Who Should Do?

This stretch will benefit any athlete who utilizes grip strength in their sport and/or training, which is most athletes. Most athletes will benefit from this stretch. This includes rowers, baseball and softball players, basketball and football players, martial artists, gymnasts, and many more. 

Rock Climbers

Rock climbing successfully involves not falling and if you don’t let go, you won’t fall. Grip strength is key in this sport and this stretch allows for improved training and lower injury risk. The improved wrist and forearm mobility will allow the climber to better perform sport-specific movements. 

The improved mobility will also reduce injury risk and improve technique. Additionally, stretching your forearm flexors after a session sends signals to your muscles to relax and start the recovery process. This, coupled with good nutrition and sleep, will help you get ready for the next training session. 

Olympic Weightlifters

Beyond the sport of Olympic lifting, this is also applicable to the many athletes who utilize cleans within their training. The clean is an explosive lower body movement with a catch by the upper body. While the catch element is not often a limiting factor, it is an important element to do correctly. 

Sufficient wrist mobility is crucial in performing the clean correctly. Implementing this stretch before and after a session with cleans will help maintain and promote adequate mobility. This will allow the focus to remain on the other elements of a very technical and powerful movement. 

Striking And Racquet Sport Athletes

These sports involve some sort of club or racquet to strike a ball or object. Examples of these sports include baseball, golf, cricket, squash, and tennis. Grip strength and wrist mobility are key in these sports.

Wrist mobility is perhaps most important for sports that have smaller playing surfaces like badminton and table tennis. The smaller area means shorter reaction times but also less ground to cover on foot. This means wrist precision and range of motion are particularly important in these sports. 

Who Should Not Do?

Athletes With Wrist Or Forearm Injuries

This stretch should be approached with caution if you have a forearm, wrist, or finger injury. This includes injuries such as sprains, strains, and fractures as well as for individuals recovering from surgery. Stretching may increase strain on an injured joint, tendon, ligament, bone, or muscle. 

In general, consulting a physical therapist is wise for rehabilitating an injury. Finding out if something you normally would do like stretching is okay is one of the reasons why. While stretching is beneficial normally, an injury changes the calculus as it may not be suited to your specific needs.

Individuals With Joint Hypermobility

Individuals with hypermobile wrist and finger joints (abnormally flexible joints that can be predisposed to injury) should consider avoiding this stretch. Wrist hypermobility has many causes such as injury and genetic factors. Stretching a hypermobile joint can cause further joint instability. 

Chronic wrist hypermobility is much more common than many would assume. Coaches and trainers should consider screening for it and asking their clients about their wrist injury history. 

Certain athletes who need more range of motion than most, like gymnasts, can be an exception to this rule. This exception only applies if they have the strength to control excessive motion that would increase instability in the joint. 

Individuals On Certain Medications

Certain medications can negatively affect muscle integrity and can make stretching inadvisable. As with injury and hypermobility, consult your doctor about stretching and any physical activity while on any medications. 

Several commonly prescribed medications can cause muscle weakness. One should proceed carefully before resuming normal physical activity, like stretching. Tendon and soft tissue damage can be side effects of fluoroquinolones or quinolones, which are strong antibiotics. 

Another example is corticosteroids which can cause muscle weakness. This is a medication commonly prescribed for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), rheumatoid arthritis, and other inflammatory diseases. 

Benefits Of The Exercise

Strengthens Muscles 

Emerging research has found that static stretching can increase muscle strength and size. Static stretching’s strength increase has been found to be particularly true for sedentary (inactive), female, and older participants. 

Authors of a systematic review and meta-analysis have urged some caution in incorporating this into your training. They found higher quality studies, which are thought to be closer to finding the real effects, found smaller strength gains. The effect this has on specific muscle groups like the forearms is not yet fully understood. 

The mechanisms behind this effect are not yet well-understood so proceed carefully and stay tuned for further research publications. 

Improves Flexibility 

Particularly for athletes in the sports listed above, improving and maintaining wrist mobility and forearm flexibility is important. Stretching muscles and working joints through their pain-free range of motion can improve performance and reduce injury. 

Athletes in sports like badminton, rock climbing, and baseball can benefit greatly from this stretch. It will help maintain a usable range of motion and promote recovery. This improved mobility will enhance sports performance and lower injury risk. 

Relieves Tension

The finger down forearm stretch relieves tension in the finger and wrist flexors. Pulling the fingers back towards your body stretches your forearm muscles. This lengthening releases tension built up within the muscles. 

This stretch can also improve blood flow to the targeted muscles. This can aid recovery by delivering more oxygen and nutrients, while also removing metabolic waste products. These waste products accumulate during low oxygen conditions within the muscle. This is common in sports like rock climbing, for example.

Performing this stretch regularly after forearm taxing workouts can help recovery and reduce injury risk. 

Frequently Asked Questions