Ten Best Hand Exercises for Knitting and Crocheting

Cool! You are sitting with your favourite yarn, patterns, designs, needles, your favourite beverage and suddenly, from the joints of your hands creeps a sharp stinging pain leaving you disheartened every single time.

True knitters know exactly what we are talking about and honestly, the pain can get excruciating to a point that you don’t want to knit/crochet anymore. Some hardcore knitters may resort to painkillers or other medications, however, over a prolonged period of time, we strongly advise against doing so.

To ease things for you, we have brought to you some tried and tested hand exercises that will most certainly provide exceptional results of relief to your hands and prevent any future pain from occurring. You can perform these exercises for about 5 minutes everyday to strengthen your arms and the muscles surrounding your fingers.

1. Table Stretch – Place your hand palm down on a flat surface (most likely your knitting table) and straighten your fingers as flat as you can. Keep them stretched for about 30-60 seconds and release. Repeat about 3-5 times based on your comfort.
2. Cable Left & Right – Join your hands such that you are about to perform a prayer (namaste position). Then clasp and join your fingers tightly while gently driving your wrists against one another. Use your right hand to drive the left wrist and vice versa. Make sure to keep your arms positioned firmly during this exercise. Repeat ten times per wrist with each movement lasting for about 3-5 seconds.
3. Mattress stitch stretch – Interlock your fingers in-between one another and extend your palms away from each other. Then extend your arms against your body such that your fingers are stretched against one another equally. Remember to hold the tension between your fingers and not arms. Hold in the stretched position for about 5-10 seconds and release.
4. Inward Palm Stretch – Keep your fingers interlocked and gently clench your first. Then, drive your wrists against each other similar to the second exercise. Repeat about ten times per wrist.
5. Joint and Finger Massage – Apply gentle yet firm pressure on your thumb joint and massage in a circular motion. Develop heat for a better result. You can start with affected fingers and proceed to all other fingers on both your hands. Massage the entire length of your fingers for the best result.
6. Piano Move – Imagine that there is a piano underneath your fingers and play the most complicated symphony you can. Rapidly move your fingers for at least 15 seconds in one stretch. Repeat if necessary.
7. Star Stretch – In this exercise, clench your fist tightly and quickly but gently release it as wide as you can. Perform this exercise with both fists at once or one after the other. Repeat about ten times.
8. Finger Stretch (Vertical and Horizontal) – For this exercise, join your hands together in a prayer position (similar to exercise 2) and slowly increase the space between each finger. Keep your fingers fused against one other and activate your finger muscles such that the fingers move away from each other. Repeat this vertically, horizontal left (left hand down) and horizontal right (right hand down) while gently flexing your fingers away from one another.
9. Upward and Downward Palm Stretch – Hold one hand out in front of you and with the other, gently bend the hand back towards yourself. From your fingers, you should be able to feel the stretch on the underside of your forearm. Keep it held for about 3-5 seconds and repeat with the other hand. For downward stretches, hold your hand downward towards your body and bend similarly.
10. Wrist Massage – Hold your arms in front of you while in a standing or a seated position to a position equal to that of your shoulders. While keeping the same position, close your fists and rotate your wrists in a clockwise direction. Repeat in an anti-clockwise direction and relax.

As hands are your greatest asset, it can only make sense why keeping them in tip top condition is important. Perform these exercises before, after or in-between your knitting sessions to get the most benefit. These exercises will ensure that you can keep pursuing your passion throughout your life and prevent any damage it may cause to your hands.

Watch out the video and practice these simple exercises https://youtu.be/GgBZpK7qFYw

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