Strange Exercises ‘Cure’ Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Irritation
If you’re one of the millions of Americans who works at a keyboard all day, there’s a persistent injury that’s common – it used to be called weaver’s wrists, and is now called carpal tunnel syndrome. There are routine exercises you can do to help you prevent this condition; doing these now is a great way to relieve stress, and to keep your wrists in good shape before you need to hire a physiotherapist.
Getting A Grip On It
A lot of companies make stress balls – printed with logos, globes, or something else, they’re designed to let you squish them and work some stress out of your hands and forearms. Lots of people find them therapeutic, and they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. (Other useful variants include the “grip exercisers” that rock climbers use)
Simply make a pattern of squeezing the ball without stopping – squeeze and hold it for five seconds, then release. Repeat as needed, it’ll be about 15 reps at a time for most people. Ultimately, what this does is strengthen your wrists. As your wrist muscles get stronger, they protect the sheathes that the tendons go through that cause carpal tunnel syndrome.
Doing The Twist.
If you find yourself doing a lot of typing at the computer, get yourself an armrest. This will keep your forearms and wrist more comfortable when typing as opposed to resting your arms on the edge of the desk. Another one of the helpful carpal tunnel exercises is to roll your wrists back like your revving up a motorcycle. You can do both hands at the same time or alternate one and then the other.
Palming The Air Ball
Hold your hand in front of your face, and stretch your fingers as wide apart as you can, trying to extend your thumb and pinky as far back as you can. Hold that stretch for three breaths, then, holding your fingers together, flex down – without curling your fingers, to try and touch the base of your palm with your fingertips without bending them (you won’t succeed, but like a hamstring stretch, the goal is to do the stretch). Alternating these two stretches will keep your hand flexible.
Related to this is stretching your forearms out – have each hand grab the other hand’s wrists, and pull, then bend your hands forward and back at the wrists. The goal is to stretch out the tendons in your forearms and loosen up your elbows.
Doing these stretching exercises are good for you – other things are good as well. At least every forty minutes, roll your head around and look at things at different distances; this prevents eye strain and lets your neck unkink. Roll your head around and arch your back both forward and back.
Doing these stretching exercises are good for you – other things are good as well. At least every forty minutes, roll your head around and look at things at different distances; this prevents eye strain and lets your neck unkink. Roll your head around and arch your back both forward and back. There are other carpel tunnel exercises we can teach, but this is a good starting point. After a week or so of this, you’ll notice that some things twinge less often when you do a long day of typing, and you’ll remain relaxed for a longer stretch of time.
