subject: Hand Surgery: Prevent Pain And Surgery With These Hand Exercises [print this page] The hardest working parts of the body are the extremities-your legs keep you mobile and your arms and hands type, grasp, write, create, protect and everything else.
Unfortunately, because we ask so much of our hands, they are very prone to injury from overuse and repetitive use. If you are suffering from arthritis, carpal tunnel or other condition, there are some exercises you can do that may stave off surgery for a while.
These exercises are effective in pain reduction, increasing mobility and strengthening the hands to prevent further injury. Do these at home every day:
Rest the arm on a table. Gently flex the wrist up and then down.
Similar to the move above, pull the hand back until just your fingers hang over the edge. Then, keeping your palm against the table, flex your fingers up and down. Slowly, joint by joint, roll your fingers down until they are flat against the palm in a straight fist. Slowly reverse the move to return to open palm. Instead of rolling the fingers down, stop the bend at the second joint so that your fingernails are above the palm like a hook. Open back up.
Holding your hand out, spread your fingers as wide as possible for a good stretch. Then close into a fist with thumb out. Open back up with fingers spread. Very gently, roll your wrist in a circular motion one way and then reverse the direction. With hand out and fingers spread, touch your thumb to the tip of each finger forming a circle. Do this one at a time, returning to spread fingers between each finger.
Take a box of marbles or anything small and grab a handful. Transfer that handful to the other one and then put them into a different box. This is a good functional exercise recreating things your do every day.
Perform these exercises with 8-10 repetitions each. If at any time you feel pain or discomfort, cease the exercise you are doing and move on to another one. Other than exercises, always give your wrists a break, especially if you perform repetitive work like typing. Take your hands away from the keyboard and do some of these exercises. They don't take long and can really help with pain and may put off hand surgery for awhile.
If you find the pain unmanageable through exercises or the condition worsens, surgery may be your last resort for alleviating the condition. If that is the case, find a board certified plastic surgeon that has specialized in hand surgery. You don't have to live with the pain and you can get back much of the function in your hands.
