Exercises to Strengthen Fingers for Keyboarding

Here are basic exercises that will strengthen fingers for keyboarding. Pick those that work best for your student group. Some are great for Kindergartners, others for olders:

• Warming up Fingers
  Before exercising in the gym, you warm up. Typing is a workout for the fingers. Lay your hand flat on a table (or book) with all fingers touching. Spread your fingers apart as far as possible and hold for three seconds. Close fingers together. Repeat this exercise 10 times.

• Stretching Fingers
  Stretching fingers is just as important as warming up the muscles of the hand. To stretch your finger muscles, hold your hands facing each other. Touch the thumb from your right hand to the thumb of your left hand. Touch the first finger on your right hand to the first finger on the left hand. Repeat until all fingers are touching.

With fingers pressed together, pull palms away from each other creating a cup shape with the fingers and palm on each hand. Starting at the finger tips, slowly move palms closer together, rolling the pressure down the fingers until all four fingers are pressed together. Hold for 10 seconds. Move back to the starting position and repeat 10 times.

• Aerobics for Fingers
  Once fingers are warmed up and stretched, it is time to start finger exercises for typing. Hold the hand in the air with fingers spread apart so it looks like a “high-five.” Move just the thumb to the palm and press. Bring the thumb back out to the starting position and move the first finger to the palm and press. Move the first finger back to the starting position and repeat slowly with the remaining fingers. Fingers not pressing into the palm should be held as straight as possible. After one round of finger exercises for typing, try again a little faster. Repeat 10 times, increasing speed with each round.

• Weight Training for Fingers
  The muscles of the hand and forearm are responsible for finger movements on the keyboard. Grab a scrap piece of paper and crumble it into a ball with one hand. Squeeze the paper ball tight and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat with the other hand.

I do these in a group with students as part of the keyboarding lesson time. Everyone loves them because they are so different and they work!  How do you help students strengthen their fingers for the constancy of keyboarding?

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.