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 47: Throttle Fatigue: Protecting Your Hands on Long Rides
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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!
hey, what's going on? Can I talk you into? Uh, you know, joining the podcast since you drove, you just drove onto the set gloves off or gloves on I think off because you'll be doing the exercises okay, why am I here today?
Speaker 2:I have questions of how to take care of our hands when riding, something called throttle fatigue, how to avoid it, or what could I do after a long day of riding if my thumb is hurting.
Speaker 1:I've had a few patients complain about that and it really boils down to an endurance issue holding that throttle. And then also the second piece is pulling the thumb out to reach control. There's some good conditioning exercises that you can do on the days that you're not riding to increase the endurance of those muscles that are handling the throttle and your controls. One thing is using a hammer to strengthen multiple muscles at once. If I could Wait, a minute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just so happened that I am carrying a hammer.
Speaker 1:Perfect.
Speaker 1:Wow, this works out really well. Okay. So, using this, when you're squeezing the hammer, you're working your grip, and then when you turn it palm down, you're working the muscles that do this, that open the throttle. Okay, when you turn a palm up, you're working the muscles that bend your wrist toward your palm. So just simply holding it up straight elbow, touching to your side, slowly turning a palm down and palm up, when you're turning a palm up, you're even working your biceps. So the main message here is that it's working many muscles at the same time, and on your days off, you can do this to light fatigue and adjust. You know, adjust the weight. So if you need less weight or more weight and keep a good grip, don't let it bottom out on your ligaments, but just stop shy, control all the way down. You can sprain your wrist easily if it drops down, but just control it. And also some isometrics too. You can just sit here and hold that until it gets tired.
Speaker 1:Now with the thumb I. The main thing here is I wouldn't really do any exercises against this because it's already getting exercise inside the glove, just opening it to get on the controls, but after writing, putting that under cold running water or just gliding an ice cube directly over it. 10 to 20 seconds, that's all you need. Only until the tissues feel deeply cold, then you're done. That's actually you need. Only until the tissues feel deeply cold, then you're done. That's actually more effective than an ice pack for 10 minutes. Quick and easy. 10 to 20 seconds.
Speaker 2:So with the hammer exercise, do you recommend doing it before day C?
Speaker 1:I just Keep your elbow tucked right in.
Speaker 2:Let me get off the bike, okay, so here.
Speaker 1:Tuck that elbow right into your ribs you go okay, hold that hammer nice and straight, good. And slowly turn a palm down that's far enough. And then slowly turn a palm up, control it down that's far enough. And then back down, that's good. Back and forth, nice and slow and steady. You can also do isometrics where, when it's down here like this, I would keep it a little bit of an angle to hold that position. Don't let it fall.
Speaker 1:Hold tight, and then it'll start getting a little bit shaky when you're mostly I noticed that I I tend to pull my elbow out yes, because you're activating your shoulder, but when you, this is working muscles of your forearm and your wrist and your hand, so we're isolating that. So hold that position. And then the opposite is, you're going to hold this position right here until it gets tired. These palm up, that's. Those are naturally stronger muscles, so let's add more weight. So an interesting fact is, if this is 12 inches from the head of the hammer and this is a one pound hammer now you have 20, it's 12 times one, so you have 12 inch pounds of force through your muscles. So now this one pound hammer is now a 12 pound hammer as far as your muscles and this is only for the palm up that's correct.
Speaker 1:When you turn a palm down now you're gonna, you're gonna tell me that does that feel that's a lot harder to do isn't it? Those are naturally weaker muscles. So now let's choke up on the handle and that feels better, right? Yes, but still a good challenge. Then you're going to hold that position until it gets a little bit tired.
Speaker 2:So this before riding Before riding I would do that on your days off.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you know I want to do it before you're going to go on the trip. Do it on doing on off days. You know, if a person were to do that once or twice a week, you know you would go to the gym two or three times a week. Same thing you'd strengthen a couple times a week. Now, if you know, maybe next time you come I'll ask you to bring a dumbbell so I can show you some dumbbell exercise.
Speaker 2:Don't tell me I, I will tell you I think was prepared today. Man, you also showed me, weren't you? Look at this, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I can also use a shoe box full of $100 bills Do not have that around.
Speaker 2:Oh, you don't have that, you just have a this.
Speaker 1:Let's focus on those muscles that do the throttle, okay okay so you can hold support yourself here below your wrist and just work those wrist muscles. You're going to hold that here for a few minutes until you get tired, and that is just like a throttle handle and you're. What you're doing is you're conditioning those muscles that open the throttle and you're getting yourself accustomed to holding that position for a relatively long period of time. So this is five pounds. That's a really solid weight. So to hold that, tuck your elbow into your side, support yourself below your wrist right here, good, and hold that position. That that feels pretty heavy, doesn't it? Hold it up there, all right.
Speaker 2:Let me always supporting.
Speaker 1:Always supporting so you can. That really isolates those wrist muscles and in order for that to not fall, this is all contracting anchored right there at your elbow and that is really conditioning those muscles that are working that throttle. Conditioning those muscles that are working that throttle. That's a great exercise.
Speaker 2:Just doing this is good too, you can do that too.
Speaker 1:So holding it, which is you're recreating, you know, cruising down the road If you were using your cruise control, you're holding that manually Also. You can do some back and forth, you can do some repetitions. Just the fatigue that'll start to burn and feel really, really tired yeah, just stop there, I can feel it right here yeah, and then after that you can relax that and then you can do, do some stretches.
Speaker 1:So bring it right out here, bend your wrist down, come over here and push on your hand. Good, you hold a light stretch. That's stretching these muscles. They're stretching your wrist muscles, because these control your wrist. Now let's stretch your finger muscles. Make a fist Reach underneath, grab your fist. Now you're going to let all of this relax and you're going to pull it down. Now you're stretching your finger muscles, those muscles when they contract. That feels good, great. Those muscles when they contract, they do this. So you're lengthening all of that and it's these muscles that want to cramp up. When you're out on the road and you're driving, you're not using the cruise control, you're holding that. You know. Just anything will cramp up right shoulders. So everything we do is in front of us, including driving the motorcycle yes, right so it's.
Speaker 1:People tend to get in a forward rounded position. But what's the opposite of that, back like this. So whether you're working at a desk or you're driving a motorcycle or you're a biker on a 10 speed, you know long range or you know everything we do is in front of us. So I call it a big yon stretch. Just come back and open up the chest. That stretches your pecs muscles, it stretches the shoulder capsules and sometimes putting your hands behind your back and just straightening the back because your spine is forward flexed as well, and what does that do? That pushes the discs to the back of your spine. We can get into that another time. I also do a lot of ergonomics, so this is a good ergonomic question versus, you know, regarding optimally using your body and saving your body, preserving your joints for long term. So get back here, straighten that, straighten the back and come back like this, sometimes hands behind, behind the head, just open up, literally the opposite of what we're doing all day long.
Speaker 2:It was great running into you today, getting all these new tips and things that I can apply for my writing habits. If you have friends that want to get in touch with you or learn more about your content, where should they look?
Speaker 1:They should look on carlpetitocom also on YouTube. The hand to shoulder solution giving pain the middle finger.
Speaker 2:There you go, guys. Carl is a great resource for information of how to take care of your hand to your shoulder.