From typing on your computer to texting on your smartphone, your hands and wrists get almost non-stop action every day. And while you might think to try some lower-back stretches or some shoulder rolls when you’re feeling tight or stiff, when was the last time you thought about wrist stretches or hand stretches? Like stretching before bed or incorporating morning stretches into your day, you might want to make hand and wrist stretches more of a habit: It turns out, there’s good reason to do so.

Your hands and wrists are made up of numerous muscles, and just like other muscles in the body (including those foot muscles), they’re prone to chronic conditions from almost constant use.

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“They’re used more frequently than other muscles in the body,” says Austin Martinez, M.S., A.T.C., C.S.C.S., director of education for StretchLab in Irvine, Calif. Plus, because these muscles and their associated tendons are bunched up next to each other, repetitive motion can cause various conditions to develop over time, including carpal tunnel syndrome, golfer’s elbow, and tennis elbow. But research shows that consistent stretching exercises can improve mobility and performance and decrease risk of injury, Martinez says.

Fortunately, you can do simple wrist stretches and hand stretches that don’t draw much attention to what you’re doing, so you can do them anywhere (yes, even at work). Martinez recommends stretching hands and wrists at least two to three times a day, perhaps while sitting at your desk, after a workout, and before you go to bed. Follow his five-stretch sequence below, holding each stretch at least 30 seconds, for looser, happier hands and wrists.

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Wrist extension with elbow extended

Extend your right arm in front of you, palm up with fingers pointing toward the ground. With your left hand, gently pull the fingers on your right hand back toward your body. Switch sides and repeat.

Wrist flexion

Extend your right arm in front of you, palm down with fingers pointing toward ground. Using your left hand, gently pull the fingers on your right hand toward your body. Switch sides and repeat.

RELATED: 15 Stretches You Should Do Every Day

Wrist extension with elbow bent

From a seated position, bend your right elbow and place it on your right leg. With your right palm facing up (as if holding a bowl of soup), pull your fingers gently toward the ground with your left hand. Switch sides and repeat.

Finger abduction

Using your left hand, place your fingers between the index and middle finger on your right hand and gently spread those fingers apart. Continue this sequence with each of the fingers on the right hand, stretching the tiny muscles that connect the fingers. Switch hands and repeat.

Thumb extension

Start with your right palm facing up. Using your left hand, gently pull your thumb toward the floor. Switch sides and repeat.

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Instagram-famous personal trainer (and all-around badass) Kayla Itsines had a baby girl in April—but from the day she announced she was pregnant, Itsines was very vocal about her journey to motherhood and all it entailed (like how she struggled with morning sickness and restless leg syndrome while pregnant.)

Now, Itsines is opening up about one of the more difficult parts of her postpartum journey: Hitting the gym for the first time after her caesarian section—just six weeks after her daughter, Arna Leia Pearce, was born.

Itsines, a lifelong athlete, was eager to get back to working out after she gave birth. She tells Health, “My first session back at the gym, I went onto the treadmill, and I was like, ‘Alright, cool. I’m going to do a fast walk because they told me I could walk.’” 

But that fast walk didn't go entirely as planned. “I stupidly put the treadmill up to a fast walk speed that I used to be able to do. The treadmill started going. I started to feel this weird, odd pain on my right side," she says. "The treadmill pick[ed] up pace quite quickly. I started to panic; I couldn’t turn the treadmill down fast enough.”

Itsines wasn’t able to spread her legs to the sides of the treadmill so she could get off the moving track, and she grew worried she would face plant on the moving belt. Luckily, it slowed down in time for her to regain control, but that incident made her realize just how much her body had changed since she had a baby. That day she ended up walking slow for about 13 minutes. “Then I had to get off,” says Itsines.

RELATED: Kayla Itsines Dishes on Her Fave Foods and More

The realization that she wasn’t as fit as she’d like to be was a tough one. “It was a struggle, really hard. I just remember being so upset and devastated that I wasn’t able to complete [a workout],” says Itsines. That struggle is what led to her new post-pregnancy workout program, to help women who have just given birth figure out how to get back in shape in a safe way. The workouts featured in the program, which include strength-training exercises and low-intensity steady state (LISS) cardio, are 15 to 25 minutes long, and the program lasts 16 weeks.

