Written by Mavis Tham and Shamaine Soh, Principal Hand Occupational Therapists at Phoenix Rehab.Clinically reviewed by Nigel Chua, Principal Hand Occupational Therapist & Director, AHPC A1300362Z.Last reviewed 27 October 2026.
A wrist that is still stiff two or three months after a fracture is common. The bone has usually healed by then. What lags is joint movement, forearm rotation and grip strength, which come back on a slower timeline than the bone and mostly return with graded loading rather than with time alone. A few causes need a surgeon instead. This page sorts them.
Key takeaways
- Most distal radius fractures join in about 6 to 8 weeks. Movement and grip return later than the bone.
- Stiffness bending the wrist back, a weak grip and evening swelling are usually expected 8 to 12 weeks after the fracture.
- Strength keeps improving for 6 to 12 months, and grip is often still below the other side at one year.
- A thumb that suddenly will not lift, numbness in the thumb, index and middle fingers, or pain and color changes out of proportion to the injury are reasons to see your doctor or surgeon.
- Range is measured in degrees and grip in kilograms, against your other hand. That is how a stalled wrist is told apart from a slow one.
Eight weeks after the plate went in, you still pass the kettle to your other hand. The surgeon says the bone has healed. So why won’t the wrist turn?
That is the question this page answers, for the cast and the plate alike. If you are still in the cast, or it came off in the last fortnight, the Wrist Fracture Recovery Program page is the better place to start. This one is for the wrist that should have moved on by now and has not.
Is it still normal at eight to twelve weeks?
Often, yes. At eight to twelve weeks most wrists are still stiffer and weaker than the other side, and that alone does not mean something has gone wrong. The question is whether the numbers are moving week on week. What tells you is the trend, not how it feels on a given morning. If range and grip have not changed over 4 to 6 weeks of a structured program, ask for a review.
Usually expected
- Stiffness bending the wrist back, worst first thing in the morning.
- Turning the palm up is slower to return than turning it down.
- A grip that tires. A full kettle or a wet towel to wring out is hard work.
- Swelling in the evening, after a day of use.
- An ache after the exercises that settles by the next morning.
- Being able to feel the plate under the skin on the palm side.
Contact your doctor or surgeon
- Emergency department now: fingers that are cold, pale or blue, or numbness in the thumb, index and middle fingers that is getting worse hour by hour with rising pain.
- Doctor the same day: fever, or a surgical wound that is red, hot or leaking.
- Doctor soon (your doctor or surgeon): you suddenly cannot lift your thumb. This can mean a tendon has ruptured.
- Doctor soon (your doctor or surgeon): catching on the palm side when you bend the tip of the thumb, or a sudden loss of bending at the thumb tip.
- Doctor soon (your doctor or surgeon): pain, swelling, or changes in skin color, temperature or sweating that are out of proportion to the injury, with stiff, shiny fingers.
- Doctor soon: numbness or tingling in the thumb, index and middle fingers that is steady rather than worsening.
We would rather send you back to your surgeon early than be the reason you went late.
The five usual reasons a wrist stalls after a fracture
A stiff wrist after a fracture is rarely one thing. These are the five we look for at the first appointment, roughly in order of how often we find them. Two of them belong to your surgeon rather than to us, and we will say so.
| What you notice | What it usually is | Who sorts it |
|---|---|---|
| Range is coming back, but the grip tires and the wrist aches after a day of use. | A wrist that has healed and not been trained. Strength is the last thing to come back, and it comes back faster and more fully with graded loading. | Hand therapy: graded grip and wrist loading, measured against the other hand. |
| The wrist is stiff, and the fingers will not close into a full fist either. | Finger joints and tendons that stiffened in the cast. Stiff fingers take longer to free than a stiff wrist. | Hand therapy: tendon gliding and finger joint work, often a splint. See stiff finger joints. |
| Bending and straightening are fine, but the palm will not turn up to take coins or a plate. | Forearm rotation, which happens mostly at the joint between the two forearm bones at the wrist, with their joint at the elbow and the tissue between them. Stiffness here can be soft tissue, or the alignment of the bones (Kleinman, Hand Clinics, 2010). | Hand therapy for soft tissue, often with a splint. Your surgeon if the X-ray shows the bones healed out of line, or the ulna end is clicking or loose. |
| Pain far out of proportion, a hand that looks a different color or temperature, sweats more, with stiff, shiny fingers. | Complex regional pain syndrome, a recognized complication after this fracture. | Your doctor, soon, with hand therapy alongside. |
| Catching or clicking on the back of the wrist, a sudden loss of thumb lift, or numbness in the first three fingers. | Something mechanical or a nerve: the plate irritating a tendon, a tendon rupture, or pressure on the median nerve. | Your surgeon. We write to them with what we measured. |
The first row is the one we see most. It is also the one people talk themselves out of, because there is no single moment when it went wrong.
Pain went first. That was never the finish line
Here is how it usually goes. The cast comes off, or the stitches come out. It hurts for a few weeks, then it hurts less. The six-week X-ray answers one question, whether the bone has joined, and it has. Therapy tapers, or it never started. Pain settles. It feels like the recovery is over.
Then you notice the small things. The key in the car door needs the other hand. The door handle at work gets pushed with a forearm. Coins slide off a palm that will not turn up. The frying pan is lifted with two hands now. The keyboard is fine for an hour and then the wrist aches into the evening. If you have a child to lift, or a shift that is all lifting, you already know exactly which part of the day it costs.
