The myriad things fingers do each day are often taken for granted until over-use, injury or arthritis turns those countless finger motions into painful experiences. Hand exercises can strengthen fingers and help protect the hands against injury; finger joint exercises can extend the fingers' range of motion, even in many people who have arthritis.
Claw and Fist
Relax the hand before beginning finger joint exercises, MayoClinic.com says. If stiffness or pain preclude you from completing the exercises, the Mayo Clinic suggests soaking the hands in warm water and even attempting the exercises with the hands remaining in the water. Start by putting the fingers close together with the hands out straight from the wrist, then bend the upper finger joints so that the fingers fold into a claw while keeping the wrist straight. Open the hands out and repeat. Next, make a fist with each hand. Start with the hands straight out from the wrists, and gently spread the straight fingers apart into a flat fan. Then gently curl the fingers up with their tips embedded in the palm of the hands, and wrap the thumb over the fingers. Open the hands to their flexed position again and repeat.
Joint Blocking
Exercise and stretch the upper finger joints by using joint blocking, a technique that isolates the individual finger joints to be exercised. To work the distal interphalangeal or "DIP" joint--the knuckle closest to the end of the finger--grasp the middle bone section of the finger with the other hand just below the DIP joint, advises the Hand Surgical Associates, a specialist hand surgical and therapy medical group at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. Bend, then straighten that finger at the DIP joint only, then move on to the next finger. After flexing all DIP joints, move on to the proximal interphalangeal, or PIP joints. Hold each finger individually just below the middle knuckle and bend the upper half of the finger, keeping the DIP joint straight. It may take some practice to preclude the DIP joint from flexing while exercising the PIP joint, especially in the pinky.
Thumb and Fingertips
Creating a series of O shapes by touching the tip of the thumb to the tip of each finger independently helps improve the hand's range of motion, advises the Therapy Library, an online collection of physical therapy resources compiled and written by a team of four hospital-affiliated physical and occupational therapists in New York City. Focus on making each O an elegant rounded shape, which equally bends both finger knuckles. When you reach the pinky, slide the tip of the thumb down the finger to its base, then back up. This helps improve flexion of the lowest thumb joint as well as relieving stiffness from all of the finger joints.
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