Mano-a-mano
I know my hands got tired last year.
…And I know exactly where it came from… It wasn’t the hundreds of hours I spent working as a massage therapist. Kayaking didn’t hurt my hands a bit. Even gardening was a relatively gentle experience when I used gloves.
It was all the high fives at the Bronco games. The team scored over 600 points, and I am certain there was a high five for each point. Ouch!
The hands are crazy networks of bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments. All this traffic in such a confined space is worse than the mousetrap* was back in the day. This highway travels all the way up the forearm to your elbow.
When I was working on a computer all day, my forearms used to burn. With massage school during the weekend, the burn was a napalm like fire. My friends assured me it was because of massage. And then I went to Thailand. I was off of a computer for a month and did ten times as many massages, and the pain amazingly disappeared. There is something to be said about the repeated motion of fingers on a keyboard. It’s just not natural.
Fortunately, forearms, hands and elbows are fairly straight forward. Flexors and extensors of the fingers make up a large section of forearm muscle. By working your own forearms, you can relieve some stress on your hands.
Look up a few stretches online.
Taking care of your hands and forearms will assure your mobility stays healthy, you have a natural range of motion, and it may even keep your fingers from getting cold!
Or, come see me 🙂 Your friendly neighborhood massage therapist is always ready to help.
*Old Denver highway reference
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