Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is most often caused by muscles. Which muscles? Typically, the ones in the front of your body.
Short, tight muscles in the front of your body can cause lots of pain–headaches, backaches–in places other than your wrist and hand. Your whole body works together. It’s all one unit. That explains why Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a whole body issue.
Your hand, your arm or wrist is not separate from the rest of your body. It’s all attached!
If you know how muscles work, it makes sense that what is happening in your hand or wrist is usually not caused by your carpal tunnel structure. If the muscles in the front of your body are short and tight, they can definitely be a cause for
carpal tunnel symptoms. Symptoms are always caused by “something.” One good way to get rid of this particular “something” is by stretching.
Stretching will do lots of good things for you.
Stretching the short muscles that need to be stretched will help you get your body back in balance, just like when you were a little kid. When you were little you hardly ever sat and you certainly didn’t sit for hours. At least not until you got into school.
When you were little, you didn’t have to work for hours with your hands in front of your body or your head looking down for hours (at least I hope not!) Instead you were always on the move: crawling, climbing, running, skipping. You used to use all of your muscles so they were “balanced.” You were stretching and strengthening your muscles naturally, all the time.
You know, you have a LOT of muscles but when you stopped using all of them and started using only some of them every day, those muscles shortened. The shortened ones tend to be in the front of your body.
So, which muscles need to be stretched to get carpal tunnel pain relief?
Well, if the muscles in your back hurt, you might think they are the muscles that need to be stretched. More likely, they are just complaining. They might need to be relaxed or released, too, but the primary culprits of your pain are the muscles in front.
You have muscles in the front of your chest and arm, your neck and thighs and abdomen that can all pull you into a shortened, forward position. Since they are all attached to each other they all act together.
Now, those front muscles don’t usually complain BUT they can cause other muscles (in your back or elsewhere) to complain and develop trigger points which then cause pain in your hands, wrists and arms.
Short muscles can be lengthened by stretching or by massage.
But short muscles aren’t the only cause for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome although they are a very common cause. There are other causes that you can discover here.