Foam Roller Exercises and Stretches for Your ForearmsFoam roller exercises, specifically for the forearms, will be the focus of this article. I also include some valuable forearm stretches. ‘Some patients I see are actually draining into their bodies the diseased thoughts of their minds.’ ~ Zacharty Bercovitz Foam rolling is a marvelous way to understand your body better. Foam roller exercises can be used to learn where you hold your tension and where your imbalance lies. Those nasty, habitual patterns of stress that manifest themselves somewhere in your body, is your unique signature regarding where your specific body-mind-soul lie. It is the manifestation of your body mind connection. There is no doubt that emotions affect our body. Each one of us is living proof of it every day! We all can locate, in a matter of seconds where our muscle kinks are in our bodies. If you are having trouble, just have someone squeeze the top of your shoulders! If you would like a more thorough introduction to the body-mind-soul aspects of foam rolling, please see my article Foam Rolling. There I describe in more detail the effects of self-massage, or self myofascial release as foam rolling is known among professionals. If you prefer to jump straight down to the foam roller exercises video and stretches for your forearms, scroll to the bottom of this page. If you wish to try a foam roller, I would recommend the Premium Textured EVA foam roller that I use from Power Systems. It is a great foam roller that is cushy on the outside and firm on the inside. The Function of the ForearmsThe forearm is a complex system of small muscles that extend and flex the wrists, hands and the fingers. The muscles in the forearm also move the wrist from side to side (adduction and abduction). To learn more about the action of the muscles in the forearms, see the ExRx website for the anatomy of the wrist flexors and the wrist extensors. This is a very thorough website for more information if you are serious about learning how the different muscles work, and if you want to target them for training. The brachioradialis is also a major muscle in the forearm. It is a powerful flexor muscle that assists the biceps and the brachialis to flex the elbow. It is the fattest visible muscle on the thumb side of the forearm, just below the elbow. To see the action of the brachioradialis, go to ExRx, elbow articulations. When you learn about the forearms, overuse of this area results in one of the most common body-mind-soul conditions of all: carpel tunnel syndrome. The carpel tunnel is a tight passageway for the median nerve, as it travels through the wrist to the hand. The tunnel is created between bones and ligaments of the wrist. If the median nerve becomes pinched or swollen, it can cause numbness and pain in certain fingers in the hand. You can read more about this condition at WebMD and various other websites. While various experts disagree on the cause of carpel tunnel syndrome, and some even refute that it is due to a repetitive motion injury, it is true that women are more susceptible. In my practice as an occupational health nurse, the single most frequent at-work injury involved the wrist and repetitive motion issues. My practice was in a research hospital, and it was mostly research scientists and office workers that sustained this type of injury. Repetitive motion injuries of the wrist and hands were almost always issues of the body-mind-soul. If I counseled the worker regarding changing work habits for frequent rest breaks to do stretching, and varying their work tasks to break up the repetition, gave them medical treatment and improved their equipment to be more ergonomic, they did not always get better! It was most often about the stress in their work situation, the inability to make changes to relieve their stress, and the inability to understand the emotional connection that made them resistant to healing. Often it seemed like the only solution for the employee was to pull them off work: A very dangerous thing to do when someone’s heart was truly not into his or her work. Getting such an individual back to work was usually a real problem, because we did not treat the emotional issues as to why the worker did not want to work.
