Nerves are embedded in muscles throughout your whole body, said Paul, and they can cause tingling or numbness in your back, arm(s), leg(s), hand(s), feet—pretty much anywhere.

Nerve flossing is meant to improve the mobility of how those nerves course through various parts of the body, she shared, so rather than a sustained stretch, nerve glides are gentle and repetitive—and typically not done to your full range of motion. (Think: rather than a hamstring stretch at your end range, you stretch just until you feel a slight tug, then back off.)

You can think of nerve flossing kind of like flossing your teeth, said Paul. “You’re not just putting [the floss] in between your teeth and letting it [sit] there because that won’t do anything, but you’re tugging it back and forth [gently] until you loosen up the restriction,” she explained.

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The BetterPT Blog spoke to Allie Paul PT, DPT, physical therapist at HSS, and Mary Beth’s treatment provider, who explained, “A therapist needs to understand a patient's goals, optimize their strengths, point out their deficits, and be able to explain to them why those deficits matter, but more importantly how they are going to assist with improving them.”

This coverage originally appeared in The BetterPT Blog. The original article is no longer available online.