The arms are not often the adaptor itself, but quite frequently

coconspirators with the hands, just as in regulating actions.

However, people can evolve such bizarre, idiosyncratic adaptors
that a person might mill his arms together or rub wrists together
to release nervous energy. The most common arms-only adaptors
are men swinging arms back and forth in a large circle around their
torsos and touching hands in the front or back. Others can include
moving the arms in contact with an object when waiting or in high
stress; this can be rubbing an arm against a chair or pressing hard
with the arm into the torso in an attempt to control nervous energy.
Remember that any movement done to release nervous energy so
the person feels more comfortable is an adaptor until it becomes a
habit. At that point, the idiosyncrasy becomes part of the baseline
for the individual.
Hands
If asked to describe your hands without looking at them, you
might find that difficult. Not true if I ask you to describe your face.
That’s ironic, considering you probably look at your hands dozens of
times a day and many times more often than you look at your face.
Here is the difference: Your hands are tools, and, to some extent,
you take them for granted. But in terms of body language, they are
nearly as expressive as your face. Remember you also have a tendency
to focus on these primary tools when you are stressed. When you
gesture, adapt, illustrate, and regulate they are almost always a part
of the sentence. Only when you barrier do they occasionally get left
out. Even then, your “first tools” are busy at work signaling as you
try to contain them.
Review the photos of people with their arms crossed. What do
you notice about the hands? There is no universal pattern for what
to do with your hands when your arms are c