Hand Stretches

Hand exercises for seniors and the elderly are a wonderful component to your daily stretching routine. Our hands are usually the first thing we notice in the morning that has stiffened up overnight.

Hand exercises like the hand stretch below will help loosen up the fingers and palm. A good idea for warming up your hands is to use a microwave hot pack before stretching.

This will increase the temperature of the tissues under the skin including ligaments and tendons, which will make them much more elastic. Try it and see how much further you can open and close your hand.

Purpose of this exercise

Increase the flexibility and range of motion of your hand and fingers. Warms up your hand to prepare for the activity of the day.

Step 1

Hold your hands out in front with palms down.

Step 2

Open and close the hand, spreading the fingers apart. Repeat 10 times.

Breathing

Continue breathing normally, in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Tips

Do not strain, simply open and close your hand. If your shoulders get tired holding your hands up, drop them down to your lap. Try to open your hand as wide as possible, spreading the fingers apart.

Take it up a notch

Add wrist circles while opening and closing the hand.

How to do Hand Stretches

More Upper Body Flexibility Exercises

1. Shoulder And Upper Back Stretch

• Shoulder stretches to increases your shoulder and scapular range of motion.
• Stretches your chest and shoulder.
• Will make it easier to reach to that high shelf in your kitchen.

2. Shoulder Rolls

• Improve the range of motion in your shoulder and upper back region with these stretching routines.
• Will assist in keeping your rib muscles flexible.
• Help in activities like reaching up to a high shelf or across the table at dinner.

3. Neck Side Stretch

• Improve the range of motion in your neck and upper back with these good stretching exercises.
• Helps with those everyday movements you need to do like looking under the bed for that other shoe!

4.Neck Rotation

• Improve the range of motion in our neck with these neck stretches.
• Help stretch the upper back and scapular muscles.

5. Shoulder Circles

• Improve the range of motion of your shoulders and upper back with these types of stretching.
• Helps increase flexibility in your chest and lungs.

6. Shoulder Stretch

• Helps stretch our shoulder, scapula and supporting muscles and joints.
• Improves our reaching ability especially across the body for these benefits of stretching.

7. Chest Stretch

• Stretches the chest and shoulders with these chest exercises.
• Improves posture and lung functioning.

8. Overhead Reach

• Increase the range of motion in your shoulder and upper back with these arm stretches.
• Help improve your ability to reach, as in getting a pan out of the cabinet or ice cream out of the freezer.

9. Reach Back

• Improve your ability to reach behind as in reaching back to hold on to an armrest before sitting down.
• Increase the range of motion of your shoulders and stretches your chest muscles with these arm exercises.

10. Triceps Stretch

• Stretches the shoulder and triceps with these stretches before exercise.
• Improves the mobility of your upper arm and shoulder.

11. Hand Stretch

• Increase the flexibility and range of motion of your hand and fingers with these hand exercises.
• Warms up your hand to prepare for the activity of the day.

12. Arm Raises

• Improves the range of motion of your shoulders with these muscle stretching exercises.
• Strengthens your arm for activities that require overhead reach like up to a shelf or pulling the light cord in the basement.

Resources Family Caregivers https://www.cdc.gov/steadi/pdf/STEADI-CaregiverBrochure.pdf