7 Hand Exercises To Relieve Arthritis Pain

Adopting a healthy lifestyle and practicing some exercises can help relieve some discomfort caused by arthritis.

Some hand exercises can help reduce discomfort from arthritis. They can be done, as long as the doctor authorizes it and the patient can tolerate them. 

As this is a disease that is characterized by the progressive deterioration of the joint and the loss of cartilage, which acts as a soft “shock absorber” to protect the joints, it is important to maintain good lifestyle habits.

Arthritis treatment

When arthritis affects the joints of the hand, it usually causes intense pain and stiffness. For obvious reasons, the quality of life of the person who suffers from it is affected. In fact, he will often have a hard time moving his hands and picking up objects.

Based on information from the Mayo Clinic, arthritis treatment focuses on relieving symptoms and improving joint function. This is why you may need to try different treatments or combinations of various treatments before finding what might actually work best for you.

So, considering the above, although it is true that there is no treatment that cures the disease as such, it is possible to implement good lifestyle habits to minimize discomfort.

Drug treatment includes certain medications that can be taken by mouth or given by injection. If these options don’t work, surgery may also be done to repair the damaged joint.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle and doing some hand exercises can help patients reduce discomfort and enjoy a good quality of life, where possible.

Exercise No. 1. Make a fist

This exercise can be done anytime, anywhere, after feeling stiff in your hand.

To begin, we must extend the left hand and, slowly, grasp and place the thumb towards the outside of the hand. We have to do it without pressing the hand because it can make the pain worse. We will open our hand slowly and do the same movement 10 times. Then, we will switch to the right hand.

Exercise No. 2. Bend the fingers

In this case, we must extend the palm of the hand and bend the thumb down and up, holding the position for two seconds. Then, it is necessary to continue doing the same exercise with the rest of the fingers, until doing it with the whole hand. To conclude, we will repeat it on both hands up to two or three times.

Exercise No. 3. Curved thumb

Here we have to extend the left hand and bend the thumb inwards, against the palm. After this, we will stretch the lower part of the little finger towards the thumb and we will try to maintain this position for a couple of seconds.

Next, we will return to the starting position and do 10 repetitions with the thumb of each hand.

Exercise No. 4. Make an “O”

With the left hand pointing up, we should gently curl the fingers inward until they touch the thumb and form an “O”. Then we will maintain this position for a few seconds and later return to the starting position and repeat the exercise.

Exercise No. 5. Curved table

This exercise consists of placing the edge of the left little finger next to a table, with the thumb pointing upwards.

With the thumb in the same position, we flex the other four fingers inward until the hand forms an “L”. We will hold this position for a few seconds and then we will return to the starting position. It is advisable to perform ten repetitions on each hand.

Exercise No. 6. Raise the finger

On a table, we will put the left hand, with the palm on the surface. We will start by slowly lifting the little finger outwards and little by little we will do the same with each finger.

We will hold the position for two seconds, then go down and repeat. When all the fingers of the left hand have been exercised, we will continue with the right.

Exercise No. 7. Move the wrist

Since we must not forget that the wrist is also affected by the pain and stiffness of arthritis, we must exercise it. To do this, you can choose any of the exercises for the hand that we have discussed, as well as the following:

We must put the right arm with the palm down and, with the opposite hand, press down until we feel a stretch in the wrist and arm. We will keep the position for 10 seconds and we will change to the left wrist.

According to the MSD Manual, it is essential to follow the doctor’s instructions and support a healthy lifestyle in order to enjoy a good quality of life.

In relation to physical activity, he points out that this should only be done when it is tolerable. Exercises for the hand (or other parts of the body) should never be performed if they cause severe discomfort and aggravate disease symptoms, such as swelling and stiffness.

Expert massage, traction, and deep heat treatment can be helpful adjunct therapies in addition to anti-inflammatory drugs.