How to Stop Your Hands From Shaking Before a Presentation
Shaking hands before a presentation come from adrenaline. To settle them, use big muscles in the minutes before (squats, a brisk flight of stairs) or clench and release your fists. Skip caffeine beforehand, hold a clicker or the lectern, and expect it to ease once you start.
- Use big muscles: pushups, squats or stairs.
- Can't move? Clench and release your fists.
- Avoid caffeine in the hour before.
- Hold a clicker, pen or the lectern.
- It usually settles after the first thirty seconds.
Trembling hands before public speaking are a normal effect of the stress response: adrenaline raises heart rate and muscle tension to prepare the body for action. Brief vigorous movement, clenching and releasing your hands, and slow breathing can help ease it. Caffeine can make it worse; the FDA lists jitters and anxiety among the effects of too much caffeine, and sensitivity varies from person to person. For most speakers, the shaking eases once they get going.
You can feel the fine tremor that the front row will see when you reach for the clicker. You've been telling yourself to relax for ten minutes and it hasn't worked. The shaking isn't a sign you're unprepared; it's your body getting ready for action that's about to be talking.
Why do your hands shake before a presentation?
Adrenaline prepares your muscles for physical action, and when that action is standing still and talking, the energy shows up as trembling. Many speakers find it helps to use it: twenty squats or wall pushups in a private corner, or a flight of stairs taken briskly. Movement that engages large muscles works better than gentle stretching for this. A few minutes is usually enough to take the edge off.
How do you stop shaking when you can't move around?
If you can't exercise, because you're in a green room or a suit you can't sweat in, squeeze your fists hard for about ten seconds, release for ten, and repeat a few times. Tensing and releasing muscles this way is a common relaxation technique and can take some of the edge off the tremor without leaving your seat. Pair it with slow breathing, making the out-breath longer than the in-breath. Do it before you walk on, not while you're waiting to be introduced.
What should you hold to hide shaking hands?
If your hands still tremble when you walk on, give them something to do. A clicker. A pen. The lectern itself. Holding an object hides minor tremor and stabilizes your hands by giving them muscular work. The trembling-hands gesture-of-introduction is the worst possible move. Walk on, find your prop, and hold it. Many speakers grip the lectern in the first thirty seconds for exactly this reason. It is not nervous; it is a technique.
Does caffeine make presentation nerves worse?
For many people, yes. Caffeine can cause jitters, a racing heart and anxiety on its own, and on top of stage adrenaline those effects add up. If you tend to shake when nervous, consider switching to water for the hour or two before you speak. If you rely on caffeine, have it earlier and in a smaller amount than usual. Sensitivity varies a lot, so notice how it affects you on a low-stakes day first.
Does the shaking stop once you start speaking?
For most people it eases once they're underway. The tremor is often worst in the buildup, when the body is primed and nothing is happening yet. Once you're talking and focused on the audience, the spike tends to settle within the first minute or so. Knowing this in advance can make the buildup easier to sit through. If performance anxiety regularly gets in the way of your work, a doctor can talk through other options with you.
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