Crochet Fitness – Exercises – April 2020

When you increase the amount of time you spend crocheting , just like with anything else, you should take precautions and prepare yourself.  The repetitive movement can put strain on your joints and cause some pain. 

Some of this can be relieved by changing hooks or yarns or not holding the yarn so tight. However, I also found that doing finger exercises and stretches helps a lot.  So I have joined these exercises and stretches with some other body stretches to create what I call ‘Crochet fitness’.  By no means is any of this medically proven, and if you already suffer from severe pain, please check with a doctor before doing any of the below to ensure they don’t aggravate the problem, and/or whether you need a variation to the exercises.

Hand and Wrist Exercises

Do 5 repetitions of each:

The spider – spread your fingers as far apart as you can, with palms facing together.  Join the tips of your fingers together and then push your palm and fingers together then away again so just the tips are touching.  Essentially the fingers are doing push-ups against each other.

The spread – with palms facing down, spread your fingers as far apart as you can, then squeeze them into a fist then spread them out again.

The fist – with palms facing up, curl your fingers so they touch the bottom of your palm as close to the wrist as possible. Release then curl them again to touch the middle of your palm. Release then curl them again to touch the top of your palm (just below your fingers).

Thumb dancing – make a fist with your thumbs pointing up towards the ceiling. Bend your thumb back as far as possible, then make as wide a circle as you can first clockwise, then anticlockwise.

Click here to watch these exercises on video.

Whole of Body Stretches

Take breaks—When you have long periods of time sitting and crocheting, it is important to take regular breaks (say every 20 minute). During each break, have a short walk—stand tall, take wide strides stretching the back of you thigh muscles and clench your glutes.  And drink a glass of water.

Do 5 repetitions of each:

Elastic Stand tall, extend your arms above your head and reach as high as you can.  Go up onto  your toes and back down to flat feet and pull your arms down again.

Bend Stand tall and extend your arms above your head.  Bend from the waist keeping your arms straight and move them towards your toes.    When bent in half extend your arms as close as possible to your toes then slowly bend back up again.

Neck bend  Stand tall looking directly I front of you.  Slowly tilt your head back to look at the ceiling and slowly rotate your head in a circle clockwise then anticlockwise.