Healthy & Prosperous 2019! Maintaining Wrist Mobility and Strength for Nail Techs

Understandably, “Nail techs are at increased risk for carpal tunnel and other wrist maladies.” In addition to working with our hands, we’re probably also on a computer for a good portion of the day.  All this can lead to overuse injuries like tendonitis, or worse. In this post we’ll talk about some preventative steps nail techs can take to ward off these common injuries.

1. Carve out a few minutes for stretching and strengthening the arm throughout the day. Prevention Magazine recommends some simple stretches and exercises, including:

• 

  from Prevention.com

  forearm stretch

• wrist extension
• finger flexion and extension
• grip strengthening with a stress ball

2. Use correct posture and wrist positioning. One of the biggest issues I find here is keeping your clients’ hand close to you so that you don’t have to bend over and lean forward to work.  To  help with this, you can have tools that hold your client’s wrist or ankle elevated while you work, like the Wrist Assist, Pampered Perch.

3. Wear a wrist brace in off-time if you start to feel pain or other symptoms. As un-glamorous as this is, it really did help me a few years ago when hours of nails and computer work took their toll.  I wore my brace every night as often as possible – you don’t have to take it on vacation or anything.  Keep in mind that this will likely take a few nights to adjust to wearing…  At first I would remove mine in my sleep!

Those are my best recommendations to keep wrist pain at bay.  Do you have any others? Any personal experiences with wrist pain or injuries? Leave a comment below!

This article is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor.