Nerve Flossing

The technique's purported payoff? Smooth, pain-free mobility.

- Jennifer Nied

I'm noticing more friends flossing lately. But it's not a surge in dental hygiene-instead, it's a way to improve nerve health and move freely. Nerve flossing (or gliding) is a stretching technique that's easily done on your own and is said to relieve a host of symptoms.

How it works: Nerves get compressed by surrounding tissue-creating sensations like pain, numbness, or tingling-and nerve flossing is a way to free and get them moving, says Shannon Leggett, a New York City-based physical therapist. "Think of it like a dynamic stretch for the nerve," she adds. Essentially, you're carefully and mindfully moving the joints around the target nerve. (In practice, it looks a lot like stretching, but with even slower and more specific movements.) Ahead, physical therapists on mobilizing your nervous system with this technique and what to consider before you give it a go...