Waiting and bar staff get wrist pain from
- carrying loaded trays on a BENT-BACK WRIST,
- balancing plates across the fingers and forearm, and
- repeated twisting at the bar: pouring, shaking and opening bottles
The usual results are pain across the back or little-finger side of the wrist, thumb base pain from plate carries, tennis elbow, and cuts from broken glass.
Where the weight sits on the tray, how many plates you carry, and a few bar tools change most of it.
What a shift asks of your hands
- The tray. Several kilos of drinks on a flat palm with the wrist bent fully back, often at shoulder height, weaving through a room
- Off-center loads. A heavy glass at the rim of the tray tips it, and the wrist twists towards the little-finger side to hold it level
- The three-plate carry. Plates wedged between spread fingers and balanced on the forearm, with the thumb clamping the rim
- Hot plates. You grip faster and harder when a plate is hot
- The bar. Pouring from heavy bottles, shaking a tin full of ice, twisting corkscrews, lifting crates of glasses and changing kegs
- Glass washing. A broken glass hiding in a cloth or a sink of water
Load the heavy glasses over your palm and the light ones at the rim.
What turns up
- Pain across the back of the wrist under a loaded tray: loaded wrist extension, the same mechanism as yoga wrist pain. A lump there may be a ganglion
- Little-finger-side wrist pain when you balance or twist: TFCC injury or ECU tendon irritation
- Aching at the base of the thumb after plate carries: thumb base overload, and in some people early CMC arthritis
- Thumb-side wrist pain lifting with the thumb up: De Quervain’s
- Outer elbow pain from shaking, corkscrews and crates: tennis elbow
- Night numbness in the thumb, index and middle fingers: carpal tunnel syndrome
- A cut from broken glass, followed by a finger that won’t bend or feels numb: a divided tendon or nerve. See which cuts need more than stitches
- Burns from plates and steam: hand burns
The changes that make the most difference
- Center the load. Heaviest items over the palm, lightest at the edges, and unload from the edges inwards alternately so the tray never tips
- Carry the tray close, elbow bent, with the tray sitting over your forearm instead of out at arm’s length
- Two plates while the wrist or thumb is sore, and ask a runner for the third
- Swap carrying hands through the shift where the floor allows
- Lift crates palms up and close to your body. Palm-down lifting loads the outer elbow most
- Shake with two hands, close to your body, and alternate the lead hand
- A lever corkscrew for high-volume wine service
- Never reach blind into glass-washing water. Empty the sink and look first. Cut-resistant gloves for glass handling
A realistic timeline
- Weeks 1 to 2: center the tray, drop to two plates, and use a wrist support for carrying shifts if the back of the wrist hurts. Night splint for thumb base or carpal tunnel symptoms
- Weeks 2 to 6: tendon loading for the elbow or thumb stability work. Most early cases ease over this window once the carrying changes
- Week 6: no change means an assessment. Little-finger-side wrist pain with clicking should be assessed sooner
Get it assessed if
- A cut followed by a finger that won’t fully bend, or a numb strip down one side
- A wrist that clicks or clunks on the little-finger side when you turn it
- Numbness that wakes you or no longer comes and goes
- Pain before your shift starts
- Six weeks of carrying changes with no improvement
The coffee side of the bar has its own version. See baristas, and for the kitchen, chefs.
For the splints involved, see TFCC wrist braces.
Weight in the middle, two plates at a time, and eyes before hands in the sink.
Every article on this site is written using the Closing Window Method: name the window your condition runs on, find where you are in it, and act while it’s still open.