This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in April of 2023. For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcxVUNNVHKI&t=61s
Brad: All right, thumb pain. Many people will experience thumb pain, oftentimes right by the wrist at the joint.
Mike: And the good news is you can self-treat this easily and in a hurry.
Brad: That's right. All right, there's a very good reason this joint of the thumb gets very sore, it is because it takes an awful lot of force with gripping, twisting, and any activity you do with your hand.
Mike: The pain is likely associated in this area with arthritis, and it's common from overuse and it's normally on your dominant hand.
Brad: That's right. Let's take a close look at this joint that can create so much pain that you do not want to use your thumb or hand. It's the CMC joint. There's not a great deal of movement here, but as you get wear and tear on that joint from arthritis or maybe some bone spurs, it causes pain. Or if it is subluxed a little bit, in other words, it kind of pulls out of joint, that's good because we can usually get it back in causing the pain to go away quickly.
Brad: All right, so if your thumb is so sore that it just hurts to move it and it's very tender, you may need to put a brace on. It doesn't matter what type. Anything that you can find that you can put on and it's going to support the wrist because that's where this joint is, is close to the wrist. The brace just reminds you to protect it and it limits motion.
Brad: Another option you can do is get some Coban band tape. It stretches. It does not stick to your skin, but it does stick to itself. I have to admit, taping your hand is not easy to do. If you have problems with it, just go buy a brace. But it is a real custom fit. And what you do is you just work it back. I suggest the wider tape. Mike has a narrower one-inch. And you simply rip it, oh, like that, and it'll stay on. Don't get it too tight. It does a nice job of supporting.
Mike: The first technique to treat this issue is massaging what is called the thenar eminence. It's the muscular area around your thumb. It's a big, beefy muscle belly considering it's just in your hand. But you just kind of dig in there and move around whatever area is tender. Some people might be more down at the base of the thumb, some people might be more on the front of their hand. I like to kind of pinch and just move around. Mine doesn't hurt, but I feel that.
Brad: Yeah, it's one of those things. If you've got tight, sore muscles, maybe some knots in those muscles, you will feel it. And it's one of those things that should hurt, but hurt so good, and when you're done have a result of a better-feeling thumb. Now, if you find that the massaging hand is sore and the other hand's thumb is sore, but you're getting good results here, but you're causing pain in the massaging hand, a real nice option is if you happen to have a massage gun that reciprocates. This massage gun has a ball head and there are several heads you can get with these massage guns. This is our Q2 massage gun. It has five heads.
Brad: For this particular treatment, I would recommend either this round one or possibly the bullet head because the nice thing about this bullet head in this situation, is you can get into that thenar eminence. Use whatever works best for you, So what we're going to do is get this thing going and I'm going to work it here. And you got a nice grip for the other hand, so you're not going to get sore muscles there. Now, you can change the intensity simply by changing the angle of the massage gun head. Using it straight on is much more aggressive than with it at an angle. You're probably going to start sideways, work in the palm here sideways, and you can work right into that muscular belly. That works well. You're not going to get down directly on the joint because you're just going to beat that joint up and irritate it and get sore and maybe say bad things about me. So we don't want to do that for sure. And you can do the other parts of the hands as well. The nice thing about having one of these is you can use any part of your body, particularly with all the heads. So it's a very powerful gun, but in this case, it works because you can control the intensity at a low level.
Mike: And the last treatment option. Now, if this feels good, it's for you. If it doesn't feel good, don't do it. You're going to perform some traction on the phalanx here. So you're going to grab down by the joint and you're going to pull away from it. And you can kind of move it around. You can also move your wrist. Just do what feels good.
Brad: Right. So again, this is when I mentioned the joint is subluxed or actually out of joint a little bit. This is a technique I use. It's very similar to what Mike explained. A little simpler. I simply took my thumb on top of that phalanx, I pushed down and pulled like I was pulling the skin away from that joint. So you're pushing down and you're pulling. You can see the skin being distracted.
Brad: I did this and the pain went away from about a level seven down to a level one or two. And I worked this a little bit that evening. The next day it was gone and it's still gone. And that's one of the things that motivated me to do this video again. Mike, do you have anything to say?
Mike: Who knew the pull-my-finger joke could become useful?
Brad: Good luck. Thumbs up, huh?
Mike: Thumbs up.
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