How to Warm Up Your Hands for Gaming?

When you think of video games, you may picture a child sitting in front of a TV screen or computer screen with a controller in his hands, playing a game he enjoys. However, the reach of the video game community isn’t- just restricted to a casual gamer sitting down on the couch in his pajamas.

Esports refers to professional and competitive video gaming in the form- of competitions played by professional gamers. The athletes of these games live a lifestyle of constant practice and training, traveling from one competition to another much- like how professional athletes- are treated in the physical world.

With the current situation and people staying at home, gaming and esports have become even more popular than before. We all know that the interest in the industry has been spiking up, and recently, even more. That is all due to the fact that many people spend more time at their homes. Doing so made them turn more to gaming and, from there, to watching streams of famous players or tournaments.

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Why to Warm-Up Hands?

Why is it important to warm up your hands? That is a good question to ask. Although it may seem silly to many of you, warming up before gaming is something normal and something most professionals do. 

Warming up will let you perform better. Be it a casual long game session with friends, or an esports-inspired ranked match, you- have to do it. As you know, in any sport, before taking any other action, you warm up. The same goes here, too. A good warm-up of your fingers and wrists will make you feel better and more relaxed.

Your performance quality will increase, and the risk of injuries will be minimized. Even if it sounds unreal, it is quite possible to happen. Especially if you plan to play for hours. Keep in mind that your hands have been in the same position for a long time. You most likely will not take long enough breaks and will be focused on gaming, totally forgetting about your hands.

Have you heard about actions per minute? That is well known in the gaming world by the term “APM.” In short, it represents the players’ skills at taking fast actions and being quick-witted. In APM, it is critical to be agile, and as everything is related to using your keyboard and mouse, it also means that it is closely related to using your hands well. That is yet another reason to warm up properly.

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How to Warm up Your Hands Properly?

There are various ways to warm up your hands, wrists, or fingers. Most of them are the same no matter what they are related to. Below, we will give you a few examples of techniques that you can try and use.

First, start by simply rubbing your hands together. You can do this by starting from the palm and then rubbing the back of your hands. It is suggested to do it with rotating movements, gently, and at a moderate speed.

The second is to warm up your fingers. For that, start by touching the tip of your thumb and index finger. Imagine that you are meditating. If it looks like that, then simply change the fingers to the thumb and middle finger, etc. Repeat this a few times. As it’s crucial to stretch the tendons. The main point of these exercises is stretching, and for that, as we said, you have to touch your fingertips several times.

Another way to warm up your hands is by doing figures. Yep, sounds weird, but that’s how it is done. Have you played with shadows like a kid or a game like rock, paper, scissors? It is something similar. This type of exercise is again for the tendons of the hand. It is performed- by shaping your hand- into different shapes. For example, try to imitate an arrow with your fingers straight up. Claw-like with fingers slightly bent inwards is another option, as is a simple fist, or any other form you can think of.

Third, do the wrist circumduction exercise. It is well known to everyone and is often used in various sports. To perform it properly, you have to warm up a bit with the methods above and then start- to conduct it. It is best to rotate them inwards with your hands open. This way, the fingers will stretch too. Do this a few times in one direction, and after about five repetitions, start doing the same movements in the counter-clockwise direction.

A different way to stretch your wrist is by just pressing them slowly against each other. To do so, just match your fingers and move both hands toward each other. Once you do that, let the palms touch and gently press. While doing it, you can move the hands from a standing position to a little lower one, letting them lower for a bit. Do not overdo the strength or duration of this exercise, as you can injure yourself if you make a mistake or overdo it. Always be careful.

A favorite way of mine to warm up your fingers and wrists is actually a practice that people do in martial arts. It is quite simple and, at the same time, effective. To do it, you simply have to spread your fingers and touch the tips of your fingers with the opposite hand. Do not put pressure on them and try to keep them together like this.

The point is that each finger has to touch the one on your opposite hand while they are spread out. Now simply start from the thumbs. Separate the fingers and start- to do circular movements, while the point is to make your two thumbs go around each other. Try to- not to move or separate your other fingers while doing this. Take your time and in twenty or thirty seconds, start rotating them backward. 

After you do this, touch the thumb tips together and proceed with the next finger. The hard part is that it will not be easy to perform this warm-up without separating the fingers. Other than being a great warm-up for the hands. It is also an amazing- type of exercise for your mentality and quick thinking. If that is not enough on top of that, it gives you better control when it comes to your hands and fingers.

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Conclusion

Warming-up before a gaming session. Or simply before using the computer for a long time is a good thing. Not only will it prevent possible injuries to your hands, but it will also make you focus while performing the exercises. As I said, there are many different ways to perform such warm-ups. You can find many on the internet, but it’s recommended to pick a few and focus on them. 

Finding something that will be useful to you and at the same time will actually help is hard, but not impossible. I do recommend you try the last method for warming up, which I suggest, and see for yourself if it is useful- to you. With this, the article comes to its end. Thank you for reading and till next time.