Help for your Knitting aches and numbness!

General Knitting
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Be prepared…long post ahead! But it’s worth it if you have aches and pains! Let me know if you have any other specific areas so that I can try to help you!

I find out something today in class massage class that may help some or all of you.

If you have numbness in your ring finger and pinky or wrist, it stems from your neck muscles (not just THEM, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll leave it at that), so it will help you if you rub the muscles right above the collar bone of the effected side.

For example, if my right pinky/ ring finger goes numb, I would rub above my right collar bone and up on into my neck and shoulder. There’s a nerve in there that gets pinched with also runs down into the numb area I was SO happy to find this out. But of course… sit straight, and always stretch and take breaks

So…for stretching! I mentioned a few good sites in another posts for the wrist and such. I will edit this post with that info once I find that reply again.

For your back:

Go to a doorway and put your hands on the trim and push foward. This will help with the area between your spine and shoulder area. When you knit, those muscles are in a stretched position, so we need to contract them to balance it out. You will also feel this stretch in your pectoral muscles.

There’s another stretch where you get one arm and cross it in front to the opposing side and push it on the backside of the upper arm. This is also good for that part of your back as mentioned above.

And for getting out knots/ kinks YOURSELF! Grab a sock and get a bouncy ball to put inside it (not too heavy so you can manuever it inside the sock, and not too mooshy so it will actually do some good.) Put your back against a wall holding the sock behind you with both hands and position the ball (by moving the sock with the ball in it) and press the ball, using your back and the wall, to apply pressure to the painful area and hold it there for about 20 seconds. Take a break and do it again, or cease and do it some other time.

:cheering: Hopefully this will help you guys feel better!

If and when I found out more info that could be helpful, I’ll add it :slight_smile: I love helping people help themselves :slight_smile:

For more info and images on how to do self massage, go here

http://www.coolnurse.com/massage.htm

For hands :

http://www.kreinik.com/articles/news.php?newsid=32 Pictures for self massage

http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1981 tips on technique for hand massage

http://ergocise.com/wrists.html Tons of pictures for stretching

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Thanks for the info!

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Great post, Angela! Was anything mentioned about tenderness and soreness in the fleshy part of the palm just under the thumb? or sore elbows? :rollseyes:

Thanks for the tips!

j.

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You’re welcome!

and jsauer, no I didn’t include anything about that, but I’ll get you a link to massaging your own hands…it’s probably the muscles that ache due to being contracted for a long period of time.

http://www.coolnurse.com/massage.htm That’s a good page for self massage of a lot of body parts, including hands.

I added more links to my first post too, and there’s a great site for massaging your hands. It shows pictures!

With your elbow, hmm, I’d have to look more into it, but I’d think that your ulnar nerve may be getting pinched from sitting with it at an angle.

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I wish I could make this a sticky, lol. I think it would help a lot of people.

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Angela–I have problems with my hands but especially my neck and shoulders. Thanks SO much for your post!! :heart:

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thanks a lot!

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:cheering: You’re welcome guys :slight_smile: I hate having pain, and i HATE not being able to knit, so I’m glad you all can prosper from this info too :slight_smile: :cheering: :XX:

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Hi,

Glad to have ‘stumbled’ across your post…actually I did a search.

The ergocise site with the pics looks like it may be helpful, but haven’t tried it yet.

My problem isn’t pain, it’s numbness. My right hand falls asleep after about a row of knitting. I’m not sure why it’s happening, and it’s not happening consistently. Just really hard to figure out.

Thanks for your tips.

Diane

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Thanks for the information! I do get aches, pain, and numbness if I knit for long periods of time. The info you gave will be a big help to me.

The only other thing I get is pain in my knees. :teehee: I know that sounds kinda weird, but when I knit I sit with my feet tucked up underneath me, and it makes the tendons or ligaments in my knees hurt. I guess the best rememdy would be for me to stop sitting that way. :roll:

:hug:

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[B]Angela / huymblestumble,

Thank You for teh infirmation. I have quite a bit of stiffness and craminess in my hands frion knitting. I’ll certainly try that!

THANK YOU!

Susan (from Ohio)[/B]

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If someone is getting numbness in their hands/wrists from numbness, it might just be a pinched nerve that a quick massage would fix, but it might be Carpal Tunnel.

If you get numbness and tingling, GO TO THE DOCTOR and get diagnosed! Proper care at the start of the problem is KEY to avoiding surgery.

HTH!

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Thanks for the info. I’ve been having so much pain in my right arm that I can’t knit! Let me explain the pain and maybe you can help?
Let me preface this by saying I’ve had problems with this arm in the past. I ruptured the tendon in the elbow several hears ago and had it rebuilt (screw in the elbow, etc).

I’ve also had problems with my arms going numb at night, but the diagnosis is thoracic outlet syndrome. Thankfully, I have NOT had numbness for a few weeks.

The pain I’m having now is different, though. My forearm aches. I tried doing some of the stretches, and it hurts my wrist to pull on my fingers. I’ve been icing my forearm for 3 days, but it seems to just make my hand cold. Massage seems to make it ache more, not less. Any ideas?

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Thanks so much! I get numb hands sometimes when I knit. I’ve thought it was maybe carpal tunnel, but I’ll try the collarbone area massage. samm