# What Makes Your Hands/Arms Float Like This?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-your-hands-arms-float-like-this/178589>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 30, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-your-hands-arms-float-like-this/178589 "2003-05-30T18:03:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Brazin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Brazin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brazin)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-your-hands-arms-float-like-this/178589/1 "2003-05-30T18:03:31Z")

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If you stand in a doorway and place your wrists against the door frame (one each side) and push fairly hard for a minute or two, when you release the pressure your arms/hands naturally start to float upward. Why is this?

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**Author:** ![Qis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Qis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qis)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-your-hands-arms-float-like-this/178589/2 "2003-05-30T21:46:57Z")

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i know nothing.

Perhaps your muscles get used to being strained, adn when you relax they dont quite reset to normal straight away. Like just after you’ve doen weights and stuff, your muscles are trying to contract all this time, straining, then the resistance is removed, and they are still trying to contract, having adjusted to this new force( the doorframe ) that was one them.

i know nothing  
looking forward to the straight dope

-Qis

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-your-hands-arms-float-like-this/178589/3 "2003-05-30T22:33:49Z")

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Your arms lift up because your muscles are pulling them up, same as if you just lift your arms normally. It only feels weird because you’ve just spent several minutes pulling on those muscles without any effect, so it seems like it still shouldn’t have any effect.

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**Author:** ![Monalisa9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@Monalisa9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monalisa9)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-your-hands-arms-float-like-this/178589/4 "2003-05-30T22:39:21Z")

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I think it has to do with the muscles contracting on their own after just having been strained into an unusual posiion…no?