Earlier this spring, one of my students not-so-jokingly suggested I offer a YTU workshop for the Fiber Arts. After the chuckling subsided I considered the merit of her request.

It had been a long, cold and very snowy New England winter—the sort that turns even the most anti-craft people (including yours truly) into knitters, needle pointers and quilters. While our finished stashes of sweaters, pillows and blankets could rival the Amish, there wasn’t one among us who didn’t suffer from an achy, numb feeling down our dominant arms that ended with tingling in our pinkie.

Holding the thumb and forefinger together for prolonged periods of time within a very limited range of motion tenses muscles running up the arms and into the shoulder and neck, especially of the dominant hand. That tingling or numb sensation is often caused by constriction of the 8th cervical nerve. That’s right, C8. We have 7 cervical vertebrae but 8 cervical nerves. C8 does not have its own vertebra but exits the cervical spine below the 7th cervical vertebra to branch down our arms.

While massaging the arms and shaking out the hands sometimes provides temporary relief, the next time you or a client experience that pins-and-needles feeling in the pinkie fingers, focus your YTU therapy balls on the nape of the neck to help relieve muscle constriction around C8.

Heal your aching hands and wrists – Read the article.

Learn about our products for hands and wrists.

Watch our free 5 minute video for hand and wrist pain relief.

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