Of all the common injuries that athletes experience, the most frequently occurring one is to the fingers or hand. In spite of this, most scholastic, collegiate and professional athletes do not incorporate specific finger strengthening exercises into their programs. It is possible to find some athlete squeezing a ball, but this is as far as it goes. Yet we hear of finger injuries on a regular basis, especially in baseball and softball.
Rather than attacking the problem head on and taking preventive measures, most athletes simply accept such injuries as a matter of course. It’s not uncommon to hear it athletes say, “It’s an injury that can happen to anyone, so you have to chalk it up to baseball being baseball.” But should you just chalk it up to baseball or some other sport?
Practical experiences with many athletes indicate that you should never do this. The main reason for this is that most finger injuries are preventable. To prevent such injuries, however, you must do strength exercises specific to the finger actions that are used in the particular sports skills.
For example, Exer Rings are very effective for isolating individual finger actions. They allow for strengthening a wide range of finger movements that duplicate what occurs in execution of various finger and hand skills. The athlete can also do a multitude of different exercises with greater or lesser resistance because of the different tension rings.
Of the six rings in a set three have flat outer surfaces and three have rounded outer surfaces. The rounded rings are used more for squeezing all or multiple fingers while the flat rings are used more for individual fingers. Each ring has a different tension so that it is possible to use one that fits the athlete’s capabilities.
With a little creativity it is possible to do over 50 different variants of exercises with the Exer Rings to improve hand grip and strength of individual finger and wrist muscles in any or all of their actions. As a result of the increased finger strength the athlete will be able to perform his best in sports in which he or she must handle a ball or other implement.
The Exer Rings are also useful in rehabilitation of finger and hand injuries. Even people with carpal tunnel syndrome benefit from these exercises. In addition, musicians, especially pianists, use the rings to strengthen the little – or other – finger and to be able to spread the fingers as needed to hit all the keys.
If you are an athlete you should not wait until you get a finger on hand injury before you begin to do strength exercises for rehabilitation. Use the Exer Rings in your leisure time while sitting and watching TV or even when you are a passenger in a car or listening to someone speak. The rings are easy to use and produce great results.
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