Hand Pain Not Going Away? Watch This Video! It Might Be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

One of the most common complaints we hear from our desk workers is carpal tunnel syndrome, or pain in the hand that encompasses the thumb and the first finger, and some of the palm. Now, carpal is Latin for wrist, so the carpal tunnel is this ligament that crosses the wrist bones, the carpal bones, and through that tunnel runs the median nerve to supply the hand.

The median nerve starts on the side of the neck, it goes into the shoulder where it forms part of the brachial plexus. And then after the brachial plexus, the median nerve runs down through this tunnel and supplies the hand. So if you wanna see if your hand pain is carpal tunnel pain, this is a really good test.

Try This Test Now!

You’re gonna squeeze the outside of the hand together so that you see wrinkles or slack on the front side of the wrist. When we do that, we take the tight carpal tunnel, and we open it up to allow the nerve that runs through more space and more blood flow and take some of the symptoms away.

Exercise #1

So you’re gonna hold the outside of the hand together, and after a few seconds, you should feel some relief in the area of pain in the hand. If you feel that relief, we can add some stretching of the nerve back and forth through the tunnel. We do that by extending the fingers and the wrist while keeping the tunnel slacked with our opposite hand. You can create these repetitions 10 to 15 times every hour throughout the day while you’re at work.

Exercise #2

A progression from that is to add an arm movement. We’re gonna start with the carpal relaxed with our other hand, wrist and fingers extended, and then we’re gonna extend the arm. And as the stretch increases, you’re gonna flex your hand closed. Then we’re gonna come back to the start, extend the fingers and wrist, lengthen, and close the fingers and the wrist. This could also be repeated 10 to 15 times each hour throughout the day.

Now, if those two exercises don’t improve your hand pain, it’s likely that the compression of that median nerve is coming from elsewhere in your body. The most common spots are at your elbow, your shoulder, and then right inside the neck where the nerves leave the neck. If you’re not seeing that resolution with these exercises, give me a call. I’ll examine how the nerve functions from your neck down to the hand, and we’ll find a solution that works for you right away.