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I get this question regularly from weightlifters and bodybuilders: does my weightlifting lead to tennis elbow? if so why? Don't I strengthen finger extensor muscles when I perform reverse wrist curls?

A: Regarding your question: do wrist curls and reverse wrist curls strengthen the finger extensor muscles?, the answer is no. The reason is that the finger extensor muscles are never taken through their full range of motion with resistance. In other words, any time the hand is grasping a weight, the finger extensor muscles are only contracting statically in support. They develop in one static position and eventually become weak and easy to injure. Like any other muscle group, they must be exercised specifically through their full range of motion regularly in order to develop properly. Handmaster Plus allows convenient training of the finger and some extensor muscles anytime anywhere. Yours is a very important question because most athletes that work with weights develop these shortened finger extensor muscles, and eventually develop weakness, extensor tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and/or tennis elbow. Once you understand the mechanics properly, this imbalance is easy to prevent.

Labels: hand finger wrist strength grip tennis elbow injury tendinitis weights weightlifting

I receive questions regularly from surgeons and dentists who develop hand, wrist & elbow problem as part of daily fine gripping and small ROM activity, as well as circulation problems. They want to know more about Handmaster Plus, as they have heard startling anecdotal stories that have changed the lives of others and saved careers!

A: Thank you for your inquiry about Handmaster Plus hand exercise product. Handmaster Plus will definitely maximize blood flow and help with the conditions in your operating room. That said, Handmaster Plus is recommended for all surgeons and dentists for example. Any situation where intricate tools are handled on a daily basis will lend towards shortening and imbalance of the finger flexor muscles and in turn poor circulation.

Handmaster Plus was designed to remedy this inherent professional problem and allow the user’s finger flexor muscles and finger extensor muscles to remain in proper healthy balance and prepare the user for their profession. Because the hands are strengthened through their full range of motion in both closing and opening the hand, the result is also maximum blood flow to the tissues of the area.

I believe that you will be thrilled with the results of using Handmaster Plus regularly, as we have many excited users that are surgeons and dentists. I'm happy to speak to anyone in your profession to make this knowledge more known, as I believe it should be a central tool for all surgeons, dentists, and anyone assisting that is challenged by the same daily mechanics. Just the same as athletes, we must prepare our bodies for the challenges of our particular profession.

Let me know if I can help in any other way.

To purchase, please visit www.HandmasterPlus.com for more information. We may also be contacted regarding bulk purchase orders.

Labels: hand exercise dentist surgeon dental hygenist prevent injury improve circulation help pain reduce correct cause cure Handmaster Plus

I get many enquiries from people asking about the difference between spring loaded products (Digiflex) and Handmaster Plus. This inquiry happened to be from a rock climber. They are very different hand exercise products.

A: Thank you for your inquiry. I am the developer of the Handmaster Plus. Though I do not spend time critiquing other products I will tell you the reason for developing Handmaster Plus.

I worked with athletes for over 10 years and consistently saw poor training techniques, the belief being that by squeezing or flexing only, proper grip strength is attained. In the short term, this can appear to be correct. In the long-term, it is often a dangerous assumption. The reason is that we all have finger extensor muscles as well as finger flexor muscles. There are nine muscles that close the hand and equally nine muscles that open your hand. These groups of muscles are equally important. The finger flexor muscles and the finger extensor muscles must stay in balance in order to have strong and healthy fingers, thumbs, hands, wrists, forearms and elbows. Chronic imbalance between the two muscle groups are the core cause of instability conditions at all of these areas. As we know, most people train finger flexors only and have no regard to training finger extensor muscles. This is why carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, extensor tendinitis and many other conditions are so common, especially in grip related activities.

Handmaster Plus strengthens all the muscles that close the hand, as well as all the muscles that open the hand, in one continuous exercise. In that exercise, the hands are allowed to move through their full, natural planes of motion leading to proper muscle length, balance, muscle tone and blood flow to all the tissues in the area.

You will see that products like Digiflex strengthen only the finger flexor muscles, yet it is not alone, as this has come to be the traditional way ‘thought’ to train the hand muscles. You can see a study that was done on Handmaster Plus vs. Digiflex at http://www.doczac.com/downloads/therapy_study.pdf

The old days of therapy and hand training included a simple device called a rice box. The athlete would immerse their hand in the rice box and squeeze the rice and then opposingly opened their hand against the rice. This is a proper functional exercise but was of course quite inconvenient to carry.

