7 Most Effective Exercises for People with Hand Tremors

Tremor is a neurological condition that involves involuntary trembling of hands. If not treated properly, it can get worse over time and can make it difficult for a person to perform daily tasks like eating, drinking, writing, and brushing the teeth or putting on makeup.  

Besides medication, physical therapy that involves various exercises can also be useful for people with tremor. Here, we present the 7 most effective hand exercises that help to relieve the tremor problem. Performing these exercises may help to improve the mild tremor without the need of taking medication.

The good thing about these exercises is that they are easy to perform and do not require special tools. Plus, you can do these exercises anytime, anywhere.

Performing these hand exercises will help to improve your tremor by:

• Increasing dexterity of hands
• Improving flexibility of hands
• Increasing the strength of hands

So, let’s have a look at those 7 exercises and learn how to perform each of them.

1. Squeezing a Ball

It’s a simple yet very effective exercise. In this exercise, a person needs to hold a spongy or rubber ball for a few seconds (3-4 seconds) in the palm of a hand and squeeze it. Release the fingers and relax for a second or two and squeeze it again. Repeat this exercise for a few minutes. Try to repeat it for 10 times at least.

2. Finger Thumb Tapping

This exercise is also very simple that involves the tapping of your hand fingers. Here, you need to touch your fingers one at a time to touch the upper part of your thumb. When doing this, try to keep your fingers straight and thumb as still as possible. You can start tapping with the index finger followed by the middle, ring, and small finger. Then, repeat it in reverse order. If possible, do it with both hands at a time. Do this exercise for at least 10 times.   

3. Wrist Flexion and Extension

For this type of exercise, you would need a table or any other solid flat surface. Put your arm on the surface and let your hand in the hanging position. Then start flexing your wrist by keeping your hand down and then extend it by pulling it up. Repeat this exercise for at least 20 times.  

4. Spinning a Pencil

This exercise can be done with a pen or pencil. It is performed simply by just holding a pencil in the hand and spinning it in between the fingers. Do it for one hand at a time. You can do this exercise many times but make sure to relax your hand between the reps.

5. Supination and Pronation

This exercise involves the rotation of forearms and the rotation relies on bones of forearms called the radius and ulna. The radius is located on the lateral side of the forearm while the ulna is on the medial side. 

In supination, the radius bone tends to rotate around the ulna in a lateral direction; meaning that your arm rotates in a way that faces the palm upward as the hand turns. It’s like imagining yourself holding a bowl of soup.

Pronation is the opposite of supination. In this case, the radius rotates around the ulna in a medial direction. In pronation, the palm of the hand faces downward when the hand is rotated. It’s like picking up an apple from a basket.

6. Spreading Fingers

This exercise simply involves the spreading of your fingers. It’s good to add some resistance and for that, you would need a rubber band. So, wrap a rubber band around the top or middle area of your fingers and spread them. Try to spread the fingers from each other as far as you can. Then bring your fingers back towards each other and relax. Repeat it for 15-20 times.

7. Fingers Bending and Extending

This is also called tabletop exercise as it involves the positioning of fingers that look like a tabletop. To perform this, you need to first keep your wrist and fingers straight. Then bend your fingers and extend as wide as you can. Do it 15-20 times.

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