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Video

Video: Forearm stretches and wrist stretches for the office

By Mayo Clinic staff

Transcript

These are some general forearm stretches and wrist stretches that you can do at your workstation on a daily basis. Stretches should be held for 15 to 30 seconds each and should be strong but comfortable.

The first stretch I'm going to show you is for the outside part of your elbow into your forearm, where you can get a lot of repetitive strain in through the forearm when you're typing.

So if you just want to hold your arm out for me like this, make sure you don't reach too far forward with your arm. Go ahead with your other hand and just bend your wrist down like that. Do not put too much force through the wrist. And you should feel that stretch coming right through the forearm here, up into the elbow. And then as needed, you can repeat with the other side.

The next stretch I'm going to show you, you can just turn your palm up like this and it's going to be the same thing. You're going to hold your arm out and you're going to pull down with your hand, on the wrist, once again, not too much force through the wrist, keeping your arm in a good straight line, and you should feel that stretching through the front part of your forearm and up into the inside part of your elbow. And you may do the stretch with the other side as well.

I'm also going to have you do just some general wrist range of motion. You can just do wrist circles in one direction and do the circles back in the other direction. This just helps, with some general mobility, get the blood flowing into the hands.

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July 24, 2007

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