new back tips – hand stretches – relief from pain and stiffness

Do you suffer from pain and restricted motion in your hands? Well, if it’s due to wear and tear with perhaps some early osteoarthritis, we have a stretching sequence that will help you get your hands more comfortable and more functional fast.

From the seated or standing position, we will take you through a sequence of stretches that you can perform multiple times throughout your day. 

First, open your hands as wide as you can, separating your fingers maximally, ideally creating an “L” with your index finger and thumb, and extending your digits backward until the fingers and thumbs don’t touch if your palms are together and ideally, you can see your anatomical snuffbox at the base of your thumb.

Now, close your fist, one joint at a time and cross your thumb up over your fingers, making a strong fist and squeeze for 3–5 seconds. Open your hand wide again for about the same 3–5 seconds, and repeat the squeeze. Perform this sequence 4–5 times.

Next, make your fists again, this time rotating your wrists  both directions, squeezing your fists and flexing your forearm muscles. This is to begin the loosening up of your wrists in order to free up the range of motion of your hands. You can do this both directions for about 15–30 seconds.

To continue with the loosening up of your wrists, place your palms together with fingers and thumbs open wide, and raise your elbows and lower your hands until you maximally extend your wrists. Hold that stretch for 5–10 seconds.

Finish up the wrist loosening by placing the back of your hands together, raising your hands and lowering your elbows until you maximally flex your wrists. Hold this position for 5–10 seconds.

Next, we are going to stretch two joints connected to the thumb that are often painful and restricted. First, we’re going to stretch what is known as the first metacarpal phalange (or MCP) joints… and there are two ways to handle this.

The first is a distraction squeeze of the 1st MCP joint, where you place your palms together like you are shaking your own hand, lightly squeeze the joint and pull away from the wrist. Hold the stretch tension for 3–5 seconds.

The second way to stretch the first MCP joint is a straight distraction pull, where you grab the thumb itself and pull straight out… Easy first, then, as you tolerate, you can add more distraction force for 3–5 seconds. 

The other joint connected to the thumb is the first carpal metacarpal (or CMC) joint. You will probably find this by poking around on the outside of the chicken leg looking muscle at the base of your thumb. When you hit the tender spot, you are there.

Now, palms together again like you are shaking your own hand and apply force to that beefy part of the chicken leg… NOT to the exposed part of your thumb. Grab ahold and push from your lower hand onto that joint and extend your wrist and your elbow on the side you are stretching until you feel a good stretch of that joint. Hold for about five seconds… and stretch the other side.

With those thumbs more flexible, you can now perform a stretch exercise, where you run your thumbs from the base of each of the four fingers up to the top or tuft of the finger, and back down to the base. Do this 3–5 times for each hand.

Finally, finish off just like you started… open your hands maximally, and put a squeeze on those fists 4–5 times.

That’s it! Your hands are maximally ready for whatever the day requires.

Remember, when your alignment is less than perfect and/or you have suffered recent injury, joints get stuck, soft tissues have memory for what doesn’t work, and we can help. 

Contact us at New Back Chiropractic today. We can help you move better to feel better for life.