If you slave away at an office all day, this one’s for you…
We covered lower back and hip movements in an earlier blog and video. Check that out if your job is making you chair shaped. And we looked at the upper back and shoulders in the second installment. You should look that up if you’re developing the dreaded office worker hunch.
Several readers have asked us to address wrist pain and that miserable burning repetitive strain that spreads up the forearms. That’s the topic of today’s video.
Your first task is, as always, to mobilize the affected area. We’ll accomplish this with a series of full range movements to open the wrist in the four cardinal directions. Once you’ve released that short range stiffness, follow it with circles to stimulate blood flow in the surrounding tissues, wash the joints with synovial fluid, and smooth out those snap, crackles and pops. Do this frequently. Finger circles too. You can even recite “this little piggy went to market…” while you train. It isn’t just a game for feet.
Next, we’ll go to the floor and roll from finger tips to palm heels, moving the hands gradually away from your body to open up those tight forearms. Remember: don’t just slam your palm heels down. Roll your hands open, and exhale as you go. You can even work right up to the full seal walk, but you probably shouldn’t do that one at the office. Save it for home, and use it to terrorize the family pet.
I’ve also demonstrated a few closed-chain circles that you can use to help release tension creeping up both sides of your forearms. You’ll benefit from these whether you’re an accomplished typist or a thumb shuffling Blackberry belle. Just 6 or 8 slow, smooth reps in each direction is enough to make progress. Even better if you can do them a few times during your work day.
Now that we’ve got Mr. Tension on the run, we’ll chase him up into the elbows. We’re again hitting him from both sides, this time with the Hitchhiker and Arm Bar. Tension to extension is the name of the game here. Do these at least once a day, and use them anytime you feel your elbows need decompressing.
Finally, we’ll finish with one last movement to decompress the shoulders, just in case that sneaky tension has decided to loaf around up there. This is different than the Double Handcuff we looked at in an earlier clip. The Arm Screw will wring your shoulders out like an 1800’s washrag. Save it for the end of the day, and use it to bid good riddance to the office as you wind down and shift into home mode. It’s either that or a stiff martini, and we’re not talking about liver overcompensations in this article.
Here’s a short video to coach you through the movements:
Give these a try. Let us know how you do in the comment section below.
Banish joint and muscle pain with more cool moves like this one from our Million Dollar Exercise system.