Five Minutes and Five Simple StretchesTo Relieve Carpal Tunnel Aches And Pains
Stretch your neck and shoulders.
- Start with some shoulder rolls forward and back.
- Then sitting up straight in a chair, tilt your head to the right. Hold it. Let your head feel heavy so that just the weight of your head tilted creates the stretch. Take 5 deep, slow breaths.
- Close your eyes and allow yourself to relax into the stretch. Never force it.
- Repeat on the other side.
- Now with your left hand hold the side of your chair.
- Take a deep inhale and as you exhale, tilt your head to the right, then lean your upper body a little to the right. The stretch should feel good.
- Sweep your right hand up and around and place it gently on the left side of your face. Don’t pull. Let the weight of the hand on the side of your head enhance the stretch without pulling on your head.
- Again, take 5 deep, slow breaths, each 3 seconds long. Repeat on the left side.
Good Posture and an Upper Back Arch
- Sit as far back on your chair as you are able.
- Sit up as tall and straight as you can. It feels like exaggerated good posture.
- Interlace your fingers and place your hands at the base of your skull with your elbows pointing forward and up.
- Now, inhale and lift your chest and press your elbows open and back. It should feel as though you are arching your upper back.
- Exhale and release. Inhale and repeat. Exhale and Release. Repeat these moves 5-10 times.
Moving, Bending The Wrists
- Interlace your fingers with your palms facing your body.
- Begin to bend your wrists as close to 90 degrees as shown in the photos.
- Keep switching. You’ll be helping the blood flow to the area and warm up those muscles.
- Repeat several times until you feel as though your wrists are a bit more warmed up and more flexible, about 10 times each.
- You can change the direction from up and down to forward and back.
- When you are finished, shake your hands out and roll your hands around as though you are just trying to loosen things up.
Stretch Your Fingers
- As you sit tall in your chair, extend your arms straight out to the side.
- Extend your arms as straight as you comfortably are able to.
- Bend your wrists so your fingers point to the ceiling.
- Spread your fingers wide.
- You can begin to rotate the hands slowly so your fingers face forward and then face backwards, kind of like you’re opening a big pickle jar.
- You’ll feel a good stretch all the way through your fingers, and maybe a bit of tingling too.
- After a few rotations, make a fist with your hands and tuck your hands under. Shake out your hands when you are done.
Hands and Knees
- Your last carpal tunnel exercise is great to do before or during your yoga practice.
- Come to your hands and knees. Knees are right under your hips and hands are right under the shoulders to start.
- Slide your hands back toward your knees, nice and close.
- Place the top of the hands on the mat or floor with your fingers facing your knees.
- Take a deep inhale and as you exhale begin to sit back on to your heels, or as far as you can go, and continue to keep your hands in contact with the floor.
- Now you can either try to make a fist and open and close it or you can wiggle your fingers.
- Again, shake out your wrist and hands.