Anyone sitting at a computer all day or tapping out text messages needs to keep their hands strong, flexible and healthy.  These are some of my favourite exercises for keeping my hands healthy. You can do them sitting at your desk or (even better) away from your computer while taking a break.

Stretching the wrists and palms.

• Bring your palms together in front of your chest.
• Press your hands downwards until you feel a stretch in the heel of your hand.
• Turn your hands so that the fingers are pointing downwards.
• Press inward and up until you feel the stretch again.

Remember to relax your shoulders whilst doing all of these stretches. Don’t hold your breath. Stay relaxed.

Between each of these exercises it is a good idea to shake out your hands. This is a good exercise in itself and a quick and easy way to release tension in the hands.

Finger and Palm Stretch.

• Interlock your fingers and turn your hands out.
• Extend your arms to stretch those fingers and palms.

Shake the hands again but also just give the fingers a wiggle. Go on, pretend you are in a Wallace and Gromit film for a while.

Then massage the fingers especially around the joints. If any of them are sore this is often an excellent way to reduce the pain.

Flexing the Wrists.

• Simply move your wrist from side to side, up and down.
• Flip them over so the palms face up and flip them back again.
• Try moving the wrists in a circular fashion or moving each hand in a different direction from the other.

Start this exercise slowly but increase the speed if you like. Vary the movement too and as always keep the arms and shoulders relaxed.

Wrist Stretch

• Grip one hand just below the wrist with the other.
• As you breath out squeeze and pull downwards from the wrist to the fingertips.
• Repeat several times on each hand.

This exercise will keep the circulation flowing to the fingertips. As always stay relaxed and give your hands a good shake when you are done.

Some of these exercises can be incorporated into your hand washing routine. Not only will your hands be less tense but if you take the time to massage your fingers think how clean and bug free they will be too.

I must acknowledge the source of the images used in this post. They are taken from two excellent books:

• Paul Lundberg’s Book of Shiatsu
• Cahty Meeus’ Secrets of Shiatsu.