Many of you are manual therapists, massage therapists, or physical therapists; your hands are regularly used, the fingers, and the wrist muscles are flexed, not continuously, but often, as you grip, squeeze, manipulate, and mobilize. We would all agree, then, that finger, palm, and wrist muscles would enjoy advanced strength, and fairly healthy tone - compared, perhaps, to others whose work does not include such activities.
All of the joints in these areas, finger joints. palm joints, and wrist joints, are reinforced, (we're getting back to the flagpole idea again, ) by strong muscles on one side, and relatively weak muscles on the other - I ask you to consider, how does this imbalance affect the joint(s)?
Consider this experiment; many of my students have tried this, and I urge them to attempt it again.
Make a fist of your hand; have your friend clasp your closed fist, with both of their own hands. Now, your job is to try to open your clenched fist, against the resistance of your friend's hands - this is merely a test of the strength of your extensor muscles, hand, finger, palm, all of them together - you will, at least many of you, find a surprising weakness is present.
Now grasp your friend's hand as though in a handshake greeting - and slowly squeeze - don't try to crush the hand bones, this is a friend, after all!!!!
Compare the strength of your flexor muscles, against the strength of the extensors - there is almost always, a significant difference; the same disparity is evident between hip flexors and extensors, lumbar flexors and extensors, and even the elbow displays similar characteristics.
At this stage of my speculation about the relevance of muscular or kinetic balance, all I can say is, if someone consults me about a joint disfunction, ( and all muscular complaints become a joint complaint eventually,) then this in one angle I investigate.
0 comments:
Post a Comment