Simple exercise to fix trigger thumb that you can do on your own

Last Updated on July 18, 2020

Trigger thumb is a very uncomfortable and often painful condition where one experiences pain and a locked feeling of unable to move the thumb. It is getting more and more common for those who use their Smartphones or gamers.

A friend of mine who does a lot of cooking for many people (which involves hours of cutting up vegetables and meat as well as stirring and washing) suffers from this condition. She has tried numerous treatments including acupuncture and blood letting but there is only slight relief to her condition. If one were to explore conventional medicine, the recommended treatment are resting, steroid injections and anti inflammatory medication.

Recently, we came across the video (in Thai language) by a layperson who had successfully healed his trigger thumb through performing simple exercises. Even though the video is in Thai, it is easy to understand because he actually show us how the exercises are being done.

In the video, the man mentioned that basically he had the painful locked thumb and had tried various remedies but none seemed to offer him any relief. In the end he tried some exercises on his own and after sometime, his trigger thumb was cured!

The exercises may look simple but they do really work. Some of the exercise sequences like the hand flinging are found in qi gong based exercises which I do when my fingers get a little stiff especially in the morning.

There is a final sequence where he used a long rattan material- it is one of below that is usually sold only in Thailand. I have one which cost 70 baht:

If you visit Thailand you can find this sold in shops selling self help health tools like guasa or wooden/coconut products. Basically the item is place in the finger and then we pull it. It will tighten and if our fingers have some condition, it can be very painful.

No worries if you cannot find the item as it is not common. But try out his other exercises. Essentially all these type of pain are caused by meridian blockages. The exercises he is doing is aimed at clearing these blockages. And don’t be surprised that the source of the problem of our locked thumb is in fact not at the thumb but at other points that causes the refer pain to the thumb.

His advice in the video is that we must be diligent in doing these exercises and not do it once a while. If we do it once a while, we would not see results. These exercises are easy to perform and best of all they are free… we can easily do some of the exercises while taking morning walks, watching TV or waiting for someone. Sometimes while watching some YouTube education videos, I would have my phone holstered up on another surface while I do these exercises.