Upper Extremity Nerve Flossing - Quick Fix For Hand Numbness
An oldie but a goodie! An easy upper extremity, nerve flossing technique to manage arm and hand numbness.
How It Works
The peripheral nervous system is a continuous organ that runs throughout the entire body and can be injured through a variety of mechanisms including compression, traction, and friction. When the nerve tissue itself is injured it often causes a tingly, numbness sensation that can be felt anywhere along the course of the nerve. Compression can occur though a variety of mechanisms but is commonly associated with muscle shortening and tightness that physically puts pressure on your nerves.
The most common examples of this type of compression include carpal tunnel syndrome and thoracic outlet syndrome.
Nerve Flossing
When nerves do become impeded through restricted muscles and fascia, nerve flossing can be a great technique to break those adhesions in order to relieve numbness and tingling in your arm and fingers. Similar to flossing your teeth, the idea is to stretch your nerves through the surrounding muscles and fascia in order to break adhesions between the nerves and adjacent structures.
In the above video, Dr. Baird demonstrates an easy exercise to stretch and release adhesion's between nerves of the brachial plexus and the adjacent structures (muscles, fascia, etc) in order to restore normal function to the nerves of the upper extremity. This exercise can be used to treat anything from thoracic outlet syndrome to carpal tunnel issues.
Try it out and let us know what you think!