Help me turn my piany playin' hands into rugged karate choppin farmer's hands

September 20, 2006 6:01 PM

Is it possible for a person with skinny hands with bony fingers to get their hands to look more normal through exercise?

2 things come to mind: 'farmer's hands' which makes me think of big tough hands that presumably got that way through hard work on the farm, and the other thing I remember watching something on TV about karate practitioner's bones in their hands thickening from all that karate chopping.
So if it is possible, what would I do and how long would it take and how much success could I expect to have?

posted by dino terror to Health & Fitness (20 answers total)

Not to hijack but I've got stubby hands and I'd be interested in the opposite myself. I don't think they've got hand thinner exercises even if there's the opposite.
posted by stoneegg21 at 6:11 PM on September 20, 2006

Well, your hands do have muscles in them. So presumably, doing hand exercises could make them larger. Rock climbing requires a lot of hand strength, so perhaps that might help.
posted by number9dream at 6:33 PM on September 20, 2006

Playing bass in a band for a couple years gave me good thick muscles in my hands.
posted by thirteenkiller at 6:35 PM on September 20, 2006

What do those things that look like spring-loaded nutcrackers that people hold in their hands and squeeze do? I'd think it must help with one or the other. (dino terror or stoneegg's problem)
posted by leapingsheep at 6:35 PM on September 20, 2006

Response by poster: Yeah I was about to say I have those hand grips and have used them for extended periods but the problem is they only strengthen in a certain area and they only do 'flexion' so can only really exercise the 'flexion' muscles. I would also need to bulk up the 'extension' muscles. But I dont want to develop some kind of repetetive strain injury by going about something willy nilly. What I feel like I need is some kind of 'whole hand' activity, yet I'm not sure at this point if I can overcome my genetics in the hands area which arent commonly discussed when talking about areas of the body to bulk up.
posted by dino terror at 6:50 PM on September 20, 2006

squeeze a tennis ball all day
posted by mattbucher at 6:56 PM on September 20, 2006

I worked at UPS slinging boxes in the warehouse for a summer and none of my rings would fit by the end of the summer. This was a lot of "grab heavy box with your fingertips and slide it" work which seems to be the big finger-muscler.
posted by jessamyn at 7:30 PM on September 20, 2006

Playing the piano can get your hands pretty strong, actually, depending I suppose on what kind of music you play and how loud you play it. My piano teacher taught me that the muscles to flex your fingers are not actually in your hand though, they're further up your arm. I suspect that's true. So strengthening those isn't going to mean big hands. Looking at my hand, it seems likely to me that most of the muscles in there are to move the fingers side to side, and the thumb.
posted by sfenders at 7:34 PM on September 20, 2006

There are no muscles in your fingers however, so exercise won't easily help with bony-looking fingers. Perhaps there is some way to increase the girth of tendons and the other tissues there?
posted by -harlequin- at 7:55 PM on September 20, 2006

Callouses seem to help - thickening the skin, but my callouses are the same on both hands, so I can't be sure.
posted by -harlequin- at 7:58 PM on September 20, 2006

Response by poster: Well I came across an interesting idea that may work with my busy schedule: weighted gloves...
posted by dino terror at 8:05 PM on September 20, 2006

No muscles at all in the fingers, yeah, that's what I thought. On closer inspection, it appears that the muscles to move the fingers side-to-side are also up near the elbow somewhere. Very few muscles in the hand, I guess maybe just two or three.

Perhaps there is some way to increase the girth of tendons and the other tissues there?

Eating lots of fatty foods would certainly increase those other tissues. But yeah, think of how thick the soles of your feet can get if you walk around outside a lot. Same mechanism might make a big difference to fingers.
posted by sfenders at 8:42 PM on September 20, 2006

Remember Popeye and his bulging forearms? That was a caricature of the way sailors really did look 100 years ago. They used their hands constantly to pull ropes controlling sails, and it built up the muscles which controlled their hands. Since nearly all those muscles are in the upper forearm near the elbow, that's what bulged up on Popeye.

If you put one hand on that part of your other arm, and then wiggle the fingers of that other hand, you can feel the muscles moving.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:29 PM on September 20, 2006

Yes, the muscles that move the fingers are in the arm. Nonetheless, I reckon that the fibrous tissue will grow in response to stress.

Lowgrade anecdotal evidence:

1. The famous farmers'/mechanics'/labourers' hands.
2. My right thumb, which is markedly broader and thicker than any other digit including my left thumb, owing the stress of counterbalancing a violin bow for hours at a time.

I would theorise that a person who wants thick hands should emulate manual labourers. Lots of carrying/lifting loads with thick handles, pullups and chins or just hanging from thick bars, rope climbing - anything that puts a lot of stress directly on your gripping surfaces. I doubt that grippers would work that well unless they have thick wide handles.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 9:55 PM on September 20, 2006

Three years ago, DiamonMax latex gloves medium fit me loosly. Large were outright floppy.

I found myself asking the biobar outlet if there was an intermediate sized glove between a DiamondMax medium and large as the large was tight but the fingers too long.

