Carpal Tunnel Post-Operative Exercises

Range-of-Motion Exercise

• Immediately following surgery, the muscles surrounding the wrist should not be engaged with much force, but you can do simple range-of-motion exercises. The wrist primarily moves down and back, allowing the palm of the hand to move toward the forearm and away from the forearm; this is the way you should move the wrist as you maintain range of motion. Start by slowly moving the wrist back, keeping the fingers bent, but not in a tight fist. After that, move the wrist in the other direction, but keep the fingers loose so that they don't flex. The fingers will should be straight instead of in a fist as you move the palm down toward the forearm. As your recovery progresses, you can start engaging the fingers and wrist at the same time as you stretch. You can maintain finger motion by alternating making a fist and extending all the fingers outward.

Stretching

• For the first few weeks after surgery, range-of-motion exercises where you simply move the fingers and wrist are best. Later you should start to do stretching exercises, which are basically the same as range-of-motion exercises but they aim to increase flexibility by putting some tension on tendons and joints, rather than simply moving the joints around. To stretch the wrists, use your healthy hand to gently press the fingers back when the palm is open, and then reverse the stretch by pressing the back of the hand down, forcing the palm toward the underside of the forearm. Hold stretches for about 20 seconds and stop any stretch that causes any sensation beside mild discomfort.

Strengthening Exercises

• After you have had six weeks to recover, your wrist and hands should be ready for exercises with limited resistance to help improve strength. A simple way to exercise the hands is to squeeze a grip ball. Grip balls are made of compressible material that returns to its original shape after being squeezed. Lightly squeezing grip balls can build finger and forearm strength without being too hard on the wrist. Balls are also useful because they are very portable and can be used almost any time you aren't using your hands for something else. Grip levels, which are handles held together by a coil of metal that can be pressed together to increase grip strength, should be avoided until your recovery has progressed further, since they typically require much more effort to squeeze than a grip ball. Another exercise to strengthen the forearms are wrist curls, which are done by laying the forearm a on a flat surface with the wrist hanging of the edge and curling the palm toward you. You can start doing wrist curls with very light resistance, such as small jar in your hand, and progress to a water bottle or light dumbbell.