Of all the common injuries that athletes experience the most frequently occurring ones are to the fingers or hand. In spite of this athletes, which includes recreational, scholastic, collegiate and professional athletes, as a rule, do not practice any finger strengthening exercises. But yet we hear of finger injuries on a regular basis.
For example, Jody Gerut of the Padres baseball team, was unable to play in the last weeks of the baseball season because of a sprained left middle finger. According to him,” in a precision game like baseball, you’ve got to have your digits. It’s an acute 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? In my experiences you should never do this because most finger injuries are preventable. This becomes especially important if you wish to pursue a career in your sport. To prevent finger injuries, however, you must do strength exercises specific to the fingers. To do this we have found that the use of Exer Rings is most effective.
Exer Rings allow for a multitude of different exercises because of their different tensions and shapes. 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.
There are over 50 different exercises that can be done with the Exer rings to improve hand grip and strength of individual finger and wrist muscles in any or all of their actions. Increased finger strength will also enable you to perform even better in sports in which you must handle a ball or other implement.
The rings are also useful in rehabilitation of finger on hand injuries. Even people with carpal tunnel syndrome can benefit from these exercises. In addition, their value is not limited only to athletes. For example, musicians, especially pianists, use the rings to strengthen the little finger and to be able to spread the fingers as needed to hit all the keys. This is but one use of the Exer rings for non- athletic persons.
Do not wait until you get a finger or hand injury before you begin to do strength exercises for rehabilitation. You can use the rings in your leisure time while sitting and watching TV or even when you are a passenger or listening to a talk. They are easy to use and produce great results.
For more information on the Exer rings see the products section.