Itsines says that one thing that made this part of her journey especially difficult was that she didn’t know what it felt like to be out of shape. “It’s different for a person who has, maybe, never worked out before," says Itsines. “For me, I don’t remember not being fit. So I was super confused.”

Itsines stressed the importance of listening to your body when you return to the gym after giving birth, explaining that this is not the time to test your limits. “If I could give advice to women, it’d be not to push them to go straight back into fitness. Not to put that pressure on them. Just take it easy.”

RELATED: Kayla Itsines’ Top Exercises for Legs, Arms, and Abs

Of course, listening to your body is important during any workout session, but you should be especially mindful of any pain you feel when you’re getting back to your workout routine after giving birth. You should also pay attention to any dizziness you experience and any tension or pulling sensations you may feel, Kayla says.

Monitoring your hydration and energy levels is important, too. “You’re sleep deprived. Listen to your body; if you need sleep, then sleep,” says Itsines.

While getting back in shape after having a baby might seem overwhelming at first, it’s definitely not impossible. Like most fitness goals, it requires taking baby steps, for lack of a better word. Luckily, Itsines says that the scary treadmill incident on her first day back didn’t scare her away from the gym the next day. “I went back every day. I just showed up and tried to do as much as I could. Maybe it was just a five-minute walk or some arm workouts that went for five minutes or two minutes, whatever I could handle,” says Itsines. “I just did that and slowly built up my strength to be able to do a workout.”

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There’s no two-ways around it: Battle ropes look fierce. Varying in thickness, weight, and length, the fitness training tool is right up there with kettlebells and dumbbells as a must-have for gyms and trainers everywhere. 

But it's not just because using them can make anyone feel like a warrior—they’re super effective for total-body conditioning. “The ropes are a great tool for fat loss and overall strength because it allows anyone, at any level, to spike their heart rate in short bursts improving cardiovascular output; giving you a whole lot of bang for your buck,” Rachel Prairie, NASM-certified personal trainer at Anytime Fitness, tells Health. She adds that often times you’ll see battle ropes anchored to a wall, beam, or pole. (Just FYI: For this story, Health used the Hyper Rope, Hyper Wear's unanchored battle rope.) 

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Before you start eyeing battle ropes, though, you'll want to get acquainted with proper battle-rope position: “Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees bent in a half-squat, and hold one rope in each hand," says Prairie. "If you’ve played sports in the past, this is often referred to as the ‘ready’ position.”

Typically, battle rope exercises involve dynamic, fast movements. The range of these movements is wide, but you’ll want to get comfortable with the basics before moving on to more advanced work, says Prairie. “For beginners, keep it simple,” she says.

To help, Prairie came up with a great beginners routine for anyone looking to add battle ropes into their workout rotation regularly. Here, four moves you can do in the gym for a quick, heart-pumping battle rope workout. 

The Workout

Beginners: Two to three sets of 15 reps, resting 90 seconds between each.

Intermediate: Four to six sets of 15 reps, resting 90 seconds between each.

Advanced: Eight sets of 15 to 20 reps, resting 90 seconds between each.

Alternating Speed Wave

1. Stand with your feet at shoulder-width distance in a quarter-squat, holding one end of the rope in each hand.
2. Rapidly lower and raise your right arm to about chest height, causing a wave motion throughout the rope; repeat on the other side for one rep. Continue for 15 total reps.

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Grappler Toss

1. Stand with your feet at shoulder-width distance in a quarter-squat, holding one end of the rope in each hand with a thumbs-up grip.
2. Bring both hands up and overhead, then down down to the right side of your body, ending at around mid-thigh height.
3. Repeat on opposite side for one rep. Do 15 total reps.

The Wave

1. Stand with your feet at shoulder-width distance in a quarter-squat, holding one end of the rope in each hand.
2. Rapidly lower and raise both arms simultaneously to about chest height, causing a wave motion throughout the rope. Your goal is to be explosive from the hips and keep the wave in a continuous motion, adds Prairie. Continue for 15 total reps.

RELATED: Get a Full-Body HIIT Workout at Home

Jumping Jack

1. Stand with your feet at shoulder-width distance, holding one end of the rope in each hand.
2. Rapidly jump your feet out to the sides while simultaneously bringing the rope up and out overhead, as if you were doing a jumping jack.
3. Slam the rope down while bringing our feet back together for one rep. Do 15 total reps.

