Knitters Hand & Wrist Care - Exercises and stretches to help prevent crafting-related pain & injury
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2021
- Hello Hello Fiber Folks!
Today, I'm going back to my academic roots in human anatomy to talk a little bit about stretches and exercises to help prevent knitting- and other crafting-related hand and wrist pain or injuries.
I hope you find this video helpful in terms of learning, or even a simple reminder to take breaks and care for your most important tool, YOU, so we can do what we love for a good time AND long time.
This video is not totally comprehensive. Topics that are NOT found in this video include skin care and fiber sensitivities or abrasiveness and changing tools (e.g. from metal to wood or vice versa) to help with grip and tension tweaks. There is plenty of info. on these topics online.
Please share any of your crafting hand- and wrist-care tips or resources in the comment section, and don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoy my content!
It has never been more true when I say that I wish you HEALTH & HAPPY KNITTING :)
Emily
Disclaimer: I hold a BSc. in Anatomy and Cell Biology, but I am not a licensed medical professional or personal trainer. This video is intended for education purposes only, and all recommended exercises are safe to complete at home. If you are injured or recovering from an injury, speak to your doctor before engaging in any kind of strenuous exercises or stretches to ensure comfort and safety. This video is not medical advice, nor is it a substitute for medical advice. If you suspect you may have a back, neck, arm, wrist, or hand injury related to crafting or otherwise, the best course of action is to seek medical attention.
such an informative and thoughtful podcast. Now back to binging your channel.....with the appropriate stretches at the appropriate intervals. Love the Canadian content.
I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome with lots of comorbidities and knitting helps keep me sane, so it’s ultra important for me to remember to do my PT before I start knitting for the day! Thanks for making this, I wish more knitting content creators focused on taking care of our bodies. Edit: for hypermobile hands, I use ring splints! While knitting English I mainly use my thumb splint on my throwing hand, which can be really helpful to prevent me hyperextending it & causing pain, but if you’re not careful it can snag yarn.
I am so happy you found this helpful! I have not hear of ring splints before, so I will definitely research those a bit more. From a cursory look they seem super sleek and non-interfering or cumbersome.
I’m feeling nice and limber after following along with these exercises 😃
Great job great information.
Thank you!!! I needed this :)
This was an amazing video, thank you for helping me take care of my body just a little bit more.
This was so great! I often forget to stretch when I'm sitting for long sessions of knitting. Definitely going try to add these stretches to my daily knitting!
YAY I’m so excited, need to take care of my poor lil hands
Thanks this is great have to make it a routine
I really hope this isn’t weird but your arms are so strong, they motivated me to get up and do yoga !!
Omg! My hands were super sore from knitting too much on a cardigan today (friday nights get wild sometimes, what can I say) and after these stretches it feels so much better! I will do these often. Thank you so much 💕
Thanks, Emily! I have arthritis in my hands so I do hand exercises every day. Yes2Next has excellent exercises for hands, neck, and shoulders😊
Okay now that I’ve seen the whole video I’ve got to say thank you!!! This is the most comprehensive thing I’ve seen on knitting ergonomics, I’m also going to show this video to my fiancé who rock climbs.
I’ve got a few questions:
1) During and after knitting I often get sensitivity in the muscle on the outside edge of my forearm (pinky edge, not thumb edge, palm down). What’s that about?
2) My traps are constantly tight. Is that affecting my knitting ergonomics at all?
3) When we’re stretching should we always make sure we’re addressing the full range of motion?
4) last question I promise: if there are no muscles in the fingers, why do I feel pain in them when I knit? (Pls educate me)
Thank you!!!!!!! I know this was a lot and you’re not a professional but I’m looking forward to your next podcast!
Hi Katie! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video :) These are great questions an I will do my best to answer what I can.
1) All of the muscles that make your wrist flex (think palm coming towards the inside of your arm like gesturing for someone to 'come here') originate at the inside of your elbow. Muscles have an origin point and an insertion point, so when they contract they are basically pulling the insertion point toward the origin. If you're doing a flexing motion of the wrist when you knit for long periods of time, then you might be feeling this.
2) Tight traps are super common. The muscle is considered to have three parts with different functions. The upper part is responsible for lifting your shoulder blades. This is most commonly the tight one. The middle part pulls the shoulder blades together toward the center of your back. The bottom portion pulls your shoulder blades down, and this is the one that is most important for posture, but sadly also the most underused. While trap massages can definitely feel awesome, strengthening posture muscles in the back and core are are good idea for everyone!
3) I would say yes! Especially around joints like the wrist and shoulder that move in more than one plane. Since different muscles groups move the joint in different ways, it's helpful to keep everything balanced.
4) I can't say for sure for this one, s cramping can be caused for a few reasons. I guess what I would ask here is if you feel pain right away, or if it only emerges after more than 30 minutes of knitting?
@@highfiberknits Thank you, you have taught me so much!!! for #4, it is definitely after a time of knitting, and I think it may have to do with the fact my hands don't get very good circulation when I knit so they get cold.
0:00 Intro
3:11 Disclaimer - if in pain
4:40 Posture
6:12 Chest and back stretches
7:51 Warm ups
9:10 Strengthen back muscles
12:00 Neck stretches
13:42 Forearm muscles
15:25 Hand anatomy
17:03 Wrist/forearm warm ups
18:18 Forearm stretches
20:53 Massages
22:57 Other tips
27:55 Outro
Thank you for this comprehensive video! I crochet and just recently started learning how to knit. This will defintely help me take better care of my hands, neck and shoulders. Would you say for every hour of knitting we should do 10 minutes of stretches ? I am trying to figure out a good stretching schedule wilst knitting. Thanks!
Too much chatter. Get to the exercises and talk later. I’ve lost interest by the time you get to the meat of the video.
Thank you for this feedback!