These tendons can become irritated, swollen, and inflamed, by overuse. Now you have carpal tunnel pain.
Typical overuse would be typing at a computer all day without using a wrist rest or setting up a work station that creates a support for good posture in the spine, shoulders and neck.
Months, and even years before a person suffers excruciating, crippling pain in the wrists, an individual may have noticed neck stiffness, shoulder aches, and back aches. Left unexamined, pain and stiffness will travel down the arms to the wrists, hands and fingers.
However, if an ergonomic work station is created at work and at home, which provides comfortable support for the natural spinal curve at the waist, and for elbow rests that position the hands at the wrist rest on a keyboard, muscle tension, pain and headaches can be prevented.
Even with an ideal work station, you should get up and stretch and walk around a little, every hour.
Better than that, simple stretches can be learned that allow you to sit at your desk and perform discreet stretches called RESISTANCE STRETCHES, or DYNAMIC STRETCHES.
To keep this simple, imagine stretching your neck to the right, while pushing back with your neck muscles to the left. Same with a side stretch elongating the entire spine.
This is easy to learn and deceptively effective.
Stretching the inner wrist/palm of hand/fingers periodically is important as well.
While there are other causes for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, a condition that can develop from repetitive hand and finger movements, a build up of tension that has reached the forearm muscles is a common cause.
Once the finger flexor tendons become swollen, the median nerve is pressed on in the Carpal Tunnel. It is a traffic jam, so to speak.
Pain, numbness and tingling can ensue, disabling you from typing at all.
Headaches, a stiff neck, or back aches is a WARNING that you need to learn some skills at stretching properly, and relaxing every day. Tension simply increases if it is not released.
If you do have a level of pain in your wrists or hands that does not go away with rest, you should see a health practitioner immediately. Physiotherapists and chiropractors are trained to teach you exercises that will help. Also, you will learn home treatment for carpal tunnel (or neck pain and tension, etc.), such as icing, stretching and perhaps improvements in your nutrition.
The best plan is to learn some dynamic resistance stretches before you have any pain. You will improve the muscle conditioning of your upper body by learning carpal tunnel stretches.
