How to Cure Knitting Hand Pain
Stretch Your Forearms and Fix Your Tension for Instant Relief
How to Get Relief From Knitting Hand Pain
You want relief from Knitting hand pain. Knitting too much has made your hands sore and swollen.
The doctors tell you to rest and wear a brace but you can’t wait to start knitting again. You shouldn’t have to live with knitting hand pain!
I know what it’s like to knit for hours and wake up with hands so sore you can barely move them.
These exercises, taught to me by certified massage therapist and myofascial release specialist Kate Howe, have already helped hundreds of knitters feel instant relief (just check out the comments!).
The Get-Instant-Relief Plan
- Watch our myofascial forearm stretch video below
- Do the stretch for 60 seconds
- Feel instant relief
You can do these stretches every day to get instant relief!
Learn the Myofascial Forearm Stretch
Tips for Success - Myofascial Stretches
Grasp, “Lock,” and Push To Stretch Muscle Fascia Correctly
- Make sure you don’t have on any hand lotion that might make your arm slippery.
- Unlike most massage techniques, you want the skin to “grab,” not slide.
Grasp your left forearm with your right hand. Squeeze just tight enough to prevent your skin from slipping, and push down towards your wrist.
Note: If your right hand is too sore or weak to get a good grip, you can stabilize your left forearm between your legs (still hold onto the fascia with your right hand) and pull your left arm towards you.
Maintaining your hand grip, now push your hand towards your elbow. Your skin (and fascia) will move, about an inch. That’s how much room your fascia have.
That’s what we want to expand.
Perform These 5 Fascia Stretches to Relieve Knitting Pain
1) Forearm Stretch. Work down your forearm (just a few places will do), holding each stretch for 90 seconds. I like to do this while standing in front of the microwave, waiting for my tea to heat up.
2) Wrist Stretch. Make sure to keep your elbow straight (this is like keeping your knees straight for a hamstring stretch).
3) Milk the Fingers. Grasp, lock, and push down each finger, stretching the fasciae.
4) Stretch the Thumb and Hand. This one feels sooo good.
5) Stretch Your Pinky.
You can do one whole arm then repeat, or alternate each step.
Either way, your hands are going to instantly feel better.
To Save Time Just Do Stretch #1
- If you don’t have much time, just do the myofascial stretches on your forearms from step 1. These alone will provide very fast relief.
- Do these stretches in the bathroom, in front of the microwave, or waiting in line at the grocery store.
I’ve been using these stretches all week, and I love them! Leave a note in the comments if you find anything that has worked for you.
Photographs were taken with the assistance and direction of Kate Howe. Kate is a certified massage therapist based in Aspen, CO. Find her at katehowe.com.
If you liked this tutorial on how to get relief for sore hands, post in the comments!
How Tight Muscle Fasciae Prevent Joints From Healing
Kate explained to me that muscle fascia is the “bag” of dense connective tissue that surrounds your muscles and joints, kind of like plastic wrap.
Fasciae are made of collagen and are connective in nature, like tendons and ligaments, except that fasciae connect muscles to other muscles.
If the fasciae are tight around your muscles, all the stretching or massage in the world can only provide limited relief, because the muscles don’t have room to move.
The good thing is there is an easy way to fix this, and it works, feels good (after you’re done), you can do it by yourself, and it doesn’t take very long.
Just do a series of fascia stretches on yourself. This is called myofascial release, and it’s a form of massage therapy developed in the 1920’s.
After you stretch your forearm fasciae, you can stretch the muscles of the wrist, hands, and fingers and experience a lot of relief from knitting pain next time you go to knit.
Fix the Problems That Cause Hand Pain
If you want to achieve
- Relief from hand pain
- Be able to knit for hours without pain
- Cure for carpal tunnel and RSI
- Enjoying knitting again
And ultimately avoid
- Sore hands, wrists, and fingers
- Frustration at not being able to knit
- Wishing there was something you could do
- Having to take time off knitting to cure hand problems
…You need to fix bad tension habits that are causing you to tense up, work too hard, and knit too tight.
To go from sore and in pain to feeling instant relief, here’s the plan:
- Watch our tension tips for hand pain video
- Apply our fixes to correct bad tension in your knitting
- Knit for hours without pain
Doctors tell you to rest and wear a brace, but that won’t fix the root cause of your knitting difficulties. Fix your knitting tension with the video below to stop the cause of knitting hand pain in its tracks.
Video: How to Fix Your Knitting Tension and Prevent Hand Pain
5 Easy Ways to Knit With Less Effort & Pain
Here are some ways to be less tense when you knit:
- Make sure that you are tensioning the yarn in your fingers (instead of just pinching it and letting it drop and picking it back up)
- Don’t think about trying to knit fast. Enjoy your stitches.
- Don’t think about how far you’ve gotten on your sweater. You’ll make the most progress when you forget that there’s progress to be made.
- Make sure you push each newly created stitch all the way down onto the barrel of the right-hand needle. Don’t leave it on the tapered part. This will ensure that the stitch is the right size, not too tight, and you won’t have to work hard to knit into it on the next row.
- Use the highest-quality needles that are within your budget. Lantern Moons are wonderful wooden needles and Signature Needle Arts needles are my favorite metal needles. Addi Turbos are my favorite circular needles. Any high-quality needle will let your stitches slide better and you won’t have to work hard to move them and knit into them.
Learn To Knit With Perfect Tension at Knitting Superstar University
Trying to learn and master knitting on your own can be frustrating. Even after watching many YouTube videos, your stitches seem uneven and you can’t figure out why. At Knitting Superstar University, we teach you to knit with perfect tension whether you prefer American or Continental style knitting so that you can feel proud of each stitch. Get instant access today.
This original article was written by Liat Gat - Founder for KnitFreedom.com - Confidence-Building Knitting Videos.
This post first appeared on KnitFreedom | Knit Like A Superstar - Knitting Instructions Website, please read the originial post: here
