Hand Rehabilitation Exercises

There are many reasons to go through rehabilitation of the hand. You may have had surgery for a trigger finger, are suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome or are recuperating from a stroke. These are a few afflictions that require exercises to improve hand strength and hand coordination. Always check with your doctor, however, to make sure your condition will not be aggravated by any one exercise.

Range of Motion

• Most of us think of the large muscles in our bodies when we think about stretching. The fact is that even fingers need a good stretch to maintain length, dexterity and strength. If you suffer from a chronic condition such as carpal tunnel syndrome, you will want to work your fingers and wrist as diligently as a hurdler stretches his hamstrings.

  Start by simply bending your fingers into a cat claw position and then straightening them. Contract the muscles when bending them and relax them when opening. You also can place your hands together with your fingers extended in a prayer position. Start with your index fingers and cross them over the opposite hand. This is a common warm-up for pianists and can help you regain finger mobility. Keep your wrist flexible as well to reduce the strain on your fingers by holding your arm away from yourself and pointing your fingers down and then pulling them up with the opposite hand. Never overstretch or push yourself past the point of pain.

Strengthen

• You can strengthen your hands through simple gripping exercises or opening exercises. Squeezing a foam ball or tennis ball as well as an exercise gripper will improve your forearm strength and provide more strength to the muscles in your hand. You also can place a rubber band around your fingertips and open your fingers as if they were a blooming flower. The rubber band provides resistance to strengthen the muscles used oppositely from gripping.

Dexterity

• If your fingers are not dexterous, you will not recover complete use of your hand. You need your fingers to perform adequately and independently from each other. While the stretches will help with dexterity, you also can work with clay to help exercise the small muscles within your hand. This is a great exercise for people recovering from a stroke to restore hand strength and ability.

  There are also Chinese exercise balls. A set includes two small balls, each about one to two inches in diameter. Roll the balls in your hands so that they move in a clockwise fashion and not touching each other. While you may be able to do this with golf balls, actual Chinese exercise balls have bells inside them that chime when you use them properly. This is a great method of relaxation for the hands while building strength and dexterity.