# Is this TACTILE event also connected to calcium use? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-tactile-event-also-connected-to-calcium-use/595512 "2011-09-07T16:40:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-tactile-event-also-connected-to-calcium-use/595512/1 "2011-09-07T16:40:19Z")
You grab onto one finger (yours, someone else’s) with your whole hand and squeeze hard for 30 seconds to a minute. You release your grip only slightly enough to slide your finger out. Then, you slowly try to open up your hand. The fingers are sort of stuck, individually, and each one seems to break through a barrier and open a little more, until they’re all open. Is this a matter of the muscles still having so much calcium that they keep the grabbing position? ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-tactile-event-also-connected-to-calcium-use/595512/2 "2011-09-08T05:02:49Z")
Doesn’t happen to me, and I can’t imagine it’s related to calcium in any case. I’m sure medically trained dopers will be along soon to tell us more. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-tactile-event-also-connected-to-calcium-use/595512/3 "2011-09-08T14:06:09Z")
Try opening your hand as gently as you can. Just use the tiniest bit of pressure. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-tactile-event-also-connected-to-calcium-use/595512/4 "2011-09-08T16:03:23Z")
It’s the same as your [other thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=622901). Muscles are muscles, why would you think it would have a different cause? ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-tactile-event-also-connected-to-calcium-use/595512/5 "2011-09-08T16:51:03Z")
I’m supposing that it does have the same cause. But the phenomenon is slightly different - inability to move vs uncontrolled movement, so I wanted to get some ideas to help think it through. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-tactile-event-also-connected-to-calcium-use/595512/6 "2011-09-08T20:58:27Z")
It’s the inability to relax the muscles, whether they’re the ones closing your fingers or the ones raising your arms. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-tactile-event-also-connected-to-calcium-use/595512/7 "2011-09-09T08:27:40Z")
I bet it is. Calcium ions are involved in several steps of muscle contraction. If you grip long and hard enough I suspect that you’ll have excess calcium ions in your muscles and that’ll take a few seconds to clear. See steps 6-8 where your voluntary act of muscle contraction directly leads to calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. > **[Muscle contraction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_contraction)** > > Muscle contraction is the activation of tension-generating sites within muscle cells. In physiology, muscle contraction does not necessarily mean muscle shortening because muscle tension can be produced without changes in muscle length, such as when holding something heavy in the same position. The termination of muscle contraction is followed by muscle relaxation, which is a return of the muscle fibers to their low tension-generating state. > For the contractions to happen, the muscle cells mus... Why your fingers do it one at a time I have no idea. It doesn’t happen to me, but my WAG in that case is that the opposing muscles (the ones that open the hand) are each of different strengths and so ‘open’ the hand against the cramping/contracting grip muscles at different rates.