That nonstop pounding on the keyboard all day may help you get ahead, career-wise (assuming what you’re typing so frenetically is still intelligible) but it’s tough on the digits. Those tiny keystroke movements don’t seem like much, but all the repetition can bring the pain to your fingers and wrists. And once you do the damage, carpal tunnel syndrome and chronic wrist, hand and forearm pain can be a bear to get rid of.
READ MORE: Hunch Over Your Desk? These Moves Will Sort Out Your Shoulders STAT
To ward off and relieve these symptoms, carve out two or three mini-breaks in your type-intensive day for these carpal tunnel syndrome exercises.
1. Figure Eights
Stand or sit up tall in a chair and bring your hands together in front of you, fingers interlaced. Keeping your elbows bent, alternately push your hands to the side so that your right wrist bends back, and then the left one. Using this back-and-forth as a base, start moving your hands in an imaginary figure eight, rotating the wrists more fully. Do this until you feel relief.
2. Overhead Reach
Still sitting upright, relax your arms at your sides so your palms face out comfortably. Take an inhale and lift your arms up overhead. Interlace your fingers. Turn your palms up to the ceiling, either keeping your arms slightly bent or straightening them. Hold for 10 slow, deep breaths (counting an inhale and an exhale as one breath).
On your last exhalation, lower your arms to your sides. Then inhale, interlacing your fingers overhead again, but this time with the opposite hand on top. Be sure to lift the thumb side of your hands as much as the pinky side. Hold for 10 slow, deep breaths. This overhead reach stretches out the muscles and connective tissue in the forearms and hands while bringing flexibility to the hands and fingers. Plus, it boosts circulation.
READ MORE: We Asked A Yoga Instructor For The Best Back Stretches To Tackle Upper And Lower Back Pain
3. Finger-Bender
Sitting up, bring your right forearm in toward your chest. With your left hand, bend back your right fingers (minus thumb) to your right. Hold for 10 slow, deep breaths. Then bend those same four fingers the opposite way, with your palm pushing them toward the floor. Hold for 10 slow breaths before repeating with the left hand.
These 3 ridiculously simple stretches do insane things for your posture. Plus: Use these 5 resistance band moves to ease knee pain.
