Quote:
Originally Posted by GizzaJob  Thanks for the reply Reefboy. I did a little digging and with a little analysis of the problem I surmised that it may be cubital tunnel syndrome. Having trolled the internet I found an exercise which went like this .
Hold your arm stretched out to the side with your hand bent upwards (like leaning against a wall at arms length) then bend the arm at the elbow as if you are holding a shell to your ear (except your hand is cupped outwards instead of inwards). I have been doing this exercise, and it seems to have done the trick. I no longer have a dead little finger etc.
I also tried creating a splint from cardboard but that was even worse. 
Anyway I haven't thought about the problem for a while so it seems to have relieved itself.  http://www.eatonhand.com/hw/hw007.htm
Onwards !!!!  |
Hey that is great news!
The stretch you are doing actually puts tension onto the Ulna nerve. The one thing I have found in my clinic is that people either stop doing their exercises or they get lazy on their form while doing it. The form point in that exercise is the hand position, it is really important to keep the fingers pointing straight down to the feet when placing your hand to your ear.
A couple of variations
1 - Curl you index finger and thumb so they meet. Then do the same stretch, placing the finger ring over your eye(no I am not trying to make you look silly). It moves the hand a little closer to the mid line of the body and increases the stretch a little.
2 - Using the original exercise, once the left hand is in place on your ear, sidebend your neck leaving the hand in position. You want to move your right ear towards your shoulder, then rotate your head to the right. This increases the stretch at the neck end of the ulna nerve.
****** MAJOR POINT ********
Nerve stretching is not like stretching muscles. Nerves can get very irritated by stretching(when it happens it is not fun, and the only way of recovering is to rest it providing you haven't done any damage). A muscle stretch is sustained for 15-20 seconds usually, a nerve stretch should be held for 1-2 seconds at the point in which you start to feel the stretch, and then released. A nerve stretch is then repeatedly performed for approx. 30 seconds 2-3 times per day.
Keep up the exercise just to maintain the mobility of the nerve. Also look at integrating the stretch into your warmup routine before you play golf as well.
Best of luck.
Christopher