Hand Stretches

[DanOwens]

I'm in the studio this weekend and I'm expecting to play a mix of doghouse, stick and maybe some slab (maybe some Uke Bass too but I don't have a cool nickname for that). Over the past month or so I've had intermittent tendinitis in my thumb and it flared up at the beginning of the week. 

PANIC!!!! Right? Bass player with tendinitis! *crosses fingers* "I hope it's not carpal tunnel, I hope it's not carpal tunnel...." 

Well I've done some thinking and a bit of research and linked the thumb trouble to the purchase of 'Assassin's Creed: Thumb Wars' about a month ago, and that de Quervain's Tenosynovitis  is more commonly known as 'Gamer's Thumb'.

Do you guys suffer at all? I've got some Naproxen and I'm looking at hand stretching, but have any of you been to a physio and been recommended exercises, or are there any youtube links you'd recommend?

[Duckyincarnate]

Hi Dan,

 

I bought this book number of years ago after seeing it recommended on Talkbass:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Conquering-Carpal-Syndrome-Repetitive-Injuries/dp/1572240393/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=conquering+carpal+tunnel+syndrome&qid=1567690797&s=gateway&sr=8-1

 

It's a book of very gentle stretches, covering the hands and arms but also the whole rest of the body. Although I eventually found that my problems were not carpal tunnel or tendonitis, I have had so much benefit from the stretches in this book and am convinced that it is a big part of the reason why my symptoms have largely stayed away. 

 

The stretches are not very intensive, so won't do any harm - they are aimed at increasing circulation and activating the nerves where they might be blocked/pinched. In my case, I found that pain in my wrists and hands was actually to do with tension I held in my shoulders, neck and midriff. 

[Teebs]

Thanks for that - I've got what I suspect is tendonitis in my elbow at the moment. I'm surviving through limited rest & ibuprofen.

I'll certainly get this book.

[DanOwens]

1 hour ago, Duckyincarnate said:

I bought this book number of years ago after seeing it recommended on Talkbass:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Conquering-Carpal-Syndrome-Repetitive-Injuries/dp/1572240393/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=conquering+carpal+tunnel+syndrome&qid=1567690797&s=gateway&sr=8-1

That's great! Thanks for the advice!!

[Staggering on]

On 05/09/2019 at 09:45, Duckyincarnate said:

Hi Dan,

 

I bought this book number of years ago after seeing it recommended on Talkbass:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Conquering-Carpal-Syndrome-Repetitive-Injuries/dp/1572240393/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=conquering+carpal+tunnel+syndrome&qid=1567690797&s=gateway&sr=8-1

 

 

 

 

I ordered the book when this was posted and got it yesterday. Interesting introduction and clear explanation of all the exercises and I have started this morning with the upper body section and will continue on with the wrist/hand exercises, but it's easy and makes sense. After 27 years of work as a farrier/blacksmith as well as playing bass(EB,EUB,DB) and guitar and banjo, carpal tunnel and other issues have created pain, limited movement and numbness and this book looks like a very good resource to try and deal with these problems.

I'm learning a lot about my body as I am working on the exercises and will post an update as I progress through the book. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else using this book.

Thanks for suggesting the book.👍

 

 

 

[Duckyincarnate]

That’s great! I would add that for me it took a week or two before I really started to feel the benefit. By that point I also had a much better idea which exercises really helped me and which were less important. 

[EdLib-3]

On 05/09/2019 at 14:45, Duckyincarnate said:

Hi Dan,

 

I bought this book number of years ago after seeing it recommended on Talkbass:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Conquering-Carpal-Syndrome-Repetitive-Injuries/dp/1572240393/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=conquering+carpal+tunnel+syndrome&qid=1567690797&s=gateway&sr=8-1

 

It's a book of very gentle stretches, covering the hands and arms but also the whole rest of the body. Although I eventually found that my problems were not carpal tunnel or tendonitis, I have had so much benefit from the stretches in this book and am convinced that it is a big part of the reason why my symptoms have largely stayed away. 

 

The stretches are not very intensive, so won't do any harm - they are aimed at increasing circulation and activating the nerves where they might be blocked/pinched. In my case, I found that pain in my wrists and hands was actually to do with tension I held in my shoulders, neck and midriff. 

