Avoiding injury.

[huckingfuskie]

(i'm sorry if there is a similar thread somewhere. I'm a TB newb)

After reading a few threads from fellow bassists who cant play to their full potential anymore due to nasty carpel tunnel syndrome/tendonitus, im compelled to understand fully what causes these nasty hand injurys and how to avoid them. this post is actualy step 1 of my research. I plan to have a healthy, life-lasting relationship with music and my heart goes out to everyone who has to suffer through carpel tunnel.

My mother had sever carpel tunnel syndrome (she was a seamstress) her doctors told her that it stems from constant repetitive hand, wrist or finger movements. This was scary to learn, especialy from a musicians perspective.

I dont have very much information to toss up about how to avoid it, so i guess this is a selfish post. I would like to hear other peoples ideas on how to keep your hands healthy, throughout the years of wear and tear we force them to indure.

[skeptikal]

I was always told when I was younger I would get carpel tunnel with how I type on the keyboard. I work on computers every day monday thru friday for the past 5 years and typing as much as I do I haven't developed it ::knocks on wood:: .

Wrists feel great. Your muscles might be sore at first when you really start playing alot, I know mine were when I picked up a bass for the first time. But there's a difference between that nagging pain and just sore muscles.

[MysticMichael]

I'm no expert on this topic by any means. But I do know that it's important to play with your wrists straight - which typically means wearing the instrument high enough so that you don't have to bend or twist your wrists at some unnatural angle in order to access the fretboard or strings.

Also, if you're one of the many players who thinks he has to use heavy-gauge strings and/or high action, then bang away aggressively on the instrument in order to achieve any impact, then reorient your thinking right away, because something is wrong here. Lighter-gauge strings and lower action is a perfectly acceptable alternative, and will work for you musically just fine - IF you compensate for the decreased physical force by adding additional electrical/electronic force (i.e. turning up at the amp).

This has the benefit of giving you additional dynamic range that you might not have had otherwise. But in order to use it and control it effectively - especially with lighter-gauge strings and lower playing action - you need to learn to play with a relatively light touch, by refining your playing technique.

That's it. Hope it helps...

MM

[E2daGGurl]

You should read up on both tendinitis and carpal tunnel. Tendons generally connect your muscles to your bones, and it's pretty typical to have some small amount of tendon pain when asking muscles to do new things. The key to preventing this from becoming tendonitis is to cut back on the activity causing it, then begin a regime of light resistance training/stretching/strengthening (which can include some bass playing). Carpal tunnel is a nerve syndrome, I find it much more complicated to describe.

Here's a pretty cool picture of the muscles and tendons in your hand:



Carpal tunnel syndrome is when the bones or muscles compress the nerve that runs through the carpal tunnel into your hand. The symptoms of each condition are a bit different:



Here's some common doctor brochure language about prevention (of tendinitis):

Preventing wrist tendonitis is much easier than treating it. If you undertake activities that may put stress on the wrist you should always make sure you warm up the wrist area before beginning such activities. You can warm up your wrist by stretching and flexing it in various directions. Twisting the wrist 360 degrees slowly is also a good method.

(It's spelled both ways, tendonitis and tendinitis; my doctor spells it tendonitis but firefox spellchecker disagrees).

For a bass player, individual finger exercises are equally important as warm-up. There are quite a few websites with exercises and instructions for warm-up. Warming up helps with both CP and T, but if a person has the beginning symptoms of CP, bracing and immobilization supervised by a competent hand specialist is crucial.

(That instruction about 360 degrees of twisting is sort of funny - obviously, they mean "as far as possible in one direction, then the other" not, in fact, twisting your hand off!) A combination of self-massage and stretching really really helps (I've been on the verge of repetitive motion syndromes several times over a few decades and have managed to avoid any longterm problems).

[huckingfuskie]

wow! thank you very much for the above post.