January 20^th, 2022 – With the way the world has changed over the past few years, you’ve no doubt done a lot more texting. You may be using your cell phone or other smart devices far more than you ever thought. In fact, in 2021, owners of cell phones spent an astonishing average of 5-6 hours on them!!

Guess what that means? Users are experiencing more wrist, forearm, and finger pain (yes, that’s a thing) than ever before in our lifetime. All that extra texting, scrolling, playing online games, ordering food or other items over the phone can lead to “texting tendonitis”. It will also create pain and tension in your shoulders and neck.

There are a couple exercises you can do to help get relief from overuse of your phone. And, if you do these exercises in the hot tub, it will help relieve pain, increase circulation, and relax muscles and joints.

Perform the following exercises twice a week, three sets of ten repetitions:

• Opposing Muscle Strengthening: This will help work the muscles on the back of your hand. Close your fingers (like you’re grabbing a piece of paper between your thumb and fingers). Once closed, cup your hand so your thumb and fingers create an oval shape. Then, take a rubber band and wrap it around your thumb and fingers at the knuckle. Slowly open your hand, creating resistance against the rubber band.
• Dumbbell Wrist Extensions: Hold a 3-lb dumbbell and place your forearm on the bar top of the hot tub so only your hand hangs over the edge. A great place to do this in a Hot Spring Spa is on the cool down seat. It will usually put you at the right height to easily extend your forearm. Relax your wrist and let the weight naturally drop your hand. Then, raise the weight so your hand is parallel with your forearm. If a 3-lb weight is too heavy or too painful, drop to a 1- or 2-lb weight.

Did you know there are weights specifically designed for use in a pool or hot tub? They’re the perfect solution for hot tub exercising!

Once you’ve completed the reps on these two exercises (and in-between each as well), take a moment to use the jets on your wrists and forearms. Rotary jets that have a stimulating pulse that is excellent to help relax muscles and increase circulation to the area.

Here are some other tips to help avoid texting tendonitis:

• Limit texting to just a few minutes, then take a break.
• Keep your messages short. Long texts really take a toll on your thumb and fingers. Move to a keyboard or desktop for the novellas.
• Get a heftier phone cover. It will give your hand something more significant to hold and alleviate some strain.
• Type with different fingers.
• Rest your phone on a surface rather than holding it nonstop in your hand. That will make it easier and create less stress on your fingers, wrist, neck, and shoulders.

You can also put the phone down and just talk to people too…just a suggestion.

Definitely check with your doctor should you have texting tendonitis and get his endorsement to try what we suggested.

And…If you try any of these hints and have success, let me know! (But please…don’t text me!)