The belief underneath is that it will loosen up on its own. In your own weeks, it has not. If week six and week ten feel the same, they probably measure the same.
Pain is the first thing to leave. Strength is the last to train and recover. In one study that followed 27 plated wrist fractures, every movement was still improving at one year, grip had reached about 94% of the other side, and the wrist had still not fully returned to normal at 12 months (Dillingham and colleagues, Advances in Orthopedics, 2011). Motion returns first. Force follows months later, and faster and more fully when it is trained.
So the useful question is not whether it hurts. Your pain may be gone. Has anyone measured your grip?
If your surgeon review is at week twelve, or your MC runs out at the end of the month, or you are due back on the tools, those dates are yours. A measured answer before them is worth more than a feeling after them.
What the first appointment finds, and what you leave with
Finding the real problem is half the battle. Treating it is the other half.
The first appointment is an Assessment & Treatment, 45 minutes, one to one with a hand therapist. We measure wrist range in degrees, forearm rotation palm up and palm down, and grip in kilograms, all against your other hand. We check the fingers, the scar, and the nerve signs in the table above, and we look at your X-ray report or operation note. Then most of the appointment is treatment: joint mobilization, tendon gliding, loading the grip, and a splint where your surgeon agrees one would help.
You leave knowing which stage of the Phoenix Recovery Protocol you are in, what is limiting you, and what Stage 4, Return & Perform, will ask of the wrist for your job or your sport. It is written down. If what we find belongs to your surgeon, we say so and write to them with the measurements.
Wrists are seen by the hand therapy team: hand therapists who work only on the finger, hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. Mavis Tham has treated around 250 wrist fractures since 2018. Shamaine Soh’s declared interest is stiffness and scar tightness after hand and wrist surgery. Every appointment is with the same therapist, for the full 45 minutes, and your surgeon’s protocol is followed throughout.
A stalled wrist is the reason the Stalled Recovery Review exists. It is three appointments, one a week for three weeks, with the same therapist. The first is the Assessment & Treatment above. The next two measure how the joint responds to being loaded, because a stiff joint’s answer takes weeks to read rather than minutes.
$230 per 45-minute appointment, nett, no GST. The Stalled Recovery Review is three appointments, $690. Bring your X-ray report or operation note, and your splint if you have one. No referral needed.
Eight weeks in and the kettle still goes to the other hand. Get Assessed & Treated, and leave knowing which stage you are in.
When you tap, Phoebe, our WhatsApp assistant, replies with a clinic near you and two appointment times.
Questions we get asked
Is it normal for my wrist to be stiff three months after a fracture?
Often, yes. Many wrists are still stiffer and weaker than the other side at three months. Strength keeps improving for 6 to 12 months, and grip is often still below the other side at one year. What matters is whether range and grip are still improving, measured against the other hand. If they have not changed over 4 to 6 weeks of a structured program, ask for a review.
Will a stiff wrist loosen up on its own?
Some stiffness eases with everyday use, especially early on. Strength comes back faster and more fully with graded loading, and forearm rotation can stay limited if it is not worked. If it has stopped improving over several weeks, measuring range and grip shows whether it is stalled.
Why can’t I turn my palm up after a wrist fracture?
Turning the palm up and down happens mostly at the joint between the two forearm bones at the wrist, with their joint at the elbow and the tissue between them. After a fracture it can be limited by tight soft tissue, which hand therapy and splinting work on, or by how the bones healed, which your surgeon assesses on the X-ray.
Is it too late for therapy six months after a broken wrist?
Not automatically. We measure where you are against the other hand and tell you what is still available, including when the answer is that the remaining limit is structural and belongs to your surgeon.
Do I need a referral?
No. You can book directly. Bring your X-ray report or operation note. Some insurers ask for a doctor’s referral before they reimburse, so check your policy.
What our patients say
Google reviews from our clinics in Singapore.
Where are you with this right now?
1. It is settling on its own
If range and grip are still improving week on week, and the ache after use is shrinking, the wrist is behaving as expected. Keep loading it as you were taught. You do not need us for this, and we would rather say so.
2. It has stopped improving
Six weeks and ten weeks feel the same. You have started arranging the day around the wrist without deciding to. That is the gap worth measuring. The Stalled Recovery Review is three appointments over three weeks with the same therapist.
3. You are still early, or still in the cast
The week-by-week shape, what to move in the cast, and the four stages are on the Wrist Fracture Recovery Program page. If a scaphoid was the bone that broke, see the Scaphoid Fracture Recovery Program.
Next step
Find out which stage you are in
Your hand therapist measures range and grip against the other hand, treats what is limiting the wrist in the same appointment, and you leave with your stage and a written plan.
Phoebe replies with a clinic and two appointment times. No referral needed.
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- Kleinman WB. Distal radius instability and stiffness: common complications of distal radius fractures. Hand Clinics. 2010;26(2):245-264. PubMed 20494751
- Dillingham C, Horodyski M, Struk AM, Wright T. Rate of improvement following volar plate open reduction and internal fixation of distal radius fractures. Advances in Orthopedics. 2011. doi:10.4061/2011/565642
Every week and range on this page is a typical range, not a prediction for you. Your surgeon’s protocol takes precedence over anything written here. Hand therapists assess, treat, splint, exercise, educate and refer; doctors diagnose, inject, prescribe and order imaging.