Carpal Tunnel Pain? Here’s a Quick Do-It-Yourself Massage Technique to Relieve Pain in Your Arm, Wrist & Hand

Since muscles are the usual cause of pain in the carpal tunnel area, massaging your muscles will help your carpal tunnel area to feel better.

So here are some quick and easy tips for doing self-massage to relieve your carpal tunnel discomfort.

The muscles that cause carpal tunnel syndrome are in the lower and upper arm.  Sometimes they are also in your neck.  We’ll talk about the neck muscles another time.

And, please pay attention to what you are doing.  You don’t want to aggravate your carpal tunnel symptoms.

1.  Start light.

Apply pressure with the palm of one hand to your other forearm (lower arm.)  Just press straight down into the muscle.  Your muscles are below your skin. Press onto your bare skin.

Sometimes even your skin will feel like it hurts.  When we press into a tight area, often it will feel tender.

At this time, you are just seeing how your muscles feel.  Hard, stringy, bunched up?  Tender?  Painful?

Even though you are just checking out your muscles, you are also actually starting your massage.  Your muscles will begin to relax.

2.  Apply a lubricant.

You can use some massage or body oil, cooking oil, baby powder or any other product that has some nice “glide” to your arm and hand.  Suave brand hand lotion works pretty well but some others get tacky too quickly.

Just use a little bit.  Too much makes your skin too slippery.  You just want to be able to slide a little on your skin.

Use your other palm or forearm to press a bit deeper into your slightly-oiled muscles.

If you place the arm you are massaging on a desk or table, that will be a support.

Simply by leaning

forward, you can apply pressure with your other arm.  Rub or glide from wrist to elbow, on all sides of your lower arm.

Keep your pressure even and fairly light. If you feel a little tender, that’s ok.

Deep pressure at first may cause more tenderness for you later.  That’s not bad.  It just means your muscles were tight and you began loosening them up.  It will pass in a couple of days. So instead of going for the kill right off the bat, try to keep your pressure mid-deep instead of deep-deep.

Later on, you might want to use more pressure, even if it hurts.  You will understand the benefit better after you do this a few times.  It takes practice.

3.  Massage your fingers and hands.

Rub around each finger and thumb.  Explore all of the muscles in your hands.  You can press with a knuckle or your thumb (if it’s not painful) or even gently with your opposite elbow.

Check out the web between your thumb and first finger, too.  There’s often lots of tender stuff going on in the muscles there.

Wherever you find tender places, stay a little while (maybe 12 seconds) and then move away.  You can come back again later to work a little more.

Areas that are the most tender are usually the areas that need the most massage.

If you massage each arm (or your problem arm) for about 5 minutes to start, that would be great.  Do more only if you can do it comfortably.

Do this massage thoughtfully.  Pay attention to your body.

It wouldn’t be good to cause pain elsewhere while you are doing this.  If any other area starts to get uncomfortable, take a break or change position.

You have to take care of all of you, not just your arms.

And, remember to drink some extra water before and after your self-massage.  Your body craves water and most of us don’t drink enough.

If you’d like more information about getting rid of your carpal tunnel pain naturally, please click this link:  Carpal Tunnel Tool Kit.

“Because You Deserve to Feel Better!”

2 comments

  1. hello. I really thank you for your article. I am 65 + a few months and I am an avid exerciser(mostly weights). I am very healthy thank god and love to exercise. I have been doing it for many many many years. As of late, I have been afflicted with bedtime Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I started to wear a brace but even with the brace the exposed tips of my fingers get numb halfway through the night at around 3 AM. I am losing quite a bit of sleep. I was instructed by some facebook people to take Vit B6 100 mg daily. I also have been doing only recently the tendon glides and the nerve glide exercises with my hand. I have learned all of this through various youtube videos. I also have the Theragun device that I have been using on my forearms and extensors(I think that is the same type of massage you are describing above) I have only been doing these therapies for a week or so. Am I doing everything that I can? or is there something I am missing- and does it need more time to be rehabbed? And is the Theragun a good replacement for the self-massage you are describing above? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I need to get some quality sleep. Thank you for your time and stay well.

    1. Hi Monte, thank you for writing!
      That article has information that will work really well for people who don’t actually have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Rather, they have pain in their hand or arm with a different cause. (You see, all discomfort has a cause or reason.) Yes, the massage device you’re using will work just fine as long as you feel you’re getting benefit. 🙂 And B6 and B12 can help.

      Long-distance thoughts: Your symptoms may be related to your sleeping position. If you’re sleeping with your shoulders rolled forward and your head tucked or pushed forward, that can cause symptoms.

      Are you sleeping in fetal position, all curled up?
      Or on your side with your shoulder scrunched forward?
      Or on your back, but your head is pushed forward with a thicker pillow and maybe your shoulders are also being pushed forward?

      Those positions can compress the nerves that come from your neck to serve your hands and arms. Please let me know if we’re on the right track?

      I’m not a huge fan of nerve glides. Some things just aren’t logical to me but if you feel they are helping, then they are! 🙂 https://youtu.be/0-dlOOeUL34 and https://youtu.be/hUmfi_aV_u0 are two youtube videos of mine that may help correct tightness in your shoulders, neck and arms.

      What I’m thinking is that Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) may be what’s happening to cause your middle night numbness in your hands. By the way, which fingers are affected? And on the palm side or the back side of your hand?

      If you work to strengthen your chest muscles, switch to strengthening your back more and lengthening your chest and bicep muscles.

      Thank you for asking and please let me know how you’re doing getting rid of the carpal tunnel area numbness during the night.

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