Hand Strengthening Exercises
We perform numerous activities in a single day with the help of our hands, right from eating our food, lifting objects, working on the computer and many more activities. We cannot call these activities as exercises! Hand strengthening exercises are usually recommended for people who need to recover from a surgery or stroke. Not just for such patients, but these exercises are also important for people who perform activities that bring continuous strain on their hands, like playing guitar or sports like wrestling. The exercises are also helpful for people who suffer from arthritis.
Strengthening of the hands is not meant for people who fall in above categories, they are important for all of us. Even small children require such exercises to improve their motor skills. Here's how these exercises are beneficial.
- Improve mobility of the wrist
- Increase range of motion and dexterity
- Promotes coordination and balance
- Help to prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Prevent damage to the arms
- Aid in recovery
Exercises for Children
It is necessary that every child learns proper coordination of hand muscles and develop good motor skills. Hand strengthening exercises will ensure proper development of the child. If the child develops fine motor skills, then child can easily do various activities that involve use of hands like, using scissors, tying laces, holding the pencil properly, using locks and keys and many more. Moreover, these exercises are a solution to the problem of bad handwriting. Also, these exercises are fun and your child will surely enjoy doing them.
Pick the Marbles
You will require handful of marbles or pebbles for this exercise. You can use colorful marbles to make the exercise more interesting to the child. Ask the child to pick up a marble with the help of thumb and a forefinger of one hand. Then the child has to hold the marble in the palm of the same hand. Ask the child to pick up next marble with the previous marble still in hand. Similarly continue picking the marble, until no more marbles can be placed in the palm. Do this exercise for both the hands.
Touch the Tips
This is a very simple hand exercise where the child has to touch the fingertips. Start with touching the fingertip of thumb with the forefinger, then the middle finger and the thumb, then the ring finger and the thumb and finally the thumb and the little finger. Then repeat in reverse order. This exercise should be performed for both the hands for at least 8 times.
Some more hand exercises for children can be, balancing tennis ball on the racket, placing small rings in the thumb and removing one by one with help of other fingers and many more. These exercises should be performed at least 4 times in a week.
Exercises for Guitar Players
Playing guitar requires good strength in your hands, not just to hold the guitar but also for quick finger movements to play. Strengthening hands is mandatory so that you can play the guitar for longer durations. Performing hand strengthening exercises help to improve quality and ability to hold and play the guitar for longer time, without getting tired. Given below are some such exercises for those who play guitar.
Stretching Exercise
Stand in an upright position or sit in a chair. Stretch your arms towards your sides such that your palms face towards the ceiling. Now bend your palms in downward direction in a comfortable manner. Hold this position for a few seconds. Now, slowly turn your wrists and hold the same position for few more seconds. Try to bend each finger in backward direction and then in forward direction. Hold each of the position for 30 seconds.
Wrist Exercise
You will require hand grips to perform this hand strengthening exercise. Use a hand grip with tensile strength you are comfortable with. Hold the hand grip between your palm and fingers and do 10 to 15 repetitions for each hand. Do not exceed with number of repetitions and stop when you feel fatigue in your wrist.
So, these were some useful hand strengthening exercises. The hands are some of the most ignored parts while performing any workout. Performing these exercises have plenty of advantages and thus, should be performed regularly.