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Britney Spears may be on hiatus from her musical career, but she’s definitely not taking a break from her challenging fitness regimen. The “Piece of Me” singer loves to share her workout videos (and killer abs) on her Instagram page, and her latest post shows her doing an impressive acro yoga routine with her fitness guru boyfriend, Sam Asghari.

Brit, 37, starts off balancing in the air on Sam’s feet before showing off her stellar backbend, shoulder stretch, and camel pose skills. And it just gets better. Britney put the high point of the video in her caption: “First time to walk on my hands up and down stairs,” she wrote. Definitely a cause for celebration.

The pop icon shared a similar video to Instagram last week, revealing in her post that it had been a whole year since she’d done gymnastics. That extended break didn’t appear to have affected her technique—although for a pro like Britney, there’s always room for improvement. “As you can see, my back is too stiff on my back walkovers,” she wrote.

If you’re ready to push your regular yoga practice to the next level and have an able and willing partner (FYI, this doesn’t have to be a fitness guru boyfriend), acro yoga could be the new challenge you’re looking for. The relatively new practice, started in 2003 by Jenny Sauer-Klein and Jason Nemer, combines yoga, acrobatics, and therapeutics, per AcroYoga Int’l.

If you pay close attention to Britney’s Instagram page (along with the rest of her 22.9 million followers), you can get real insight into how she stays physically fit. On October 8, she posted a selfie in a yoga studio in Maui, explaining that she “tried to start off by doing yoga” but “danced the first 20 minutes and let go.” The mom-of-two also revealed that she’s done “a lot of heat yoga” this year, but that she “overdid it.” “I prefer cardio and dancing now,” she wrote.

But acro yoga, cardio, and dancing aren’t all Britney does to keep fit. In June, she shared a workout video consisting of isolated, repetitive exercises such as tricep curls, side plank leg lifts, kicks, and squats.

Clearly, variety is key for this fitness devotee, and it’s working –– she looks strong and healthy. Plus, it’s refreshing to know that, just like the rest of us, Britney sometimes gets bored working out. Her solution? Headphones and a great playlist. “Music takes me away,” she wrote.

In a perfect world, you’d have unlimited time every day to work out—with plenty of time left over to shower and sip a smoothie afterward. In reality, you’re lucky if you can even make it to the gym, and even model Molly Simms, 46, knows that struggle. 

Her solution? Quick 20-minute circuit routine, which she shared on her Instagram page Wednesday night. "On good days, workout. On bad days, workout harder,” she captioned the of herself crushing at what looks like her home gym. “Today’s circuit is what I do when I just have 20 minutes with @lauralizkeller [Simms' personal trainer] to get it in and still break a sweat!”

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Simms' entire workout is made up of seven moves, according to her instagram—and in seven different slides, she shows herself demonstrating them. Here's what her 20-minute circuit workout looks like, doing each move for 45 seconds, and repeating the circuit two to three times:

• Jumping jacks
• Modified pushups
• Tricep dips
• Squat jumps
• Leg raises
• Burpees
• Lateral bend and hold (squeezing abs)

RELATED: Get a Full-Body HIIT Workout at Home

But Simms doesn't stop there—throughout the entire workout, she wrote that she ankle and wrist weights, though she doesn't say exactly how heavy. In her caption, Simms also called out athleisure brand Nylora, who makes her (super-cute) workout set.

As far a Simms' workout routine goes, it's actually really smart to do circuit training when you’re pressed for time, says Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, of SoHo Strength Lab and Promix Nutrition. “If your goal is to burn calories and wear yourself out during a workout, circuit training is a really efficient way to do that,” he says. Circuit training is also great because it allows you to move on to work other body parts when one area gets fatigued, he says.  “As you’re resting one muscle group, you can start working another group,” Matheny says.

While Matheny says you can “make a circuit training workout out of anything,” he says it’s ultimately best to transition from focusing on one area of your body to another to give certain body parts time to recover in between—and to help you ultimately go harder. “Go from lower body to upper body to total body exercises,” Matheny advises. “It’s really efficient.”  Yup, even if you only have 20 minutes, like Simms. 

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