I might either just be getting older and tubbier or doing chinups/chestups daily has increased the size of my hands as well as the rest of my upper body.
posted by porpoise at 10:12 PM on September 20, 2006

Not all the hand-controlling muscles are anchored at the top of the radius and ulna at the elbow. There are three basic groups of palm muscles: the thumb muscles (thenar group), the little finger muscles (hypothenar), and the ones in the middle, the interosseous muscles (which are deep, and like the name implies, located between the carpal bones of the hand), and the palmar aponeurosis, which is the sheet of fascia covering the surface of the palm. (As a neat little aside, this is a spiffy muscle, as it anchors the skin to the deep bone structures beneath, so that when you grip things, the skin of your hand doesn't slip. Cool.)

To greatest increase the -size- of your hands, you would most want to work on the interosseous muscles, because as they increase in size, they force the bones of the hand further apart, thus broadening it.

Really, though, you can't operate those muscles without using most of the others, so there's no point trying to separate them out. When you work some, you work all.

As for suggestions on how best to work on this? Well, look at the farmers whose hands you refer to. Think about the kinds of activities they do every day - lots of gripping, lifting, throwing, and other manipulations going on, what with digging, lifting hay bales and feed, raking, shoveling, hoeing, pulling, et cetera. Replicate and repeat. Any activity that uses the gripping muscles - the thumb group pressing towards the little finger group with some amount of tension - is bound to produce some effect. Note, however, that the amount of time required to produce any noticeable difference in one's hands is considerable, and may or may not be achievable simply by, say, squeezing a ball in one's spare time. Also, you be the judge of the risk of repetitive stress injuries with things like that. I've never tried it myself, though. My own personal favorite hand-strengthener is horseback riding on a horse with an insensitive mouth, followed by digging with a large iron pole. Lifting and gripping and slamming such a heavy object repeatedly does wonders for a -lot- of muscles, not just those of the hands.

As far as the actual bones "thickening" due to exercise/activity? I'm skeptical. But, then, I'm not a doctor, just someone with a side anatomy hobby.
posted by po at 10:35 PM on September 20, 2006

I would think piano playing would give you awesome hand strength. In addition to the grippers mentioned, there's also a putty-like plastic clay that's used by physical therapists to help people with wrist and hand weakness. (I'm not sure what it's called, but if you called around to a local physio they would know, and would have better advice about how to strengthen your fingers without injuring the rest of your hand.)

Incidentally, here's the best of the web in hand strength: how to tear a phone book in half. This link is a step-by-step description with pictures. There are links at the bottom for video of Clay Edgin rolling up a metal pan, and tearing a deck of cards in half.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:56 PM on September 20, 2006

Your bones can thicken with exercise, but I wouldn't count on its making a drastic difference in your fingers.

I used to do piano for hours each day. Although I would feel it afterwards mostly in my lower arms, your hands definitely do have muscles that can profitably be strengthened. I stopped the regimen several years ago, and I notice a big difference in my grip today -- other people have also commented on the difference when I've given them massages.

The bad news is that I'm not sure any of that practice ever noticeably changed the shape of my fingers. I did notice a slight difference in my palms, in the muscles that move your thumbs independently. I don't think the backs of my hands changed much, except the tendons may have been more prominent then.

So practicing piano will strengthen your grip (and, you know, improve your piano skills) but I'm not sure it will do much for the appearance of your hands. It may be worth a shot, but don't knock yourself out doing hours a day.
posted by booksandlibretti at 12:49 AM on September 21, 2006

If po's account of the muscles is right, piano playing doesn't use the right motions to bulk up your hands.

You don't grip anything with your palms. You don't spread your fingers wide apart or clench them together. You certainly don't do anything that would cause your palm's skin to slip against the underlying bones. You don't even flex your pinky finger in towards your thumb: the pinky motion when you hit a key is straight up and down, using only the muscles on the outside of your forearm. In fact, I spent a lot of time as a piano student isolating that up-and-down finger motion, making sure there was no gripping or clenching or sideways movement going on.

You do flex the muscles at the base of your thumb to bring your thumb down on a key, though. And sure enough, that's the only muscle I've ever seen bulked up on a piano player. My old teacher had an enormously strong grip, big forearms, the skinniest little fingers, and a giant mound of Venus. (No, not that one, the one on your hand.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:26 AM on September 21, 2006

Disclaimer: This is all second-hand. I've not tried it myself, but the method seems sound enough.

1). Get some free weights--barbells, some plates, etc.

2). Buy some thick foam insulation tubing, the kind with a slit up the side to help it get around pipes.

3). Slide the tubing around the grips of the barbells and dumb-bells. Make sure that the tubing's fairly snug, so that the bars don't slide around or rotate inside the foam. The goal is to substantially increase the thickness of the grips, though not so much as to make them too difficult to hold.

4). Begin a weight training regimen. Nothing too difficult or exotic--your basic presses and curls and such will suffice. Hopefully, you should notice some substantial increases in grip strength (and digit size) as your fingers cope with the thick bars. And the lifting should benefit your hands by itself; a comprehensive lifting program tends to trigger development throughout many of the body's small assistive muscles, including the ones in your fingers. (Make sure to train with a spotter if you do these exercises. That's good advice anyday, but anything that increases the difficulty of a lift should be approached carefully).
posted by Iridic at 2:11 PM on September 22, 2006