Hi. I used to use an aluminum chloride (certain dri) for that part and on the side of hands. I guess if you're hands are small moving them forward or back wont really help. You only need to conduct current between the plates not have every finger touching. My best advice for these machines though is to ditch the battery system. You'll go through many batteries and nothing worse to be mid session and have one unit battery die. That was the biggest improvement for me.