This invention relates generally to exercisers. More specifically, it relates to a portable exercising device and a method of using it to exercise muscles concerned with movement of the fingers, hands and arms.
Persons suffering from arthritis in the hands and wrists, and some stroke victims, lose mobility of the finger and wrist joints. The condition often worsens in a kind of vicious circle as pain of moving the joints, or simple inability to do so, causes them to be moved less and the lack of exercising movement further weakens the muscles so they are less able to move the joints. This can be quite severe where a person has been burdened by the disease or inability for a long time. It can result in an almost complete lock-up of one or more joints. Where this condition persists over a period of years, muscle degradation can extend to some extent to most of the muscles concerned with movement of the fingers, hands, and arms. This can involve even the great pectoralis major muscles on the upper chest, and the trapezius and deltoid muscles on the shoulders and upper back.
Conventional treatment for hand and wrist joints which have lost or are losing mobility is to attempt to increase muscle strength by hand-squeezing procedures. Typically, squeezing pressure is exerted by the hand on an elastic ball or cylinder, or such squeezing movements are practiced in air without the elastic member. Unfortunately, benefits of this procedure are slow to achieve, are seldom substantial, and are limited to a few muscles in the hand and lower forearm. This situation is accordingly in need of an improvement.