It is also vital for performance to train the finger extensor muscles because these muscles act in support of finger flexion. So if an athlete only trains the finger flexor muscles, they are still likely to experience great fatigue because the stabilizing muscles of grip (the finger extensor muscles) are not strong. Any time you grip, the finger extensor muscles work just as hard as the finger flexor muscles.

In conclusion, finger flexion only exercises open the athlete to imbalance and therefore injury, and also omit strengthening the grip stabilizing muscles, therefore limiting performance. To not train the finger extensor muscles would be akin to not training your core muscles as a climber. Each are key stabilizing muscles for performance.

Our brand partner in the climbing market is Metolius. Metolius is well-versed in proper hand fitness and general fitness and has been a wonderful partner. Please contact Metolius for more information. Please see www.metoliusclimbing.com for more information.

Labels: grip strength hand exercise finger thumb climbing rockclimbing tennis elbow injury carpal tunnel syndrome prevent injury improve performance

We received a question from a student about to start in culinary school asking about hand strength, reflexes and preventing injury. We are always happy to get questions like this, because at doczac Enterprises, it is important to us to educate our users in order to provide them with a enjoyable work or sports or music experience and thus prevent injuries that are related to their activity. Most repetitive stress injury cases are preventable through proper education and proper exercise.

Thank you for your question. This is an excellent question. When we designed the Handmaster Plus this is exactly the application we desired. We very much want people to understand how to properly strengthen their hands, wrist, forearms and elbows for maximum performance and for maximum injury prevention.

When you train your hands with the Handmaster Plus exercise device, you will strengthen all the muscles that open the hand as well as all the muscles that close the hand. This is important because as you advance in culinary school, there will be great stress on these muscles and because there will be so much gripping asked of you, you will prepare your body for these tasks and will also prevent the repetitive gripping injuries that often go along with these tasks.

Because you strengthen all of the muscles of the hand you will be will to move well in any plane of motion. Opposingly, if the hands are not trained properly, the nature of the repetitive gripping activities will tend to make your hands, wrists, forearms and elbows strong in certain planes but not in others. You are wise to train all of the hand muscles through their full range of motion regularly now in order to have access to reflexes in all directions. Handmaster Plus is the only device that allows you to strengthen all 18 of the hand muscles (nine muscles close by hand and nine muscles the hand) in one continuous exercise. Thus it is very convenient and there is no excuse for you not to do your exercises.

The other main concern is that when you handle heavy pots and pans for example, the finger extensor muscles (which are the muscles on the back of your forearm) contract statically in one position to support the action of gripping. The contract even more when the pots and pans are heavy. This subject alone causes the finger extensor muscles to be chronically shortened and therefore very easily injured. This problem itself leads to extensor tendinitis and tennis elbow. It is a very common condition in people who use their hands daily for work. Many cannot understand why this is. Now that you are educated about the subject, you will find it easy to prevent.

It is a good idea to tell your other culinary school students about this exercise as it will allow them to be performing maximally while at the same time reducing their risk of repetitive stress injuries.

For more information
WWW.HandmasterPlus.com
info@HandmasterPlus.com

Best,
doczac

Labels: hand exercise culinary school maximizes strength rdeuce injury stamina carpal tunnel syndrome tennis elbow

There are many occupations where the hands are at great risk for injury. Mechanics are among the most at risk. The standard progression of mechanical hand injuries is confusing. Because mechanics use their hands frequently and aggressively in a daily fashion, their flexor muscles become very strong in a short time. This can be very misleading because the flexor muscles are not progressing in relation to the extensor muscles. Therefore, the early and middle stages of the mechanics career are generally uneventful.

While the flexors are quite strong through the early and middle stages of the mechanics career, the finger extensor muscles are different. The two roles of the finger extensor muscles are 1) to extend or open the fingers and 2) stabilize the hand during finger flexion. Obviously the mechanic does not open the fingers very often during his career, so the fingers are not actively moved through their full range of motion. Thus, the finger extensor muscles are never properly strengthened or developed. On the other hand, the finger extensor muscles do contract regularly to stabilize the fingers and hands when the mechanic is using his finger flexor muscles. The problem with this function of the extensor muscles is that the extensor muscles only contract statically, in one position. Therefore, they become shortened muscles that are very easy to injure. As well, because the finger flexor muscles are allowed to contract regularly and the finger extensor muscles do not fully contract to oppose that, the finger flexor muscles become inflexible, and shorten over time.

