Numbness in the fingers?

Numbness??No fun! Try these!!

Numbness and tingling in the arms can be scary, but a lot of time is, it’s completely resolvable with improve posture and mobility. The nerve that talk to the hand, run through the neck under the armpit and into the forearm under several muscles. If those muscles get tight, they compress that nerve which can give you those referral and radicular symptoms. Certain fingers tell us which nerve is getting pinched or compressed. And getting out of that position at strains that muscle group can help significantly.

Looking down all the time contributes to tight muscles and tension across the nerves!

All of us have a degree of this…just depends on how it shows up!

A lot of this is positional and postural. A lot of people have this postpartum because of all of the baby holding and postural changes especially when our core isn’t quite as strong and it’s very hard to improve our posture consistently.

I also see this a lot of times with my office workers where there in that head forward, rounded shoulder position, which, once again compresses that bundle of nerves. We always look proximal, which means let’s start at the neck and kind of chase that nerve down so we need to look at the scalene muscles, the first rib back muscles, the triceps, the forearm all the way to the wrist bones or carpals.

There are several consistent points of impingement or entrapment zones, and depending on which fingers go numb, we need to assess that. Most commonly it’s the ring or the pinky finger which is related to the ulnar nerve that runs inside of the elbow or your funny bone.

A lot of times it can also be your thumb, your index and your middle finger which is often related to the median nerve. There are specific stretches and glides to help mobilize those nerves through the muscles but we also need to figure out the “why” behind it, which once again is often postural. Try these movements and mobilizations to get a better grip (no pun intended) on posture, neck, pain, and symptoms.

Try these movements to get rid of your pain and numbness!!

(1) Median nerve glide 10-20x

(2) Ulnar nerve glide (20x)

(3) First rib mob

(4) Chin tuck neutral and rotated towards sides at 30 degrees - 20x

(5) Pec stretch on floor - hold 10” and repeat 5-10x or hold and press consistently for 2 minutes.

(6) Rotations - 30x