Intermediate Wrist and Hand Rehabilitation Post-Fracture

Program Overview This 17-week intermediate wrist and hand rehabilitation plan is designed to help you rebuild motion, strength, and function after a wrist fracture. It combines guided exercise, hands-on therapy, and supportive tools to restore your ability to use your hand comfortably in daily life.

This program is for adults recovering from a wrist or hand fracture who have already completed early protection and pain-control work. Its goal is to progressively improve wrist movement, grip and pinch strength, and everyday function while protecting the healing bone and nerves. It is meant to be followed with your clinician's supervision.

Before You Start Please review this plan with your treating clinician or therapist before beginning. It is not a substitute for personalized medical advice.

Safety comes first. Stop and contact your clinician right away if you notice severe or worsening pain, numbness or tingling that spreads, sudden swelling, changes in skin color or temperature, or a feeling that something is "wrong" in your wrist or hand. These can be warning signs of a serious problem such as compartment syndrome, which needs urgent attention. Follow your precautions: stop if pain increases, keep your spine in a neutral position during exercise, and always complete a cool-down.

Weekly Structure

You will do five sessions per week, about 60 minutes each, across 17 weeks. The plan moves through four phases: protection and pain control, early motion, intermediate strengthening, and advanced strengthening. Earlier weeks focus on gentle movement and comfort; later weeks add resistance and functional challenges. You will use a suspension trainer, resistance bands, a hand exerciser, and dumbbells, and your therapist may add manual therapy, ultrasound, and night-time splinting.

What a Typical Session Looks Like

Each session generally follows a warm-up, main work, and cool-down pattern. You might begin with gentle range-of-motion and tendon or nerve gliding. The main portion includes your prescribed wrist and hand exercises, progressive resistance with bands, the hand exerciser, or dumbbells, and balance or proprioceptive drills using the suspension trainer. Finish with a cool-down of gentle stretching and easy movement to help settle the wrist.

Tracking Progress

Your clinician uses the phase criteria to decide when you are ready to advance—for example, meeting range-of-motion, strength, and comfort targets before adding load. Outcome measures such as grip and pinch strength, wrist range of motion, and questionnaires like the MHQ, BCTQ, and DASH help track change over time. These guide decisions; they are not something you need to interpret alone.

Recovery and Self-Care

Manage pain by pacing activity and resting when needed, and report any increase in pain to your clinician. Use your night splint as directed to reduce pressure on the carpal tunnel. Red flags to report promptly include spreading numbness or tingling, severe swelling, color or temperature changes, or pain that keeps worsening despite rest. Do not push through sharp pain.