Confirm personal teaching first
Only use this movement if your hand therapist has personally taught and cleared it for you. The Cambridge University Hospitals leaflet says passive finger exercises need therapist advice; starting too soon after injury can affect healing. Respect your surgery, splint and movement restrictions. This explanation is not permission to add a stretch or treatment for stiffness.
Find the base knuckle
Choose the finger your therapist identified, not automatically the middle finger. Its large base knuckle, where the finger joins the palm, is the metacarpophalangeal joint, or MCP. The middle joint is the PIP and the joint near the nail is the DIP. Here the intended bend is at the base, not the wrist or the two smaller finger joints.
Clarify support and assistance
Physitrack’s MCP instructions describe support below the target joint and help from the other hand to bend the knuckle. Ask your therapist to show your exact support, assisting contact and comfortable stopping point. Move slowly as taught and release gently. Do not pull the fingertip, twist the wrist, force the smaller joints straight or copy pressure from the cover. Range, hold, repetitions and frequency remain individual.
Separate nearby hand tasks
An assisted hook curls the middle and end joints while the base stays straighter. In active tendon glides, the fingers make shapes using their own movement rather than opposite hand force. An isolated middle joint bend targets the PIP. These are different tasks; permission for one does not authorize another or make assistance an automatic progression.
Record instructions and respect symptoms
Note the finger, taught support and contact, personal dose and comfort. If a different joint takes over, stop and clarify the movement rather than forcing a deeper angle. Stop for pain, numbness, new swelling, locking or lost control and seek individual advice. Do not repeat to test a symptom. The beginner guide offers context. Fitonomy Mobility does not provide clinical clearance; article translations do not establish the app’s available languages.