A Simple At-Home Routine For Stiff Fingers And Thumbs

Stiff fingers can make simple things feel impossible, from gripping a mug to texting with your thumb. We share a clear, gentle way to rebuild finger flexion and extension without turning your stretch routine into a daily battle with your own tissues. Guided by Carl Petitto of the Hand to Shoulder Solution, we focus on what actually changes range of motion: good support, slow pressure, and repeatable holds that your joints and soft tissue can tolerate.

Transcript

Quick Tip For Stiff Hands

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I'm Carol Petito from the Hand to Shoulder Solution with a quick tip how to restore finger flexion and extension. This includes the thumb also. So let's just pretend we you have a stiff hand, maybe arthritis, or you just had a surgery and now you're able to work on restoring your movement.

Thumb Flexion Range And Joints

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So let's start with the thumb. With thumb flexion, normal flexion is typically from the tip of the thumb to the base of the small finger. So you look at your other hand too. Some people, their normal flexion is a little less than that, or it goes a little further, or perhaps it it maybe meets there. And see what's normal for you. So you have three joints of the thumb: this one, that one,

Assisted Thumb Stretch And 20-Second Holds

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and that one. So this one, your CMC joint, you can you start there and you pull that down. So I'm holding over here on my pinky side, and I'm here, and I'm bending that knuckle that's right by my wrist right there. So that's stretching, and when I feel that pull, now I can slide down. Now I'm bending this middle hinge, okay? I'm using my muscles of the hand that I'm stretching to pull it down toward my little finger. Maybe

Finger Flexion That Moves Together

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on my own, I can only go halfway, okay. Now I'm gonna assist it. I'm gonna go here, then I'm gonna go here. So what's nice is you can have one finger here and one finger there, or ideally, your hand is resting on the table on a nice thick, soft towel, or it's on your lap, okay? And you can, if you're resting, then you can push here and then here, and then push that down toward the base of your little finger. Only until you feel it pull, you feel a stretching or a pulling sensation, and hold that for 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, you release and hold on your own one and two and three and relax. And again for 20 seconds, and then one and two and three, which retrains the muscle. Okay. And then the fingers, let's look at the fingers. So you can push back here at the end of your first bone to stretch that big knuckle. That's supposed to go all the way to 90 degrees, so that's supposed to be a right angle here and here. And then you get up to the middle knuckle, then you slide down to the tip. When people start to get, you know, about down to here. I usually just have folks use their opposite hand to go here, they keep that big knuckle bent, then they go on the stretching the middle hinge, and then the last hinge. They all have to go together at the same time, okay? They're connected in the back. So if you're trying to keep them out of the way, you're literally resisting your own stretch. So they all have to go down as a team. Very important as a team. And then you go to the next one, and then you hold 10 seconds or 20 seconds, and then you hold 10 or 20 seconds and you hold.

Straightening Fingers With A Fulcrum

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Okay? Now, stretching out straight, you can lay your hand palm down, and what's let's say they don't want to straighten out of the way. Well, you can make a little fulcrum and then push up here, and then check on your other hand, the big knuckle should hyperextend a little bit. How much does the hyperextend on you? So once you get those small knuckles straight all the way, over a period of you know, perhaps a week or two or three, you can start adding some hyperextension of that big knuckle.

Thumb Extension And Safe Stretching Rules

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Back to the thumb. We went we talked about flexion. Let's look at extension. You can push this out, you can push this out. Ideally, you have it supported on your lap or on another nice surface, and you can push it directly out straight. So it goes, pay attention to the angle, okay? Like sustained stretch, nothing should be aggressive with stretching the fingers. It should be frequency, so you're doing it frequently, not intensely. If you do it intensely, you're gonna injure yourself. At a minimum, you're going to cause what's called the stretch reflex, where the tissues pull back and contract and try to protect themselves. Guess what? You're making yourself stiffer, not aggressive. You got to have to be slow and steady, and three or four or five times a day, not constantly. If you do it too much, it's like it's like watering your plants. You have to water your plants, you can't water them all day. Otherwise, you just kill your plant and aggravate your tissue. Okay, thank you for watching the hand to shoulder solution, where we are the solution to your pain.