Does your hand feel like a mass of mashed pulp at the end of a hard day's work? Does the sight of a ropeline appear in your nightmares? Does the phrase "grip and grin" make you want to amputate the terminal part of the vertebrate forelimb when modified (as in humans) as a grasping organ?

Fear not you bruised baby-kisser, the American Occupational Therapy Association has published a guide on "proper handshaking skills."

So excercise your fingers, click on the link for my favorite parts of the guide...

Some of my favorites:

• Initiate the handshake so you have a firm lock on the other person’s hand.

• Avoid pressure on your knuckles by positioning the “web” space between your thumb and index finger firmly against the corresponding space in the other person’s hand.

• Do shoulder shrugs and back stretches between speeches and at the end of the day.

• Break the handshake quickly, and move on to the next.

• When possible, use a two-handed shake. Placing your left hand over the back of the other person’s hand distributes the pressure more evenly.

And what do you do when your mitt has been mangled a bitt too much? AOTA has some tips for you, Mr. Shaker-extraordinaire:

• Change hands. You don’t always have to use the same hand.

• Put your arm around a person’s shoulder before they grab your hand.

• Excercise! Open and close hands fully, squeezing into a fist 10 times slowly (over a 10-second period); repeat every hour if you can.

So, now that all that is set, make sure you smile nice for the people, mmm'kay? Good.