Soothing Stretches for Wrist and Hand Pain

Wrist and Hand Pain

Wrist pain is a common complaint and is also called as tenosynovitis. This is characterized by irritation and inflammation in the tendons located around the wrist joint. There is a lot of tendons surround the wrist joint. The wrist tendonitis generally affects one tendon, or sometimes it can also affect two or more tendons. If you are unable to move your wrist comfortably and feel terrible pain while doing some activities, you need to consult with the doctor as this can lead to wrist flexion pain. Such condition occur at the point where the tendons cross each other.

However, there is no need to worry about such a condition as you can avoid or treat this by following some effective measures. There are some stretching exercises that you can practice to strengthening your wrist and hands. Before that, you should understand the causes and symptoms of pain in wrist and hand. Read this article to understand all about the condition and its treatments.

Anatomy of Hand

The hand is designed for mobility and stability. It consisted of 27 small bones, ligaments and muscles. By combining they provide the necessary support for a large amount of movement and dexterity. The two bones of the lower arm called ulna and radius connect at the carpal bones. The hand does not have any large bone for bearing weight. But it consists of small bones, soft tissues, and nerves. These are subject to strain when you lift some heavy objects. Such strain can cause wrist flexion pain.

Symptoms and Signs of Wrist Pain

If you don’t know about the exact causes of the wrist pain, or if you are unaware of the specific treatment for your condition, you should visit the doctor for medical attention. However, some common symptoms for wrist pain include:

• Unable to carry or lift objects and you will be not able to use your arm comfortably.
• An injury which has caused deformity of the joint.
• A pain in the wrist which generally occurs at night and while resting.
• Wrist pain that stays beyond a few days.
• Unable to straighten or move the wrist joint.
• Swelling or bruising around the joint or forearm.
• You may see some signs of infection along with warmth, redness, and fever.
• Numbness and tingling of the hands or wrists.

It is easy to tell about the wrist tendonitis as when you have such condition you will experience pain and stiffness in the wrist. The stiffness will be more when you wake up in the morning. When you put pressure on the area you can feel tender and sore. Mild swelling in the wrist area can be visible. Apart from that, you may hear a cracking noise coming from the inflamed tendon when you move the wrist.[1]

Such a condition can decrease your hand’s range of motion. You will feel weak when performing movements, such as:

• Gripping.
• Pinching.
• Throwing a ball.
• Typing.
• While using a computer mouse or game controller.

Common Causes Behind the Wrist Pain or Tendonitis

While the wrist tendons are in perfect condition, they slide in a sheath lined along with synovial fluid to move. Injury can cause the sheath to thicken and enlarge the area. The most common cause of the inflammation is quite simple. The repetitive movement can put a lot of stress on tendon causing wrist flexion pain. Common activities such as: generally trigger the condition:

• Playing sports.
• Using the computer for a long time period.
• Writing.
• Physical working and more.

There is no doubt that repetitive motions are the most common causes of wrist tendonitis, pain in wrist and hand can also arise due to injuries and lifestyle habits. For example:

• Injury due to sudden incidents like falling on the wrist, hitting and bending.
• Improper position of joints and bones.
• Weak wrist posture.
• Arthritis.
• Diabetes condition.
• Age.

Treatment for Wrist Pain

The hands do a lot of tasks everyday starting from simple gripping a steering wheel to typing on a keyboard. However, such repetitive movement can weaken or stiffen the wrist joint or muscle. However, by practising some simple exercise, you can prevent such painful injury. There is a lot of exercises through which you can strengthen the wrists.[2]

This is very easy to do. Do this while standing, place your palms together to create a praying position. Make sure the elbows touch with each other. The hands should be in the front of your face. Your arms should be touching each other from the tips of your fingers to your elbows. Now slowly spread the elbows apart. Perform this while moving your hands toward the waist height. Hold the position for 10 to 30 seconds.

Extend the arm with your palm facing toward the ceiling. With the free hand, smoothly press the fingers down toward the floor. After that, softly pull your fingers back toward the body. Hold the position 10 to 30 seconds. You need to cycle through the stretches two to three times with each arm.

When sitting, place the hands on your thighs with palms up. Now slowly close your hands into fists, but don’t to it tightly. When the forearms are touching the legs, raise your fists and back toward your body. Repeat the exercise around ten times.

When in a sitting position, place the palms facing up under the desk. Now press the table upward with the palm and hold the position for around 5 to 10 seconds. This exercise helps in strengthening the wrist and hand muscle.

This is very simple to perform. All you need is a stress ball or tennis ball. Squeeze the tennis ball for around 10 to 15 seconds. Make sure that this is not causing any pain. This exercise will strengthen your wrists.

This is divided into two parts, i.e., push exercise and pull exercise. For thumb push, create a fist and point your thumb up. Now develop resistance with the thumb. Softly pull back the thumb with your free hand. Hold the position for sometimes and release. Do this for 10 times  a day.

For thumb pull, form a fist, pointing your thumb up. Create resistance with your thumb and use your hand to push the thumb forward softly. Perform this stretching exercise 10 times a day.

For this, first, interlace the fingers in front of your body. Now while keeping the elbow inserted into your side, smoothly move the interlaced hands in a figure eight movement. Make sure that the wrist are rotating fully. Do the exercises for around 10 to 15 seconds.  After that take a break and then repeat the step.

While seated, lift your arms over your head and interlace your fingers with your palms together. When the fingers are interlaced, now turn your palms up toward the ceiling. If you want you can keep your arms little bent or straight. Hold the position for few seconds and bring the arms down. That’s it. Now repeat the steps.[3]

The overhead reach exercise helps in stretching the muscles of the hands and forearms. Besides that, this also enhances the hand as well as the wrists flexibility and boost blood circulation. This will lower the chances of pain in wrist and hand.

The exercise is derived from the eagle’s pose. To do this, first extend your arms toward forward, placing them parallel to the floor. Now cross the right hand over the left hand. Make sure that the right arm is on the top. Slowly bend your elbows. Put the right elbow into the crook of the left.

Make sure the back side of the hands are touching with each other. Now move your right arm right and left arm toward the left. You must form a position where the thumb of your right hand can pass by the left hand’s little finger. The palms need to be facing with each other.

Now, press the palms together. After that gently lift your elbows toward up, and stretch the fingers. The fingers should be pointed toward the roof. While lifting your arms, don’t raise your shoulders with it. Hold the position for around 15 to 30 seconds after that don’t forget to do a repeat on the next side.

You can avoid wrist flexion pain with some simple stretches. But before doing them, visit your doctor and ask him whether the stretching exercises are safe for not. Once you’ve been given the green signal, practice them regularly. Do them on a regular basis and make your wrist and arm stronger.

References

1..https://www.healthline.com/health/chronic-pain/wrist-and-hand-stretches

2..https://thrive.kaiserpermanente.org/care-near-you/southern-california/panorama-city/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/07/d6977ad126f0ec7c95a6.pdf

3..https://www.myjointpain.org.au/assets/uploads/files/Hands%2C%20wrists%20fingers%20OA%20Factsheet(1).pdf

4..https://ahpsuffolk.co.uk/Portals/1/Documents/Exercise%20Sheets/Wrist%20and%20Hand%20Pain.pdf