So the common problem that most mechanics will experience at some point will relate to either 1) shortened finger flexor muscles, or 2) shortened, static finger extensor muscles. Two examples that result from the first scenario are carpal tunnel syndrome and palmer fasciitis. Two examples that result from the second scenario are tennis elbow and extensor tendinitis.

All workers that are dependent on gripping with their hands throughout their career should be preparing their hands properly to avoid these injuries. We developed Handmaster Plus so that people with these types of careers can do their best to avoid injuries and maximize the function of their hands. There are many examples of these types of careers, mechanics being only one. Carpenters, laborers, truck drivers, heavy equipment operators are all in the same category. Surgeons, dentists, and dental hygienists are examples of careers using the fine muscles of the hand repetitively as well. All of these workers would benefit greatly from using the Handmaster Plus at any stage of their career as this will give them the greatest chance of avoiding injury. It will also maximize the function of their hands during their careers.

The reason is that Handmaster Plus strengthens all of the 9 muscles that open the hand as well as the 9 muscles that close the hand, all in one continuous exercise. The result is strength, balance, and healthy blood flow to all of the tissues of the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. Because the Handmaster Plus allows the user to exercise their hand through a full range of motion, the user will experience elongated muscles, muscle balance and maximum circulation, all of which lead to healthy tissues.

It is sad to see when a person has had a full career only to find that they are debilitated for their retirement years, if not earlier. Proper exercise to offset the imbalanced nature of jobs such as mechanics is the best insurance policy against these debilitating repetitive injuries.

Visit www.doczac.com for more information about the Handmaster Plus including how to purchase. E-mail us at info@doczac.com for more information about how to prevent debilitating repetitive injuries at your workplace.

Best,
doczac

Labels: hand mechanic dentist dental tennis elbow technician hygienistcarpal tunnel syndrome surgeon carpenter truck driver

Firstly and most importantly, understand that whenever you perform a regular gripping or a finger flexing activity such as music and very specifically guitar, the fingers flex, as in fretting, and the extensor muscles of the fingers contract statically to support that action. By 'statically' I mean that the extensor muscles contract in one position. They become very static and shortened in that one position. This is also one of the main reasons why guitar players get so much tennis elbow. A shortened and static group of finger extensor muscles as well as wrist extensor muscles are very inflexible and become easy to injure. This is why we urge guitarists to exercise their finger and wrist extensor muscles through full ranges of motion so that the muscle stays strong, long and flexible. Properly strengthened finger and wrist extensor muscles will also maximize strength, stretch, speed and stamina.

Secondly, this muscle group (made up of finger extensor and wrist extensor muscles) will also be trained in one very specific plane based on what is necessary for the activity. In other words, if your left hand was in exactly the same position with the milk as when you fret the guitar strings, you would likely be very strong. By the way, this point has its limits, because after some time of repetition it is common to become weak even in that plane. In other words, it is good to address this problem now.

Thirdly, the outside of the elbow is most isolated when the hand is in a position where the thumb is basically pointed straight up to the sky. When there is a weight being held on top of that, milk carton, now you have the added weight and this becomes a situation where the injured elbow acts like a fulcrum and is isolated. If the weight rested on the forearm it would cause less isolation and therefore less pain. Yet, when the weight is in the hand it is as far away from the elbow as possible and increases the stress. The other point in this regard is that you are grasping the milk carton and therefore the extensor muscles of the fingers and the wrist are contracting and further isolating the outside of the elbow. A certain small movement will now cause extreme & sharp pain. That's when you know your outside elbow is most isolated. That's why people drop the milk in these situations.

The point is when we properly strengthen the hand wrist forearm and elbow, we must strengthen all of the muscles (extenors & flexors) in balance through full natural ranges of motion. This is how we prepare for our main activity (music, sports, work, craft, etc.) as well as other daily activities and still remain strong. Musicians must learn these proper hand wrist and forearm strengthening principles!

Go to www.handmasterplus.com and for one small investment you can reduce your chance of ever have tennis elbow or carpal tuneel syndrome to nearly zero! And you will know more about exercising the hand, wrist and elbow than most therapists.

Trained properly today to be healthy tomorrow!