Hand Exercise Has Been Wrong for 50+ Years
I’m a sport, music and health enthusiast. Or more probably, a nut. And a rebel. If I’m told something meant to be factual and it doesn’t resonate, I don’t swallow it. I believe education should teach us to think, not memorize. The skill of critical thinking is at a crux in modern society. Traditional status quo has put us into to so many corners in so many subjects that we don’t know what is right or untrue, natural or unnatural. Just because we believe it ourselves, and it is familiar to ourselves and comfortable to ourselves, doesn’t prove anything to be true.
As Robert Frost said, “We dance round in a ring and suppose, while the secret sits in the middle and knows.”
Critical thinking of and on our own beliefs should be an active play. We should never be afraid to be wrong. Or right. We should be honest.
In the mid- to late-1980’s I played basketball, golf, and hockey at a college level. Somewhere in the middle, I began dabbling in guitar. I don’t know if I was the most naturally gifted person at any of it, but I worked hard, studied hard, and observed carefully.
In the early 1990s and through into the new millennium, I spent about 10 years in private practice as a sports and family chiropractor. If that math appears loose, it’s because I took a few years off of practice to pursue my dream as a professional golfer. I never made it to the PGA Tour but felt very successful. And I observed carefully.
I guess I was dangerous more than anything. Everything had to make sense to me; still has to today. Ask my wife. Ask my kids.
It’s been an excellent education. And it’s an education I’m happy to say is still going on. And will keep going on.
In college, I was asked to prepare a report differentiating tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) from golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis). I would be away from school for one week for a college golf trip. I would submit this paper upon my return.
That paper sure made me think. Thanks, Dr. Percouco.
All of the research I found lead me to lay the blame on a chronic overuse or acute injury to the wrist extensor tendons in tennis elbow, and a chronic overuse or injury to the wrist flexor tendons in golfer’s elbow. If that’s a tricky sentence to you, please reread it. In other words, everything I researched about these conditions was about the wrist tendons.
Elbow injury information is still ‘wrist muscle-focused’ to this day, decades later.
But this explanation baffled me because I had been freshly educated in anatomy at that point in my studies. The wrist tendons are not the only tendons that cross the elbow. The main hand muscle tendons also cross the elbow — at both the inside elbow and outside elbow.
Why are they not suspected?
At the medial (inside) elbow joint, the hand AND wrist muscles and tendons form the forearm meat that flexes the wrist AND closes the hand.
At the lateral (outside) elbow joint, the hand AND wrist muscles and tendons form the outside forearm meat that extends the wrist AND opens the hand.
So why did/do health and fitness professionals and researchers not suspect the finger tendons in the development of tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow? And after all, in all of the high-risk activities listed for tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow, repetitive gripping was/is always a pervasive constant.
How could they miss this?
As a college kid, it seemed ridiculous to not explore grip and hand muscle health in relation to tennis and golfer’s elbow.
Since practicing for ten years, following professional golfers for 3 years and working with various athletes, musicians and workplace environments for a further 20 years, I can confidently say that hand muscle health and balance is front and center in most, if not all, elbow injuries, including tennis and golfer’s elbow.
I want to ask you a question. Nearly everyone has been told to strengthen their grip for one reason, or another. Were you told the same thing that I was as a young amateur athlete? Something like: ‘Take this grip ball, or squeeze ball, or spring loaded or coiled gripper and squeeze it. You’ll get stronger.’
Are you familiar with those types of grip items? I sure was. Seemed like reasonable advice to a young kid.
Let me leave you with another question. What are your beliefs about ‘squeeze-only’ grippers today? Do you think they are adequate to strengthen your hand muscles based on the information I have exposed in this article?
It’s fun to examine our own beliefs. As Guy Finley says, ‘The truth is fun.’
Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, right? Is it the proper way to strengthen your hand muscles?
‘Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze…’ for hand health, strength, and fitness is a belief, not a truth.
It’s a belief I had for many years until I researched tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow as a college athlete in the 1980's.
Now I think hand exercise has been wrong for 50+ years. Can you think critically on your own and guess why?
Read my next article, and I’ll tell you my current beliefs.
Dr. Terry Zachary is an advocate for proper and complete hand exercise & grip strength training in sports, music, the workplace, modern computer, electronics/gaming/esports, therapy/rehab/wellness, and hobby. Dr. Zachary discovered that repetitive gripping imbalances have gone under the radar as a cause of muscle imbalance, weakness, reduced blood flow, and poor lymph drainage for over 5 decades.
He developed Handmaster Plus to provide the world with fast, easy, and complete hand training to create maximum strength, balance, performance, and overall health. The result is healthy, stable fingers, thumbs, wrists, carpal tunnels, forearms, and elbows… and healthier lives.
Dr. Zachary can be reached at info@doczac.com. For information on Handmaster Plus, visit www.handmasterplus.com.
