Hands muscles

[Daniel_piano]

I was wondering: if hands has no muscles at all why when you use them a lot they become more musulous?

For example I have a friend of mine who had very fragile hand with long thin bones
He started weighlifting 6 month ago and now his hands are bigger, stronger and ticker

My sister is younger than me and a girl
So she is supposed to have hands weaker and littler than mine
And she had, until she started doing gymnastic and by always working with the bar she now has very strong hands
As her hands became strong they also became thicker and bigger

I on the other, the sedentary one, have very bony and fragile hands and I feel pain when someone shake hands with me

So, if there are no muscles in the hands, why they get atrophy, get bigger, thicker and stronger like arm muscles when you train or exercise them?

Daniel

[Rach3]

Why do you think there are no muscles in the hands?

[bernhard]

Have a look here:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4145.msg38568.html#msg38568

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Daniel_piano]

Why do you think there are no muscles in the hands?

Sorry, I mean the fingers
I understand that fingers has no muscles
Yes through exercise they become thicker and stronger as the hand

Daniel

[bravuraoctaves]

the fingers are mainly moved by the muscles in your arms.  There are musclesin the fingers, but they are not very strong.

[bernhard]

Here we go again.

There are no muscles in the fingers Not even tiny winny ones. Not even very very small and weak muscles. Nothing, zilch. Get a book of anatomy.

If you find any evidence of muscles in the fingers, you are in line for the Nobel Prize of medicine.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[xvimbi]

Here we go again.

There are no muscles in the fingers Not even tiny winny ones. Not even very very small and weak muscles. Nothing, zilch. Get a book of anatomy.

If you find any evidence of muscles in the fingers, you are in line for the Nobel Prize of medicine.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

Just to make sure, so that nobody gets confused: "fingers" in this context means the digits starting from the metacarpo-phalangeal joints ("knuckles"), i.e where the fingers join the palm ("hand"). If "finger" is used to describe the digits starting from the carpo-metacarpal joints (wrist), as it should be, then one could indeed talk about "finger muscles" (thenar, hypothenar, and intermediate muscles), because they surround the metacarpals, i.e. the first segment of the digits. Those muscles are in the palm, which in a colloquial sense does not really belong to the "fingers" (but it does in an anatomical sense).

[Daniel_piano]

I understand that there's no muscles in the fingers
I was wondering what is the reason why finger can become "muscolous" as well as the hand
I mean, if someone work with a bar daily for years her/his hands become ticher, bigger and stronger
But it's not the fingers don't change
They become thicker too
So, if it is not muscles that is growing in this case, what else?

I've witnessed this on my sister hands
She trained them, and they became strong and thicker, fingers included

Daniel

[Bob]

I would imagine tendons can toughen up from use.  Tendons can get more or less stretchy I believe.  I'm not sure if they get larger though.  There might also be fat in your hands.  Or maybe it's the skin somehow -- Skin can definitely get tougher with use.

The only muscles I know in the hands are the ones for the pinky (pull your pinky down and it will pop out) and the thumb one (squeeze your thumb over toward your fingers).

My guess is tendons.  Or those pinky and thumb muscles growing larger.

[bernhard]

Er... what about... FAT!

[Daniel_piano]

Er... what about... FAT!

Uhmm, I don't think it was fat
I'm talking about super lean people with a very low fat percentage
My sister, my father and my teacher was hands became thicker and bigger with exericises don't have fatty hands, when I touch them they're all solid and strong suggesting it's not the fat that they gained
My sister is so thin that she have even thin feet
Definitely it's not fat
Pursuing of weighlifintg, had manual works and gymastic made the hands of these people thicker not in a fatty way

Daniel

[Bob]

I'm not quite sure I follow.  I can understand the skin toughening up and maybe the span stretching out a bit, but how can hands actually get larger?  The bones would stay the same.  Maybe it's the way they use their hands?  Maybe their muscles are more developed or they move more powerfully?

Or maybe hands do get larger.  Maybe the use stretches everything a bit and they puff up and heal that way, larger.

[faulty_damper]

The joints can and will get larger to distribute the load stresses from such activities, especially rock climbing.

[Daniel_piano]

I think we should also differentiate between hormonal bones growing that happen during infancy and puberty and incrementing of bone mass
For example it has been proven that women who take calcium supplemention can improve their bone mass gaining width in their bones or for example African children suffering from rickets or poor minerals absorption can elanrge their vertebras even in their 30's given high amount of Vitamins D and calcium
One stimulus that is known to grow bone even in adult age is exercise and weights
Using weightead belt can enalrge and the mass of legs and phemorous bones
Squats increase bone mass in the back and shoulder
So, bones grow every day given the right stimulus and nutrients for that to happen, it's just a different growth than infancy and puberty growing but it's still growth

The difference is basically that during infanccy and puberty cartilage turns into bone tissue, while in adult age it's the bone tissue itself that get bigger adn wider by osteoblasts action, give that the amount of calcium excreted and pulled from bone due to buffering of metabolic acidosis doesn't exceed the mineralization and bone tissue formation


Daniel