What's the Best Stretches for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
This blog discusses some of the best stretches for carpal tunnel syndrome.
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Best Stretches for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Wizard Wrist
If your first three fingers are tingly after work, gaming, or casting lightning spells…these two stretches may be great for you.
The first thing you should do if you have carpal tunnel syndrome is to get a wrist brace. Next, you can try stretching. While stretching isn’t going to “CURE” your carpal tunnel injury…it can get the area moving again and it can alleviate pain, numbness and tingling. The key is finding a movement that RELIEVES symptoms and doesn’t make them worse.
Tingling fingers? Try these stretches!
What is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Wizard Wrist)?
The carpal tunnel is a passageway in your wrists that contains the tendons of the fingers as well as the median nerve.
Carpal tunnel syndrome [or what we call Wizard Wrist] occurs when that nerve gets compressed or pinched as it passes through the space.
Carpal Tunnel Opener
This first stretch is a great way to open up that tunnel and give more space to that median nerve.
Bring the affected hand to your chest, palm facing laterally. Push firmly into your chest with the side of your pinky. With the unaffected hand, grab the meaty part of your hand by the thumb and gently pull your palm away from you, feeling the stretch at the base of the palm.
You can take this stretch a bit further by straightening your elbows out in front of you while pulling your palm out. You can hold the stretch for about 15-30 seconds at a time.
Tendon Glides
Besides the median nerve, the carpal tunnel has several tendons running through it that go to your fingers. The idea behind this next exercise is that gliding these tendons can help relieve some of that pressure in the wrist.
There are three positions for this exercise:
Form each position with your fingers, gliding back to an open hand afterwards. Perform each position at least 20 times. This is a great way to stretch out the fingers when you take movement breaks throughout the day, keeping them ready for any spells you have to cast.
Remember: it is important you take these breaks frequently, at least once every 20-30 minutes.
Stretches to Avoid
Before you go, I want to go over some stretches that may NOT be very beneficial for your carpal tunnel pain. These stretches put your wrist and hand in positions that may just lead to more aggravation, numbness and tingling.
If you’ve watched any Youtube videos on carpal tunnel stretches, you may have found this one below:
The prayer stretch may exacerbate symptoms.
Now, consider what this stretch looks like. Now compare it to the position you place your hands in when you test to see if you have carpal tunnel syndrome (The Reverse Phalen Test)
The Reverse Phalen Test: look familiar?
It’s the same position! A positive test for carpal tunnel is holding your hands in this position to see if your numbness and tingling gets worse. In other words, this is an aggravating position for the median nerve if carpal tunnel syndrome is present. This fails the first test for a good stretch: It should feel good or be relieving. Stretching in a sustained position of aggravation is probably not the best idea. So I’d hold off stretches in these positions for now.
What you can do is use these positions as a test of how irritable your symptoms are: if you place your wrists in these positions and your symptoms don’t increase, it’s a good sign that your median nerve is probably getting less sensitive, which is a good thing. However, if holding your hands in these positions seem to make the tingling come on with increasing frequency and intensity…that is a sign that you should probably check in with your physician or your cleric for further testing.
Summary
We hope these stretches help relieve your carpal tunnel pain. When it comes to stretches for this condition, remember that a stretch you perform should provide relief to symptoms, and at the very least not aggravate the symptoms further. If any of these movements increase your pain or the feeling of numbness and tingling, discontinue them immediately.
If you want more info on wrist pain, join our Facebook group The Wrist Wizards where we answer your questions and post free content to get you back to gaming and casting spells.
Check out the full video below if you want to see the stretches in action!
The Wrist Wizards are clerics who specialize in treating the hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder! This is a purely educational post for entertainment and is not medical advice or a substitute for medical assessment and evaluation.