Carpal tunnel is caused by the muscle imbalance in the hand or forearm due to its overuse in a single given motion. Good thing is that the syndrome develops over a long period of time; therefore, giving a chance to prevent it with physical exercises of your hands and forearms.
Carpal tunnel is caused by the muscle imbalance in the hand or forearm due to its overuse in a single given motion. There are of course other causes of Carpal Tunnel such as direct trauma, diabetes, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, and other systemic disorders; however, the muscle imbalance is currently the most common one. Good thing is that the syndrome develops over a long period of time; therefore, giving a chance to prevent it with physical exercises of your hands and forearms.
The muscle imbalance is most often caused by repetitive and/or static wrist finger flexion against resistance or a static (stationary object). Examples of most common activities in this category include driving, opening doors, playing on a computer or a gaming console, and typing; such exercises develop muscles responsible for closing hands, called flexors. Unfortunately, there aren’t many activities in our daily lives that stimulate the opposite muscles – extensors, responsible for opening your hand and straightening fingers. Frequent and repetitive simulation of flexors causes an inflammation of flexor tendons due to friction within a severely compressed Carpal Tunnel. Such irritation of the flexor tendons usually leads to possible irreversible damage of the underlying tendons, blood vessels and median nerve. First symptoms may include numbness, coldness, loss of feeling sensation in fingers and hands, finger pain, and loss of motor skill, or clumsiness and complete loss of control in hands.
As it is easy to get sucked in by the Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, it is also easy to prevent it. This is basic logic – if the syndrome is caused by the imbalance of flexors and extensors (flexors being the stronger muscles), therefore, one needs to simply exercise the later more. There are many solutions on the Web stating that stretching, ergonomic keyboards, and wrist braces…etc. will help you prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome; however, none of these solutions exercise the extensor muscles, therefore, never truly prevent the syndrome. Braces are usually used for recovery, but why even get to that point? – remember some damage caused by the syndrome is irreversible.
The solution is to find a way to easily and quickly exercise your hands and forearms, we must use some sort of resistance, and if it’s free weights or exercisers, they must be very portable to be brought to work and back home on daily basis. There are products on the market that help you exercise your forearms and wrists, like small free weights and dyna-balls (that in fact could backfire as they stress the finger flexor muscles a lot, while moving the wrist around); however, I am yet to find anything that matches results and portability of Bison-1. In addition it provides complete freedom of movement, thus allowing to work up to 30 muscles simultaneously, with a total number of exercises exceeding 100,000.
So in conclusion, in order to prevent or decrease chances of having Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - exercise extensor muscles to prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, the best way to do that is by using Bison-1 (find out more on how Bison-1 works at the Forearm Strength Training Blog ) However, remember, if you already have the symptoms of the syndrome, go see a doctor, but now that we have a way to avoid that, why would we even get that far?
