CMC Stabilization Exercises The purpose of these exercises is to strengthen your muscles around your arthritic thumb joint making it more stable and less painful. Exercises are to be performed gently and never should be painful!

1. Imaginary Ball: Pretend 2. Thumb Pinch: Form a circle to hold a ball and let the ball with your index finger and slowly expand, keeping the thumb. Tighten your thumb fingers slightly curled. Hold muscles against the fingers of for the count of 5, repeat your other hand. Hold for the ___times. count of 5, _____times.

3. Thumb outward push: 4. Thumb perpendicular with your hand resting on push: with your hand resting the table, push outward on the little finger side on the with your thumb; don’t let table, push your thumb out- your thumb move by stop- ward; use your other hand to ping it with your other hand block it from moving. but tense the muscles. _____times. _____times.

5. Index finger push: 6. Stable pinch: touch the with your hand lying flat thumb to the first two fin- on the table, move the gers; pinch against the index finger toward your thumb keeping the *MP joint *MP thumb; use your other slightly bent in an “O” hand to stop it from mov- shape. _____times. ing. _____times.

7. Putty thumbprints: use 8. Pinch strengthening: your thumb, index and mid- Keeping the stable “O” posi- dle fingers to make light im- tion, squeeze the fingers into pressions in the putty. Keep the putty. Do this only if you the stable “O” position. can maintain the stable MP* _____times. joint position. _____times.

From K. Carney, OTR/L, CHT, NEHS, 2005 KLL 2013