Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) may be the punch line of a million office jokes, but the consequences of this physical, work-related disorder are actually quite serious.

Symptoms of CTS include:

• Numbness of the hands and wrists
• Inability to grip or hold common household items
• Loss of pinch strength between thumb and forefinger
• Atrophying of the thumb muscles

Here are some simple exercises you can do at your workspace that will help keep CTS and repetitive stress disorder at bay.  The following should take place during “micro-breaks” throughout the day.  A micro-break is a short, 2-3 minute rest period taken every hour to avoid stiffness and muscle soreness.

1. Full body stretching.   Face the nearest wall and reach up as high as you can.  As you stretch, place your feet firmly on the ground.  Now firm up your legs and begin to reach down, moving your hands slowly along the wall.  Move down as low as you can without discomfort – then hold that position for five seconds.  Repeat five times.
2. Forearm and wrist exercise.  Standing alongside the wall, place your right palm flat against the wall.  Extended your elbow until your arm is straight, and then press your palm into the wall.  Now take a breath and move your head to the left, moving your right shoulder blade in towards the front of your body.  Hold this position and then take a deep breath.  Repeat.
3. Stretching while sitting.  Sit upright in your chair with your  head resting in a comfortable position on your neck.  Now, bring your hands down to the seat of the chair (behind your back) and slowly rotate your shoulders back, pushing your shoulder blades back as you go.
4. Helping your hands.   Extend your arms and stretch out your hands and fingers as if they were in a “handstand” position.  Hold for five seconds and then release.  Next, straighten your hands and relax your fingers.  Shake the fingers a little for circulation.  Now make a tight fist with each hand.  Bend both wrists straight down while continuing to make the fist.  Hold this position for five seconds.  Now let your arms and hands hang down at your sides.  Shake your arms and legs until they feel loose.  Repeat these hand exercises ten times each day.
5. Have you hugged your knees today? In order to strengthen the back during long periods of sitting, try the following:  grab one of your legs with both hands.  Now pull that leg up to your chest.  Hug your leg for five seconds and then release.  Now repeat with the other leg.
6. Back bends.  Stand up from your chair and try the following exercise designed to strengthen your lower back, joints and hips.  Simply place your hands on your hips and bend slowly backwards.  Hold the position for three seconds, but make sure that the position you are in does not cause pain.  Repeat this exercise five times.

Remember, the secret to avoiding carpal tunnel lies in the micro-break.  Force yourself to get up at regular intervals throughout the day at perform the exercises above.  You will greatly reduce the chance of work-related illnesses…and improve your health to boot!

Tags: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, CTS

This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI), Stretches & Exercies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.