You’ve probably never seen this happen at your local gym. You’re standing there between a bench press station and a squat machine. Through your mind are running vacillating thoughts about trying to motivate yourself to do one of those exercises while trying to determine which if going to hurt worse tomorrow. Past you walks a totally ripped stud, and you think to yourself, “What does that guy do to get to looking like that?” Then you watch in amazement as he walks over to a small corner of the gym where there are no weights, not even something to hang from. He pulls out his finger exerciser and goes to town. His finger workout comes complete with heavy breathing and occasional loud gasps, as if he’s trying to impress the entire gym audience with the show he’s putting on.

Although I’ve seen a lot of strange people and habits at the gyms I’ve been to, that scene would probably be too far-fetched for anything I can imagine. I’ve been teased for using the grip exerciser, so I can hardly see myself working out my fingers in public. Oddly enough, there are perfectly legitimate reasons to build and maintain your finger muscles. In fact, there are enough reasons for doing that kind of a workout that there are products dedicated to the cause. If you think about it, our finger muscles may be the most used part of our bodies, especially if you type, play the piano, play tennis, and a whole host of other activities. So while it may not make sense to include a finger lift in the World’s Strongest Man competition, there are some practical reasons for developing your finger muscles.

Cando has created a finger exerciser machine called the Digi-Extend. Among its uses are improving finger strength by performing exercises that allow a user to isolate individual fingers during a workout. It is also used to rehabilitate problems such as carpal tunnel, arthritis, stroke, fractures, tendon injury, nerve lacerations, tennis elbow and others. The Cando Digi-Extend finger exerciser comes with a pamphlet that guides users through twelve different exercises aimed at accomplishing various goals related to gaining and maintaining health in the fingers. Try them out for yourself and see what kind of a difference they make.

So while you probably won’t be the talk of the gym within weeks of putting your new finger exerciser to work, you’ll likely find improvement in your finger strength (after you get past the initial soreness) accompanied by related gains in performance when working with your hands.