Best Stretches to Relieve Systemic Work Stress
The Problem with "The Desk"
So many of us work at a desk on a chair that “Rob Grizwell”, from two cubicles down, didn’t want anymore. We hunch forward to see the screen better because we left our glasses on the bedside table. We use the tiny track pad on our laptop to scroll the internet for craigslist finds. Maybe I’m just talking about myself, but I do know sitting down for the amount of time we’ve become accustom to isn’t what our bodies were intended to do. We engage in the same repetitive movements for 8 hours a day, sometimes even more. We might work 5 hours at a time, staring at the screen while making tiny movements with our hands between the mouse or keyboard. The dirty truth is: these patterns are horrible for our health. I’m nowhere close to a doctor, or a person in perfect health, but so many computer folks are struggling with stress injuries like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or Tendonitis. It has to be all related.
How Do Our Hands and Arms Work?
I’m laughing at myself because I tried to study the muscles, bones and tendons in our hands and arms in scientific terms, but it’s too much and I got confused. Not my thing. So I’ll just tell you the crucial bits. There is an important nerve called the Median Nerve that runs from the top of the arm (near our shoulder), through the forearm and wrists and splits into several branches for fingers. As the forearm and the wrist connects, there is a Carpal Tunnel that takes the Median Nerve safely to our fingers. That tunnel is protected by bones, a ligament and connective tissue and is very small to protect the Median Nerve. If our tendons swell from stress, they press on that special nerve and create pain, numbness or weakness in our hand and fingers. This particular tendon stress is so prevalent in our culture because of the time we spend engaging in repetitive movements. It’s crazy!
Support for Desk Stress!
Preventative measures for wrist, arm and finger stress for us is so important. The key is keeping all of our muscles strong and flexible. The goal when stretching is spreading the pressure with movement. I’ve put together five awesome stretches for you to practice throughout the day. Download them via the pop-up as you entered the blog post or the email below! If you take a break every three hours and do one or all of these stretches, your working hands will increase their level of health and decrease possible inflammation.
If your having minor pains with specific areas in your hands send me a message here or comment because I have had some issues in the past and have a small (but helpful) arsenal of resources. Let me know if these stretches are working, I would love to hear from you!