Best Exercises For Finger Rehabilitation
There are many exercises that can be performed for cooling down, warming up or for rehabilitation of your fingers. The exercises are quite simple and can be done at home without much hassle. You would need little equipment and get yourself going. However, in order to get the best results, it is better to raise your body temperature to prevent any injury. Furthermore, there is no hard and fast rule related to the strength of items you would be using as it is your personal choice.
Powerball
Powerball is usually used for forearm/wrist rehab and warm up rather than for fingers. It is quite helpful for general warm up of the arms before one begins to perform specific exercises. This ball is used for rotation about the wrist. In case you use this, make sure you change the direction of your spin every time so that your muscles are used in different ways. When it comes to fingers, powerball can only be used in warm up sessions.
Hand therapy balls
They are quite similar to stress balls and are ideal for warm up and rehabilitation of the fingers. These balls are readily available in the market and have different ‘strengths’. However, it is better if you go for the weaker ones so that you can get more of the workout by adding more repetitions. This ball is known for its versatility.
To get started, you need to squeeze the ball a number of times in a gross grip manner. This will warm up your muscles and bring them in working conditions. Once you relax the grip, remember to spread your fingers back in a ‘flat palm’ position. This way your fingers will be going through their full range of movement.
For some specific exercises, you can squeeze the ball between your finger and thumb and do this with alternating fingers. You can also squeeze the ball with two finger grips as well like the index and middle fingers to ring and middle finger.
Elastic band
So far, this is the cheapest form of rehabilitation equipment you can have for your fingers. The elastic bands are considered to be an ideal tool for working the interossei muscles. You can easily change the strength or difficulty level by simply choosing a thicker elastic band.
You can begin your exercise by extending your fingers against the elastic band. This way, you will be working on your forearm extensor muscles for attaining muscle balance. It is up to you whether you want to do this without extending the thumb. The exercise can be made harder or easier by moving the elastic band towards or away from the distal joints.
Grip master
Most of the climbers have this simple tool with them. However, this is not as flexible as the elastic band or a therapy ball. With this tool, you can also perform the finger to thumb flexion exercise. You can do the same exercise with two finger tips and with all fingers as well. If you are not comfortable with this exercise, you can rely on elastic band therapy as it is highly preferred by many people.