Wrists and forearms

What these work on

Wrists and forearms carry a load that is easy to overlook. Typing, gripping a phone, holding a wheel, and picking anything up all run through the same small muscles, and they spend most of the day slightly contracted.

These practices take the wrist through bending and extending, open the palm and fingers, and work the forearm on both sides.

This is the thinnest research area of the seven, and it is worth saying so. There is no large trial telling us what a wrist routine does over months. What can be said honestly is what stretching delivers everywhere it has been measured: more comfortable range through the joint, and relief from the gripped feeling that builds after hours in the same position.

A minute or two is enough, and it works better taken during the day than saved up for the end of it.