Parkinson’s Hand Stiffness? Do this Daily: The Pull-Push-Pull

Hand stiffness is a huge complaint for our fighters and dancers with Parkinson’s. It gets in the way of everything you want to do and makes the simplest task seem slow and almost impossible.

I use a simple exercise called the Pull-Push-Pull to help my clients and students improve the flexibility in their hands and fingers. I love this exercise because it has all sorts of Parkinson’s therapies rolled into one. You know me—I like to be efficient and multitask! I know you have things to do and don’t want a bunch of separate exercises when you can get the same benefits in less time.

Watch this video and you will see what I mean:

The Pull-Push-Pull exercise works on:

• Hand and finger stiffness
• Stretching and opening stiff chest muscles
• Shoulder blade movement and stiffness
• Your brain’s ability to sequence a task
• Promoting a strong voice
• Multitasking for neuroplasticity of the brain

Here is how you do the Pull-Push-Pull hand exercise:

1. Stand up straight and hold your arms out with your palms facing upward.

1. Pull back your arms, bending your elbows and encouraging your shoulder blades to glide together.

1. Push out your arms as if to say, “STOP!”

1. Use one hand to pull back the fingers and palm on the opposite hand and extend your wrist back as far as you can.

1. Repeat the entire sequence pulling back the other hand, and that will complete one whole repetition.
2. Do 10-20 repetitions every day. Make sure and use your voice: “PULL, PUSH, PULL!!!”

Do this exercise daily for two weeks and then tell me how your hands and wrists are doing. Have fun with it!

Go Forth and Conquer!

💜 Coach Kimberly