(upbeat music)
- Stiff finger joints.
The first best way to get it moving
is to actually block the joint.
Now, we're gonna show- - What's blocking?
- Blocking?
Well, it's like, football people
at the line of scrimmage here.
(Bob chuckling) No, it's actually,
I'm gonna show on the first pointer finger,
Bob's gonna do on the pinky finger.
Take your thumb,
and block underneath the joint you wanna mobilize.
- Right, right below it.
- Yep, there you go.
And simply, and get it moving the best you can.
- And you only need to do it to the stiff joints.
- Yep, if the joints already moving well, that's okay.
If you wanna do it, you can.
- [Bob] Right.
- If you wanna take your finger like this
and give it a little help, that's legal, there you go.
- [Bob] Right, it's all legal.
- Yep, so we're isolating.
Then you can go to the next joint up,
up the distal joint we call that.
- [Bob] DIP.
- DIP.
Yeah, we got a lot of abbreviations and weird terms
in the therapy world.
- [Bob] And then go down.
- Down to the knuckle joint.
- MCP.
- [Brad] MCP, Metacarpal phalange.
- Yeah.
- [Brad] So I'm blocking here with the thumb,
the thumb really works well,
then you can give it a little assistance there.
Now you do the same technique for each digit.
- Right. - On each finger.
If you wanna do the thumb, it is a little different.
The top joint is the same.
- [Bob] Same, right.
- And this joint next down here is similar, or the same.
You notice that that one typically
will not have as much movement, like your fingers,
digits two through four.
Now the next joint down here is different.
- Yeah.
- With that one you can block,
but you really don't need to
'cause it's right next to the wrist.
But I've always had people grab the bone right here
and get it moving.
The big thing is you get it moving.
- [Bob] Move it.
- It is isolated to that joint,
and you can work it this way, and this way.
- [Bob] Yep, CMPC, right?
- Yep. - CMPC?
- CPC, L-M-N-O-P, H-I-J.
(Bob laughing)
- Anyways, you get the joints,
and do about five to 10 repetitions,
or as you feel needed,
you don't want to go too hard at first.
Very good, we're gonna go to number two quickly.
(Bob chuckling)
Now, if your joints are particularly stiff,
and you wanna make the job easier,
simply heat the joint up,
it loosens things up like heat often does.
You can do this in a couple ways,
you can simply put your hands in warm water.
- [Bob] Like do the dishes.
- Yep, be functional,
might as well get something done,
get them loosened up, do the dishes.
- Brad, do you do the dishes?
- I do the dishes regularly, Bob, I'm very.
- I don't believe you.
- Yeah, I know, you're right.
(Bob laughing)
- I try to get out of as much as possible.
- Dishes. - Dishes.
We have a hand warmer here.
- [Bob] That's our giveaway.
- It is a giveaway,
so you can go to bobandbrad.com,
sign up and get this hand warmer.
It has three different levels,
and there's a lot of,
you may already have a hand warmer.
It's wintertime.
- It's beautiful for Minnesota.
- It very much is.
And that's something you can use
to get things warmed up, and work with that.
- Let's go to number three.
- Number three, and number three is a simple--
- [Bob] C- stretch.
- C as in cat.
So you make a C with your thumb and pointer finger,
and then you take that and go, like if I'm doing my pinky,
Bob's doing his, he's got Elytrons on that finger.
- [Bob] Right.
- [Brad] So it's a really nice functional one for him.
And you simply work it,
support the big knuckle with your thumb, and roll it over.
You can go on the, right over the fingernail,
or move in, and get more focus on the other joints.
Whatever you need to get those stiffer joints moving, okay.
- It's like a vice grip.
- Yeah. - Right?
- Yep, that's right,
nice little vice grip.
Ooh, how about the C-clamp, Bob?
- Very good.
- It gets like a C-clamp, 'cause it is the C.
All right, number 3, 4, 5,
I don't know where we're at. - Four.
(Brad chuckling)
And we're gonna do the buddy splint for number four.
So if my pointer finger is the stiff one,
and the this finger, the middle finger is very normal,
and because you use it a lot.
(Brad laughing)
- Bob, it's a family show.
So what we're gonna do is splint them together
so that the healthy finger, with good range,
is going to assist and move.
- Make it work. - The stiff one.
So you can just tape them together,
but we highly recommend using Coban tape.
- [Bob] Right?
- It's not that expensive.
The beauty of it is it's really stretchy,
and it does not stick to your skin.
- [Bob] Right, it won't irritate it.
- Right, but it sticks really well to itself.
- [Bob] Self.
- You know, if you wanna use some regular tape
I guess you could, but I don't recommend it.
And it's stretchy, now. it's not sticking
at all to the skin,
Once I get around one wrap there, it's sticking.
Oh, it's really a nice tape,
And it's used for a lot of different things.
Not only in the medical community,
but also veterinarians use it,
veterinarians, there we go.
- How do you know that?
- Because I'm very intelligent, Bob, I took a test.
(Bob chuckling)
- And see, now my pointer finger is being assisted.
- [Bob] It's working right, and that last all day long.
Don't get it too tight,
so you cut off circulation.
- [Bob] Right. - All right,
let's go to the last one, Bob.
Now this next one is if you have a real tough,
stubborn finger that will not bend like this,
what we're going to do is take some of the Coban tape,
and you're gonna stretch it first
with the stretches we did before.
Once we get it loosened up, we want to keep it there.
You know, you're not gonna keep it there all day long,
but we're gonna hold it there for.
- [Bob] A prolonged stretch.
Prolonged periods of time, until it gets too uncomfortable.
So you take the Coban, Bob has the finished product.
This is one where you probably will need some help.
I can get it by myself, but it's not real easy
once I get it started and you just wrap it and cut away.
And the Coban's nice 'cause it's flexible.
Do not tighten it down real tight,
Make sure it has some give so it can,
that finger can move a little bit.
- Am I wrong, Brad?
Could you reuse it, right?
- The Coban? - Yeah.
- I think you can,
if you take it off very carefully.
It depends, if you get it dirty, you know.
- Right.
- Especially if you do the dishes.
There it is, let's just try it once, see if it still works
the second time round.
Eh, not so much.
- Doesn't?
- Nope, it kind of does.
It's like when you try and use regular tape twice,
and it's dirty a little bit. - Sure.
That's it, Brad. - All right, five ways.
- All five.
- Keep those fingers moving, healthy, and pain free.
(upbeat theme music)