Reducing Hand Pain and Strain
All items have been purchased and used myself with no sponsorship or affiliation.
As a sewist, one of my priorities is to maintain and protect my hands from further pain and damage. Seemingly innocuous everyday activities can have an impact on hand health, furthering long term pain and disability.
A feature of osteogenesis imperfecta is that my joints are hyper mobile (double jointed) due to poor collagen, causing muscle weakness and ligament laxity. Over time the strain on these joints builds up and pain is experienced, so I have changed the way I do some thing to ease the stress on my hands.
Overuse injuries and pain is something that is experienced by many people, especially as we age. In this blog, I am sharing some simple, widely available tools that I have found useful. I have deliberately not included medical aids/orthotics and advice. Of course, if you have any undiagnosed pain, you should always seek medical advice.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the many ergonomic tools available to sewists, and I intend to cover this in future. Here, I want to take a step back and look at some ways that we can protect our hands outside of our hobbies.
Meal preparation
Chopping veg is somewhat of a nemesis of mine. I have extremely hyper mobile joints and the method I was using was undoubtedly causing strain.
For fine chopping I now employ my Vitamix blender. Admittedly this is a very big investment and there are several cheaper options available that will perform this function.
For larger slicing, this chopping board is invaluable. The spike impails the vegetable, holding it still and results in less risk of things slipping away. There is also a lip around the edge to stop things sliding off. This eases the stress on the hand that supports the vegetable and even allows two hands to guide the knife.
Finding your ideal kitchen knife is something that can’t be underestimated. For me, this is a relatively small but sharp blade, crucially with a good built up handle.
Used in combination with this non slip mat; A multi functioning gadget which keeps a chopping board still, a dinner plate from sliding and used as a grip to help with opening jars and bottles.
As we purchase milk in 4pint bottles, so we decant this into a smaller vessel for easier lifting and pouring.
Ergonomic cutlery.
Having a slightly more built up handle stops me from over gripping. I tend to hold things too tight to compensate for poor strength. If you are not sure you want a specific cutlery set, I sometimes just choose to use a steak knife with a fork that has a slightly chunkier handle.
Personal Care
Having very thick hair, it is quite difficult to really give it a good wash. I have especially found this since following a sulphate and silicone free regime which relies heavily on you being able to rigorously massage the scalp. Using a shampoo massager has been a massive help in protecting my fingers.
Household changes
When choosing new taps, door handles for our home, they are now lever based so that I don’t have to wrestle with turning tight knobs. In future it is likely I will revert back to a lever type flush on the toilet as opposed to a button as this is something that I struggle with.
Have you found any techniques and gadgets to ease the strain on your hands? Please do share!
By Hand London Tamzin Pattern Hack
10 Comments
Irene de Jong
Thank you for this article!
I used to have my own upholstery buisness but closed resently due to some of the same issues.
Now in the process of turning my buisness around to a more creative flow, for me ment a plotter to do the cutting for me.
And also a projector for sewingpatterns so the steps with the papertracing and cutting is scipped!
Variation in using schilders, electrical scissors and rolling knifes is important to me.
marie.stitchedup
I’m so sorry to hear that you experience this kind of pain too. I’m glad you have been able to adapt and find ways to make things more manageable. Thank you for sharing your tips too! (P.S sorry this response has had such a huge delay!)
Renae
I do hand yoga before or after intensive handwork sessions. I draw, sew, embroider, knit, etc…with both hands and need to keep them limber. I am mindly hypermobile, but also developing arthritis.
marie.stitchedup
That’s really interesting to know! Thank you so much for sharing, I will definitely look into some techniques.
Melanie Y
Hi – thanks for the article. What are the items on your thumb and finger called?
marie.stitchedup
Hi! Thank you for your message, and I’m so sorry I have taken so long to reply. They are called oval 8 finger splints. They have been very useful to protect my finger joints.
Charlotte Roberts
Such an interesting article, I’m also hypermobile, particularly extreme in my thumbs and fingers and have suffered from De Quervains in the past. I haven’t really thought about how I can protect myself for the future, but I really recognise how some things do put extra strain on my hands. Buttonnpress toilets as you say I hate as having to press something with my thumb straight (I don’t have enough strength in my fingers to do it any other way), feels really uncomfortable.
marie.stitchedup
Thank you for your response, and I’m so sorry for the delay in my reply! I agree, it’s such everyday basic functions that can put so much stress on our hands. I hope you found some of the tips useful.
Charlotte
I have just purchased the slicer, shredder, grater attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. Yes, the mixer and attachments are a big investment, but as an aging woodwind player, I prefer to save my hands for playing. I do like to cook, n the mixer with attachments is a wonderful help.
marie.stitchedup
Amazing! I agree, these things are big investments; but like you I prefer to have my hands for the things I enjoy the most. I used to play the clarinet so I definitely remember how hard that is on hand and wrists!