The Body Metaphor for the Forearms and HandsThe use of body metaphors is a very common occurrence in the cultures of the English language and is a reflection of our cultural knowledge of the body mind connection. To understand this concept in more depth I have written What is a Metaphor and Why is it Important? so you can understand this concept more fully. Our hands are a highly significant part of how we sense the world. We handle things and touch things to better experience them. The body metaphor for the hands, is regarding how well we handle things in our lives. There is an absolute plethora of idioms and body metaphors to describe the figurative use of the hands. It is absolutely astonishing how much we use the hands in a figurative fashion to denote important events in our lives! We even ‘talk with our hands.’ If you ‘have the upper hand’ or ‘hold things in the palm of your hand,’ you have a lot of control over your life and events, don’t you? If you perceive that you have no control, things may get quickly ‘out of hand.’ If you are experienced in something, you ‘know firsthand,’ or you know something ‘like the back of your hand,’ you are an ‘old hand’ or ‘handy’ at what you do. If you are not experienced, you my ‘try your hand’ at something, or if you did try but failed, you may ‘throw your hands up’ in frustration. When you cooperate to get things done you ‘walk hand-in-hand’ or ‘join hands.’ When you don’t cooperate you ‘rule with an iron fist.’ Hands denote many actions when you ‘hand it off,’ ‘hand it over,’ have things ‘on hand’ or ‘can’t keep your hands off it.’ Hands can denote trust. You may be ‘in safe hands’ or ‘in good hands’ or you may ‘fall into the wrong hands.’ Or you never trust anyone and ‘take matters into your own hands.’ You may show your industrialism by ‘giving a hand’ or your laziness when you ‘don’t lift a finger.’ If you are generous you are ‘open-handed’ but if you are not you are ‘tight-fisted.’ …And the list goes on and on. Meditate on the Meaning of Your Forearm, Wrist and Hand IssuesIf you have problems with you forearms, wrists or hands, meditate on the meaning that this has for you. Meditate on how you ‘handle’ things in your life! Do you grasp things too tightly, especially things like money, or do you easily let go? Do you ‘lend a hand’ or are you closed and uncooperative? Do you always have to ‘take matters into your own hands’ because you alone can do things the right way, or do you allow others to ‘try their hand?’ The whole arm and/or elbow may also be involved in hand, wrist and forearm issues, so you may also want to read about the body metaphors of the upper arms as well. Since your arms hold and embrace things, (or fail to do so) you may wish to read Foam Roller Exercises and Stretches for Your Upper Arms. Create positive affirmations for health surrounding your forearms, wrists and hands:
Personalize and Adjust the Foam Roller Exercises for Your ForearmsWhen you foam roll your muscles, you perform self myofascial release. Focus on the hot spots and muscle knots, or the areas that are sore. As you foam roll and you feel a sore area, hold the pressure on that spot for 20-30 seconds until the muscle releases. You may find that if you perform your foam roller exercises in a meditative fashion and meditate on the meaning of your sore muscles in your life, that as the muscle tension releases, so may your stored body emotions release. As with all foam roller exercises you can adjust the amount of time you spend on each area. As you roll, stay as long as you like in one position, if your left side is tighter than your right side. Just make sure you do both sides equally to maintain your balance. Really notice your body and how it feels when you do the foam roller exercises for your forearms. Open you heart to the message your forearms, wrists and hands bring. B-r-e-a-t-h-e as you sink into the tight and sore spot. If it is too painful that you cannot breathe, ease up on the movement or the pressure. The deep breathing is the signal to your body that you are in the relaxed state and eventually the muscle will release as long as you are able to deep breathe. Feel the pull and the stretch as you sink and roll into it. Breathe more deeply as you sink farther into the stretch. Let go. Let the tension go, let the stress go and let the muscle release. When the muscle releases, so too may your emotions release. Release your need to control and grasp onto things too tightly. Let go of this need. Open yourself and your forearms to let abundance, love, hope and joy in. As with all Intuitive Movement, make my foam roller exercises and their descriptions a starting point only. Intuitive movement never pushes through pain that is more than moderate. Remember that pain is a message to you that something is wrong. If severe pain exists in your forearms, wrists or hands, along with any numbness, seek medical attention. Foam Roller Exercises for Your Forearms:I will give the foam roller exercises in two parts:
You may follow up with forearm and wrist stretches to complete your body-mind soul releasing exercises. Just about any arm stretches will also stretch your forearms. You may also want to see the stretches at Foam Roller Exercises and Stretches for Your Upper Arms. I have added some additional wrist/hand stretches you may want to try as well. For the first two stretches, hold your arm out straight in front of you. First bend your hand down at the wrist, with your palm towards you. On the second stretch, place your palm out. Repeat on the other side. On the third stretch, spread your fingers as wide as you can.
Related Foam Rolling Articles that You May Enjoy!:
Foam Roller Exercises for the Lower Body and Lower Back:
Foam Roller Exercises for the Upper Body and Upper Back:
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