I’ve got minor RSI/carpal tunnel issues going on, and I’ve been wondering if it wouldn’t be a good thing to strengthen the bone and ligaments (muscle? is there any in the wrist?) in that area for later down the line, but is this really possible to do? I know you get wrist/forearm curls, but I find those actually do me more harm than good.
Would strengthening the wrists even help/ameliorate the nerve problems at all?
(Please don’t tell me to see a doctor 
I know several doctors and there’s a reason I post medical questions at SDMB…)
Get John Brookfield’s Mastery of Hand Strength. It should run you $15 at Amazon, and will help.
Masturbation?
Get two tennis balls and squeeze them (one in each hand) whenever you sit down and have your hands free, like watching television.
Start with a 5 gallon bucket nearly full of uncooked rice. Dive your hand down inside it. Open your hand, like you’re leaning against a wall. Then close it, like you’re trying to grab a handful of coins off the bottom of the bucket.
It works for Roger Clemens. (baseball pitcher in the US)
You don’t have to read the book, it’s quite heavy, so picking it up 10 times a day will strenghen your wrists considerably 
V
Tennis balls, sure, grippers, good too.
But in my experience a much much better way to strengthen and excercise the wrists is to cycle. The pulling of handlebars (when going uphill) and breaks (downhill) really do wonders for the writsts.
It was cycling that knackered my wrists. I cycled to play in a cricket match 8/9 years ago, the journey was only 10 miles or so, but I had trouble holding the bat when I was in. They’ve never been the same since 
V
Learned these from a friend who took a carpal-tunnel prevention class at work:
Put your palms together and bend your wrists back as far as they go for a few seconds. Then put the backs of your hands together and bend your wrists the other way.
Next exercise, put your thumb as close as possible to the knuckle of your index finger, and use the thumb to bend the index finger as far forward as it will go. A few seconds for each finger, each hand.
Then make a fist in each hand and bend the wrist left and right a few times, as far as possible.
Whenever you do this, be sure not to “bounce” the pressure you put on the joints, just apply a few seconds of steady pressure.
Strengthening the muscles in your hand won’t help carpal tunnel syndrome. Its pressure on the nerve as it dives into your wrist that is the problem causing the pain. The exercises described by drewbert may work, but not because it makes your hands stronger.
Have to agree with this one. Try once or twice a day…
Would work wonders im sure!
Thanks for the tips, all.
Drumming is great for the wrists. Pick up a practice pad and some sticks and go to town!
I used to use dumbbells back when I was lifting weights. Get the heaviest pair you can find and conveniently hold at waist level (be careful not to pull anything, obviously). Hold one in each hand with an overhand grip. Let your arms hang. And then hold them there as long as possible. Usually a few minutes would be long enough for me…
Get anyone you know who does a little aikido to show you the ikkyo, nikkyo, sankyo wrist stretches they do at the start of class.
If they innocently offer to show you yonkyo, run.
A lot of people with carpal tunnel syndrome have pain in the muscles that run the tendons that pass through the wrist. A lot of my friends have pain there, too. Try this: Leave the left hand on the keyboard, with the elbow supported. Put the fingers of the right hand flat on the skin of the back of the forearm, closer to the thumb side than to the little finger side of the arm, right next to the crease of the elbow. Wiggle the fingers of the left hand. You ought to feel something rippling under your right hand. Move your fingers until you identify the muscles pretty closely. Now dig in with fingertip massage. Are they warmer to the touch than the rest of the forearm? Do they feel like sausages? Do they hurt like hell when you dig in? If you can answer Yes, Yes, Yes, then having massage work on those muscles might do you more good than wrist exercises.
Good luck,
I don’t know about you, but unless you are hung like rice, isn’t this more of an arm and shoulder thing?
True, Philster. People often ask me how I got my deltoids so big.
Food Nazi checking in to suggest that you begin cooking with cast iron pans. Always good for the grip.