Are you wearing your ring splints ‘too much’??
It’s officially ‘fall’ as of Sunday! 🎉
I am obsessed with fall. It’s objectively the best season 🍂
One of my favorite aspects of fall - aside from the cozy blankets and pumpkin flavored everything - is I feel like I get to reinvent my wardrobe.
Moving from a summer wardrobe to a fall one is more than simply tossing my tank tops and shorts in a storage bin under my bed…
…I like to think about EVERYTHING! Sweaters, jeans, and accessories.
And speaking of accessories, let’s talk about… RING SPLINTS 💍
😍 Ring splints are SOOOOO beneficial - if you haven’t been around here long or are unfamiliar with them, they are jewelry-style splints that are custom made for your unique fingers or thumbs.
They are most commonly used by hypermobile humans to block the backwards bending of finger joints.
By providing more finger stability, ring splints can prevent injuries, dislocations, or subluxations (‘partial dislocations’) of your finger joints 🙌
People also like to use them for correcting lateral deviation of the fingers (AKA ‘crooked finger’), as well as to support painful arthritic nodes.
Aside from their incredible durability and custom support, ring splints just look…well…like gorgeous rings!
One of the most common questions I get about ring splints, aside from where to get them (I have a whole blog post about how to get ring splints here), is…
“Can I wear my ring splints 'too much?'”
I understand where this question comes from.
At one point, some well-intentioned doctor warned you that if you wear a brace too much, you’ll ‘get weak’ or ‘become reliant on it.’ 🙄
Well I’m here to bust this myth, ESPECIALLY when it comes to ring splints!!
Here’s the thing about your finger and thumb joints:
You have 29 joints in ONE HAND ALONE 🖐
🖐 29 JOINTS!!! 🖐
And while we do have muscles that contribute to our hand motion...
…most of what’s supporting and surrounding your finger joints is connective tissue rather than muscle bulk.
Take a look at your fingers. Feel them. Notice how there’s not much soft tissue or ‘muscle bulk,’ but rather just bones and joints 🦴
Now consider how hypermobility or a connective tissue disorder impacts your joints.
Your connective tissue - the main thing that is providing support to your finger joints - is more lax. Stretchy. Bendy.
Which can lead to finger strain, hyperextension, and dislocations.
Seriously, fingers aren’t meant to bend in all the contorted positions that many of us ‘bendy folks’ find our fingers in 👀
So while I’m still a HUGE fan of hand exercises…
…sometimes, no amount of finger exercises will fix your hand pain.
You can’t ‘beef up’ your hands where there is no muscle, lol.
💍 And that’s where ring splints come in 💍
Ring splints simply block the hyperextended, or unwanted, motion.
They aren’t blocking your ‘functional’ motion - meaning, you can still grab objects and USE your hands fully with your ring splints on.
It comes down to this:
If you’re using your hands, they’re getting stronger / conditioned.
Yes, even with ring splints on.
In fact, with ring splints on, you’re LESS LIKELY to get injured while doing your favorite activity 💛
The ONLY time I generally advise my clients to not wear their ring splints is when they are sleeping or doing an activity they wouldn’t normally wear jewelry to (such as sports).
Have you ever been afraid you were wearing your ring splints ‘too much’ {first_name}?
Comment below and let me know - I would love to hear your thoughts on this 😊
Cheers-ing you with my ring-splint clad hand and my pumpkin-spiced coffee! ☕ 🍂
Your hand coach,CorinnePS...
Recently, we have been celebrating folks inside our Hypermobile Hands Blueprint community for ordering ring splints! 💍 🎉
With 9 trainings answering your burning questions on ring splints and helping you decide which exact ring splints you need to order (and for which finger joints)...
…it only makes sense that my people have found it easy to make moves 👏
Or, start with my free training first and save $100 on the Blueprint 🎉
