Rice bucket forearm rehab? Mr. Low?
 

OK, so I've got some forearm splints from all the fun training I've been doing. I've heard several folks (Steve Low and BlairBob) talk about a rice bucket for forearm exercises to rehab this problem. I have several simple questions.

1. Are we talking the standard 5-gallon plastic "paint" bucket?
2. Approximately how many pounds of rice are needed, or to put it another way, how full do I make the bucket?
3. Steven, I saw you recommending wrist circles in the rice on a CF thread, 1set x 50reps or 2 x 25, keeping the elbow still. Is the fist closed on these, or are the fingers open & spread apart? Or are both good to do?
4. Best to do before or after training?
5. Tucson is pretty dry anyway, but are there any precautions to take to care for the rice, mold/damp-wise? Does this need to stay in the house, or should it be okay sitting in my garage?

I have ditched all exercises that seem to aggravate the area (anything on parallettes/p-bars that is handstand or planche related) except for my 3-5 sets of strict curls per week as prep for my upcoming PL meet (100% RAW PL also does a strict curl competition as part of their meets). Also doing some cold laser to speed the healing.

It is already improving with the removal of most of the offending exercises, I definitely know that as I progress in difficulty with the gymnastics moves that this could become a chronic issue without proper rehab now and prehab later, hence my interest in doing it right the first time.

The strict curls will leave my routine as soon as the meet is over in mid-October.

I have a 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot that is filled more than 3/4's of the way with rice. I can't remember how much rice it was exactly. A lot more than I thought it would take. Maybe 5 lb's heck I don't know.

I have never done the forearm rehab but will give them a whirl. I love them for my hands. My son uses it at least once a week. I guess we don't have a set / rep progression and more just play around twisting the wrist, opening and closing the fingers and digging in straight.

I look forward to hearing more thoughts.

1. Any of the big buckets work.

2. Don't remember. :) Probably at least 4-6 lbs

3. Fist closed to start. To improve difficulty, go deeper or open hand. 2x50 is fine too. This is one exercise where pushing through the burn and getting a pump is very good.

4. After

5. Nope... rice pretty much stays dry forever unless you pour water on it. But keeping it in a dry place is always probably better.

I just got a large $10 bag of rice from Costco and kept the rice in the bag. No need to tie up a bucket for it. Just keep it in a corner where it won't tip over.

It's been sitting in my Maryland garage for about six months now and has no mold.

Thanks for all the replies.

Just "made" one for my gym.

How much rice?
I used a 25# bag in a 5 gallon bucket, but I think 20# would still work.
I also left the rice in the bag in the bucket. Not sure if that makes any difference.

Can someone please provide a good starting reference point for rice bucket drills? (Already saw one linked video on Eat.Move.Improve.)
Thanks!

After talking with Ido Portal, I started doing many more wrist push-ups and reverse wrist push-ups. That seems to have eliminated my issue.

Here's another one I found:
Baseball Performance Training.com - Part 2: Become an Ultimate Grinder

I think my favorite quote from that video is

Wrist pushups are effective as well.

Anything that trains a lot more extension and fully flexed exntesion since we're usually in neutral flexion or extended flexion most of the time.

I would have done the rice bucket, however, since I train among four different places, it simply seemed more practical to have something I could "take with me" like the wrist push-ups.

Just wanted to say I did appreciate the advice, Steven.