Info: With Red Protective Sleeve, Strap, and Variable Speed LED Lights
A proven exercise and rehabilitation tool, gyro wrist trainer balls have been around for decades. They're an affordable and enjoyable means of physical therapy to help alleviate hand, wrist, and forearm pains, and also a great part of a workout to build up finger, forearm, grip, and even shoulder strength.
Info: With Red Protective Sleeve, Strap, and Variable Speed LED Lights
A proven exercise and rehabilitation tool, gyro wrist trainer balls have been around for decades. They're an affordable and enjoyable means of physical therapy to help alleviate hand, wrist, and forearm pains, and also a great part of a workout to build up finger, forearm, grip, and even shoulder strength.
Product Notes:
It may look like one and can be as fun as one, but this is no toy. It's actually a therapeutic device which can help you recover from (and prevent!) injuries or conditions such as 'mouse wrist' or carpal tunnel syndrome. It's a unique exercising tool used to strengthen the muscles used in many sports (such as golf), pastimes (such as computer gaming), or musical instruments like the guitar.
They go by a number of names, including "Powerball", "wrist ball", "gyroball", or "gyroscopic exercise tool," and consist of a free-spinning mass on an axle, encased by an outer shell about the size of a tennis ball, which you grip in the palm of your hand. Once the core is already spinning, you can accelerate the gyro wheel inside and its associated resistance simply by moving your wrist (but not your arm) in a stirring motion, synchronized with the rotation speed of the ball.
Doing so activates both the flexor muscles in the fingers and the extensor muscles in the wrist (the ones used in opening door knobs); improves motor skills; increases blood flow; stimulates the production of the synovial fluid which lubricates and nourishes your joints); and helps strengthen the arm all the way from fingertips to the shoulder as a form of isometric exercise from the resistance to the centrifugal force it builds up as the inner ball increases speed.
Easy Self-Start
To initiate their spinning, previous generations of these devices needed to be started with a winding starter cord or string, somewhat like a yo-yo, or by a separate battery operated docking station. With this Self-Starting version, however, all you need to do is 'prime it' by rolling the ball backwards a few times with your thumbs.
This Yunmai model produced in association with Xiaomi also incorporates four red LED lights spread out in intervals on one side of the inner wheel which get powered by the spinning gyroscope itself. A fabric wrist strap is also included to prevent it from dropping in case it slips your grip.
Related Product: See the Handmaster Plus.
Composition:
This is of much sturdier construction than many wrist ball brands (which are largely plastic). It features a durable polycarbonate shell, a ball core electroplated with a zinc alloy, and a protective sleeve (the red ring) and 'priming' strips made of silicone.
Suggested Usage:
This video shows how to start the wrist exerciser. Please note, this video features the black model, which has a multi-coloured light display which differs from the red one available here.
To start the device, simply cradle the outer case between the fingers of both hands, as shown in the video and one of the product photos, and use your two thumbs (alternating between the two) to build up tension on the inner ball by pressing down on the red strips in the centre and rolling the ball in the direction of the arrows on the strips for three or four times until it becomes quite stiff, and then just release it, to start it spinning.
Then put the strap around one of your wrists and place the device in the palm of that hand, and begin rotating your wrist (keeping the ball in more or less the same position in space, overall), as though you were stirring something. This can be done in a variety of orientations, such as in front of you with the device upside down, as though you were standing over a stove; or sideways, in front of your chest, with your elbow propped up.
The important thing is that it be the wrist providing the circular motions, not the arm. You can begin with slow, gentle circles, and then adjust the rhythm and strength of your movement as much as you like; as the rotation increases, so will the gyroscope's inertial energy and resistance.