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Has Your Sense of Touch Diminished
Because of Your Repetitive Strain (RSI) Disorder?
Here are Four Tests that may help you
evaluate yourself.
A
person's innate sense of perception or feeling can be traced
back to their knowledge of how they feel when healthy or ill.
This has been developed over their life span.
" I feel sick today, my back hurts, I just don't
feel just right." I
am sure we have all heard these statements or even said them
ourselves. Our sense of awareness can be heightened if we
understand how to interpret it. Sensory perception is our
level of awareness based on our frequency of the arriving
action potentials. In the case of the touch sense, the amount
of pressure brings a conscious awareness of a sensation, which
is our perception at that moment. In most cases, when a learned perception is taught and
brought to an individual's attention, they become more aware
of how to perceive changes in their body. As in my Perceived
Grip Strength and Finger Pad Sensitivity tests, they learn how
to bring attention to their loss of strength in their hands
and how the sensation of touch may be more diminished than
they are aware of.
How
to Determine Your Level of Sensitivity and Grip Strength
Step
1. Finger Pad Sensitivity Test
This test is about a
person's innate perception of their ability to feel changes
within their body. To
determine what your level of finger pad sensitivity is, first
close your eyes. Then
gently rub the tips of the finger pads with your thumb.
Use your perception of touch to determine what level of
sensitivity you FEEL you are at. Then give yourself a number
between 1 and 10, where 10 is the most sensitive, how
sensitive are you? Write
the number down for each hand. This is your perception, not
anyone else’s.
Step
2. Perceived Grip Strength
The perceived grip strength test can
help a person make a decision about what they perceive their
grip strength to be. This test can help them to determine how
often it is necessary to perform maintenance on their body's
arms and hands.
How
to Test:
Take both of your
hands and make a tight fist.
Squeeze them firmly together without shaking.
Now, give yourself a number, 1 to 10; where 10 is the
strongest. What is YOUR perception of your hand strength,
first the right, then the left hand? How strong is each hand
to you? Write the
number down for each hand.
Step
3. Muscle Testing.
You will need a
partner to help you with this test. Through the use of applied
kinesiology techniques, you can determine the muscular
strength of the muscles (using the thumb and little finger)
and nerve function that are responsible for the grip of the
hand. Also, if there is a possible misalignment of the elbow,
wrist and hand bones.
How
to Test
With
a Partner, one will be the Tester and the other the Testee.
Step 1. Testee: - place the pads of your thumb
and little finger together (not the tips) palm side-up, and
have the tester try to pull the thumb and little finger apart,
pulling from the base of the thumb and little finger. Try and
hold the thumb and little finger together as firmly as you can
without straining or shaking.
Step 2. Testee - place the pads of your thumb
and little finger together (not the tips) palm side-down, and
have the tester try to pull the thumb and little finger apart,
pulling from the base of the thumb and little finger. Try and
hold the thumb and little finger together as hard as you can
but without straining or shaking.
In both tests, if
the fingers pull part easily, you may have a misalignment of
the bones in the elbow and wrist joints, which create the loss
of grip strength of the muscles of the hand and loss of nerve
integrity. You should be able to effortlessly hold the thumb
and little finger together without straining or shaking.
Step
4. PRESS and PROBE – Ropes and Trigger Points
PRESS
and PROBE using
your fingers, is how you can determine if there is
muscle/tendon pain. Press
in the belly of the forearm muscle and up around the elbow
joint where the tendon attaches to the bone.
Rub the muscle back and forth against the grain of the
muscle. Can you
feel the “ropiness” of the muscles?
Is their pain? If
there is pain near the joint (elbow), you may have
inflammation of the tendon or tendinitis. If there is pain in the belly of the muscle, you could have
what are called trigger points.
Trigger points are hypersensitive areas in a muscle
that are tender to touch. They become more active when you
experience physical or emotional stress or trauma or suffer
from overuse syndrome. When
a trigger point "fires," it sets off a continuous
cycle of spasm and pain.
The muscles become tighter and contract when they are
overworked and overstrained, such as in repetitive arm and
hand movements.
Trigger
Points – X’s
Once
you have done your own self-perception evaluation, and have
written down your findings, look at where you stand.
Is
your level of sensitivity below a 7 in both hands?
Does one hand FEEL more sensitive than the other, have
a stronger grip, more painful to the touch?
If so, these are warning signals that something is out
of balance, out of harmony according to your own antennae of
perception.
Maybe
it is Time to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Symptoms
of pain, diminished sense of touch, or not being able to hold
on to objects firmly are all signals that something is wrong.
This is the time to look into your Hand Health.
For
more information on Kate’s self care program, read End
Your Carpal Tunnel Pain Without Surgery or contact Kate at
katem@sportstouch.com.
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