is that you supinate palms toward the sun and pronate palms towards the plants.

Another flexbar exercise you can do is more of a twisting motion:

Add a flex bar into your bowling regimen and try these wrist-strengthening exercises before you get started the next time you go out to bowl. You will notice a difference from the first ball you throw to the last.

Check out Improve Grip Pressure with Wrist Exercises and Wrist Supports and Their Features for more great instructions from our expert contributors.