I've just gone and ordered this too. Sounds like just the thing to improve the sorry state of my wrists at the moment - acupuncture is not sorting me out for more than a couple of days, then the pain and inflammation creeps back.  Many thanks for posting the details! 👍

[Staggering on]

This is my tenth day of using the exercises in the book and I'm doing them daily. It's still early days but I have noticed some changes, most notably less wrist pain and hand/finger numbness, especially at night, and some other parts of my body(neck especially) have loosened up. So far so good.😊

The introductory chapters are very informative and I've gone back to reread a couple of sections to make sure I'm doing things the correct way. Instead of working only on the wrist/hand/fingers exercises I start with the upper body section and then do all the exercises up to the thumb section which I am not doing yet since my thumbs aren't as much of a problem. This approach makes sense to me since in the intro she stresses the importance of the connection of all of your body parts and this gives a workout to the entire upper body.

Two things are a bit difficult for me at this stage. For years I have worked and exercised in a more strenuous manner than these exercises demand and I have to consciously move carefully to prevent over stretching or pushing a bit too far. The good part of this is that I have to really pay attention to my body and forget about the "no pain, no gain" philosophy that I tend to use when doing other exercises. This is very gentle and the body responses are very subtle and it takes some time to learn how to feel them.

The second thing is feeling the stretch point and release. At only ten days in, I'm still wondering if I'm doing things correctly because it is all very new to me but seems to be helping so I must be doing some things correctly. As has been pointed out in posts and in the book, this is not an instant cure program and so far it seems to be working and I'm hoping for more relief as I continue on with it and will update as I progress.

I would like to hear from anyone else using the book and thanks again for recommending it.

 

 

 

 

[Duckyincarnate]

On 26/09/2019 at 16:18, Staggering on said:

This is my tenth day of using the exercises in the book and I'm doing them daily. It's still early days but I have noticed some changes, most notably less wrist pain and hand/finger numbness, especially at night, and some other parts of my body(neck especially) have loosened up. So far so good.😊

The introductory chapters are very informative and I've gone back to reread a couple of sections to make sure I'm doing things the correct way. Instead of working only on the wrist/hand/fingers exercises I start with the upper body section and then do all the exercises up to the thumb section which I am not doing yet since my thumbs aren't as much of a problem. This approach makes sense to me since in the intro she stresses the importance of the connection of all of your body parts and this gives a workout to the entire upper body.

Two things are a bit difficult for me at this stage. For years I have worked and exercised in a more strenuous manner than these exercises demand and I have to consciously move carefully to prevent over stretching or pushing a bit too far. The good part of this is that I have to really pay attention to my body and forget about the "no pain, no gain" philosophy that I tend to use when doing other exercises. This is very gentle and the body responses are very subtle and it takes some time to learn how to feel them.

The second thing is feeling the stretch point and release. At only ten days in, I'm still wondering if I'm doing things correctly because it is all very new to me but seems to be helping so I must be doing some things correctly. As has been pointed out in posts and in the book, this is not an instant cure program and so far it seems to be working and I'm hoping for more relief as I continue on with it and will update as I progress.

I would like to hear from anyone else using the book and thanks again for recommending it.

 

 

 

 

It sounds like you are doing really well with the book. When I was coming back from my injury, it took about two months for symptoms to subside. Although caused by tension and not an inflammation of my tendons, there was still residual pain that took a while to disappear. The reason I knew the exercises were working was that the pain was getting less immediately after doing the exercises, and gradually diminishing over the weeks.

When I do these exercises now, I can feel the temperature in my hands change very drastically. They go from a bit cold to very hot - and occasionally tingling. It feels like a restriction has been lifted, and the blood rushes into my hands. 

One very important additional help for me has been to focus on breathing from the diaphragm (like singers and horn players learn how to do), and really focussing on using deep in- and exhales to release tension. I do this during the stretches now.

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by Duckyincarnate

[Staggering on]

2 hours ago, Duckyincarnate said:

It sounds like you are doing really well with the book. When I was coming back from my injury, it took about two months for symptoms to subside. Although caused by tension and not an inflammation of my tendons, there was still residual pain that took a while to disappear. The reason I knew the exercises were working was that the pain was getting less immediately after doing the exercises, and gradually diminishing over the weeks.

When I do these exercises now, I can feel the temperature in my hands change very drastically. They go from a bit cold to very hot - and occasionally tingling. It feels like a restriction has been lifted, and the blood rushes into my hands. 

One very important additional help for me has been to focus on breathing from the diaphragm (like singers and horn players learn how to do), and really focussing on using deep in- and exhales to release tension. I do this during the stretches now.

 

Good info, thanks. Your time line is very interesting and I'm happy so far with the progress I've made, not startling but things are gradually getting better and I'm OK with that.

Good point about the breathing, I've been working on this for years with some success but I still have to think about it. I have found that the breathing helps me relax whole groups of muscles so I can do the exercises more comfortably and with less stress on my body and that makes the exercises much more effective. For some of the routines I have to consciously relax my shoulders for example and then the rest of my arm works the way it should. Good work for the body and the brain.