Do You Have Thumb or Hand Pain? Then it’s Time for Hand Stretches
Do you have thumb or hand pain? If you do, know that you are not alone, because the hand – especially the 1st carpo-metacarpal (CMC) joint (represented be the red lines on the left of the hand closest to the thumb) which connects your thumb to the wrist – is the most common site to form arthritis. While there is no cure for arthritis, that does not mean you have to just live with the pain from it. In fact, movement, stretching, and exercise is the best way to help relieve the pain associated with arthritis. While you should always consult a physician (or better yet a Physical Therapist!) prior to starting an exercise program, even one for your hands, the stretch below may be beneficial as you start your journey towards managing your hand pain. One thing that is a big factor in thumb pain is the concept of “CMC collapse”. As shown in the example below, this occurs when the 1st metacarpal (the bone in the hand connecting the thumb to the wrist) cannot move away from the rest of the hand (represented be the green swatch). When this alignment is present during activity, it puts tremendous strain (represented be the yellow lightening bolt) on the 1st CMC joint and can lead to pain in the thumb.
Oftentimes, the cause of this is a combination of tightness in the muscles on the meaty part of the hand below the thumb (the thenar eminence), weakness in the thumb extensors/abductors, and/or joint mobility restrictions in the CMC joint. The exercise shown below is a way to deal with two of the above factors and can generally help manage thumb/hand pain.
The general idea is to take a rigid cylindrical object -like a mug, cup, or if very little range of motion is present, a highlighter – and wedge it into the first webspace of the affected hand (the meaty part of the hand between thumb and index finger to stretch the CMC joint and the muscles of the thenar eminence and 1st web space. The arrow in the picture shows the direction to apply pressure. Be careful to not bend the MCP joints (represented be the red dots at the joints) only, this should be felt in the CMC joint and 1st web space (represented be the green dot near the wrist and triangle of webspace).
Who knew that managing hand pain could be done while drinking a glass of water or enjoying a cup of coffee!?
