Take Care of Your Wrists

Our world is moving quickly into a digital age. Many of us use the computer over 6 hours a day, and some of us up to 10 hours a day! 10 hours a day... typing, using a mouse, maneuvering a track pad, texting. All of these activities put some serious stresses on the wrist joints, often locking them in to one position for hours at a time, which can cause wrist pain, tension, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

As belly dancers, we rely on our hands and wrists as a means of expression in the dance, and if they are stiff or in pain, our dance becomes less communicative. So what can we do about it? Lots!

The first piece of taking care of your wrists is mobilization. Take 2 minutes each day to roll the wrists in both directions, until the motion feels fluid and most of the cracks and pops are gone.

The second piece is stretching. Take another 3 minutes daily to do the following stretches (or stretch once every hour you are on the computer!):

1. Prayer hands: put your hands together in "prayer" position and push them together, rolling through three positions: 1. fingers towards ceiling 2. fingers forward 3. fingers towards toes (or as close as you can get), and then reverse

2. Backs of hands together: gently pushing the backs of the hands together, roll through 1. fingers towards you 2. fingers towards floor 3. fingers away from you, then reverse

3. Thumb stretch: with open hands, put the tips of your thumbs together, then push the hands towards each other, stretching both thumb bases simultaneously

4. Splayed finger stretch: similar to the thumb stretch, but touch your 4 fingertips together with the other 4 and push the fingers together

5. Gentle wrist decompression: Grab the base of one hand near the wrist with the other hand, and GENTLY pull the arms away from each other for 5 seconds. Finish with wrist rolls in both directions.

6. Lace the fingers of both hands and invert as you push away from you, then push your inverted hands up to the ceiling and hold for 10 seconds. Finish with wrist rolls in both directions.


Nutrition: wrists are very affected by foods that create inflammatory conditions in the body, because the narrow diameter means slower blood flow and inflammatory chemicals can deposit here. Avoiding or decreasing some of the classic inflammatory foods can generally decrease wrist pain, like alcohol, sugar, dairy, wheat/gluten, the nightshade family (potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes), corn, and soy. Increasing omega-3 fats (like salmon, and sardines) will further decrease any inflammation in the wrists.

Hydrotherapy:Alternating hot and cold baths for your hands opens up the circulation, and has many health benefits, as it moves stagnant lymph and toxins from the wrist tissue, and it feels great!!

Procedure:
1. Get 2 pots/bowls of water big enough to immerse both your hands over the wrists. Fill one with cold tap water, and the other with hot tap water (enough to feel hot, but NOT burn you!)
2. Put both hands/wrists in the hot for 3 minutes
3. Put both hands/wrists in the cold for 30 seconds
4. Repeat hot - 3 minutes
5. Repeat cold - 30 seconds
6. Repeat hot - 3 minutes
7. Repeat cold - 30 seconds - you are done!! Towel off and enjoy the rejuvenating sensation!

And lastly, be sure to stretch your wrists and hands AFTER you dance for at least 5 minutes. Stretching when you are cold can damage tendons and ligaments. Do wrist circles before dancing to warm up, stretching afterwards to cool down.

Enjoy dancing with your beautiful arms!