Patients with neck pain have difficulty with making a fist, especially a tight fist secondary to pain in the wrists and fingers.
To have a powerful grip while tightening the fist, the following conditions have to be present:
- the thumb must be able to bend across the fingers curled into the palm. The thumb must be able to oppose. These actions need the full function of the muscles supplied by the median and ulnar nerves.
- the strength of the wrist extensors to stabilize the wrist. This requires the full function of the dorsal forearm muscles supplied by the radial nerve.