The Hand to Shoulder Solution
Your new resource for hand, shoulder, and elbow pain. Together, we are giving pain the middle finger and gaining knowledge to live a better, pain-free life!
Discover what might be causing pain in your fingers, pain in your hand, pain in your wrist, pain in your arm, pain in your elbow, pain in your shoulder.
Learn about your body, arthritis, tendinitis, tennis elbow, fractures, golfer's elbow, and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Hosted by Carl Petitto, OT, CHT, and Certified Hand Therapist specializing in orthopedic conditions of the hand to shoulder. Also an expert in fabricating custom orthotics.
The Hand to Shoulder Solution
Ep 46: Tools to EASE Arthritis Pain
Work with Carl! Check out the website - www.carlpetitto.com
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Hello and welcome to the show, The Hand to Shoulder Solution, with me, Carl Petitto.
If you are experiencing pain in your arms and hands, this is your resource.
Subscribe, listen, and share to help us 'give pain the middle finger for good'!
This is a resource to help you mitigate pain at home and become more educated on what to ask your doctors and therapists. No medical advice will be given, and you should always see your medical professional for any questions.
Thank you, and welcome to the show!
Welcome back to the Hand to Shoulder Solution giving pain the middle finger. I'm your host, Carl Petito. As an occupational therapist and a board-certified hand therapist, I specialize in the fingertips through the shoulder. I'm here to pass along some information. I want to share information from you that I've learned over the years, some tricks of the trade, and today we're going to talk about the stiff elbow. Now the elbow obviously has to bend and it has to straighten. Today let's talk about straightening. This is information only. If you need any advice, healthcare advice, go to your healthcare practitioner. Now, the stiff elbow when it's hard to straighten out the elbow is very unforgiving. There's three joints in the elbow. Time is of the essence. If you're not being seen by a therapist, you have to get in, because when you go into the therapist's office, he or she will use their two hands and whereas you at home, you only have one other hand, and I want to show you some exercises or some stretches that I usually have my patients do at home. All right, so here we go. The first one is one technique that some people like, some people dislike, and that's why I want to show you multiple different exercises. So the first one I'll demonstrate is using a vertical surface side of a shelf, in this case, or a wall, or a door, a door frame, anything. So placing the opposite hand behind the elbow, just up above the tip of the elbow, and then straining the elbow as far as you can and then squatting down a little bit and then putting your palm right on the wall. So as you straighten your knees, as you stand up, it gives a little bit of attraction force and as you're standing up, you're pushing your elbow in toward the wall. Now you would hold that for 10 to 20 seconds and then activate your triceps. So you hold that position and come away from the wall for an active hold One and two and three, and then you go back for a little stretch again and then active hold One and two and three, and what that active hold does is it activates the muscles to fully pull to the end range of motion. So it retrains the muscles to go to that point as you regain your flexibility.
Speaker 1:Another great technique is using a water bottle taped to your hand. I'm going to explain why it's very important to tape the water bottle to your hand. With the bottle taped into your hand, you can allow it to hang down by your side and that weight will give it a little bit. Let it hang there for 10, 15, sometimes even 20 minutes, as long as it's not increasing pain. Then, of course, if it's too much weight, it feels like it's pulling too hard, just decrease. Remove some of the water from the bottle. Now why should you tape it? It's very important to tape it because if you're squeezing the bottle, if you're actively squeezing, that's your flexor muscles, which sometimes will stimulate your biceps and the other muscles that bend your elbow. It's much easier to relax the muscles that resist straightening if you can totally relax your fingers and then it can hang and then the weight of the bottle can do its job. Very important to have the fingers taped.
Speaker 1:Another one you can do is sit down at your dining room table or a countertop somewhere and arrange yourself so that there's a stack of books I like a tall stack of books because it's nice and solid and then fold a bath towel or a small blanket or something and put it on top so you have a soft surface. Your whole arm, your whole humerus some people call it the upper arm should be supported, should be parallel to the floor, so with the whole thing supported and the tip of your elbow pointing directly into the towel, because we don't want any funny angles. We want that hinge to work directly the way it's supposed to. So that tip of the elbow should go right in there and you're going to not resist, not pull up, but you're going to reach out forward. So you're going to activate your muscles. Then you're going to assist with the opposite hand and as you're reaching out, you're pushing that down. You're going to hold that stretch for 20 seconds, 18 and 19 and 20. And then, when you slowly let go, you're going to hold that position one and two and three, and then let it relax and then again for 20 seconds, as you're reaching out, hold one and two and three, and that's the stretch.
Speaker 1:I have people do that every one to two hours. Typically, every two hours is about six times per day. That's ideal, and there's other techniques as well. Folks have their preferences. I have them, try all of them and it's very, very effective. So thank you for watching this week's episode. I'll look forward to bringing more information to you in the future. Be sure to subscribe and like the page that supports us. Thank you very much.