📚The radial nerve is one of the three major peripheral nerves of the upper extremity and supplies the posterior arm and forearm.

🔎More specifically, the radial nerve provides motor innervation to the triceps and the wrist/finger extensor muscles. The nerve also relays sensory input from most of the back of the hand and fingers (except the pinky and medial half of the ring finger).

🧠The two mobilizations demonstrated in this post can be useful for individuals who are experiencing pain, numbness or tingling in the back of the hand, especially near the thumb, index and middle finger.

1️⃣Sliders involve placing one end of the nerve on tension while the other end is slack. In this example, when the wrist is flexed (nerve on tension at the wrist), the neck is laterally flexed toward the arm (nerve on slack at the neck). Then, the neck and wrist positions switch, which creates the sliding movement of the nerve. Try alternating back and forth 10-15 times and use the technique whenever you are experiencing nerve symptoms (pain, tingling, numbness).

2️⃣Next, we see a ‘tensioner’ position where the nerve is put on tension across its entire path. In this position, you will likely experience a neural ‘stretch’, which can feel slightly different than a muscle stretch. Tensioners can be held for several seconds and are usually implemented once the person’s symptoms are no longer acute.

✅A nerve pain program can be found here in the app in the head and neck section. Here is a link for that program.

https://membership.rehabscience.com/programs/neck-nerve-pain?category_id=260344