Double Bass Bass related injury? Right hand technique help please

[Trimmo91]

Hi all.

I have been playing double bass for 5/6 years but have only properly dedicated myself to rockabilly playing since November 2018.

I have developed my right hand technique to a point where I can play consistently without any hand fatigue.

My band recently had a 3 hour rehearsal with small breaks. Throughout this entire rehearsal my hand felt fine. But a day or 2 later I began to develop a pain in right wrist. It travels up the outer side of my wrist and up the base of my thumb. I have rested and been wearing a compression wrist support and have almost fully recovered after a week and a half.

My question is how do I avoid this in the future? I didn't realise at the time that I'd overdone it. I felt not pain during the rehearsal.

I have since found some wrist stretches that I now do everyday to strengthen my wrist.

My question. Do any of you have a warmup routine to help prevent injury?

 

[Don Hergert]

Interesting that we've had multiple discussions about this in the last day or two... Today's thread about this is mostly related to straight pizz techmique, but the same general thoughts apply to rockabilly slap... For ease of reference I'll post here what I posted in today's similar thread:

I'd suggest an appointment with a DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy). You may need to see your primary physician first to be referred in order to be covered by insurance, although a DPT should be able to see you directly if you choose to do so. Consider bringing your double bass to the DPT and demonstrating how you play so your movements can be properly assessed. As good as seeing a teacher is for your playing, a teacher is not a DPT who is trained to identify injuries or dangerously stressful activities

I'd also recommend variety. Variety of pizz-hand location, variety of wrist posture, variety of pizz pressure used, variety of pizz technique. Exercising small-muscle and nerve groups the exact same way over and over again creates dangerous stress. Perhaps try arco during a portion your practices just to get some variety of the way those muscles are worked. If you stand all the time while playing, try sitting for short periods, or vice versa, again for variety of posture.

Lastly, your strings and setup could be stressing your hands (and arms and shoulders and neck) too. Perhaps consider strings and a setup that would be easier on your whole body. If you're not already using it, tastefully done amplification can make it so you don't have to drive your bass so hard in order to be heard.

Most important is seeing a health care professional though. If this is bothering you enough to cause you to stop playing for a few days, it is worth it to get things checked out properly.

 

[wathaet]

These things could stem from your back, emphasis on could. Index, middle finger and thumb can be a pinched nerve anywhere from your neck/spine through the shoulder.
Consider how you stand/sit and hit the gym weekly.

Take lessons from properly schooled players and always be aware of posture, technique etc.

 

[Trimmo91]

These things could stem from your back, emphadis on coukd. Index, middle finger and thumb can be a pinched nerve anywhere from your neck/spine through the shoulder.
Consider how you stand/sit and hit the gym weekly.

Take lessons from properly schooled players and always be aware of posture, technique etc.

I've received proper lessons on classical but haven't with rockabilly.

 

[Trimmo91]

Well I've cracked the problem. I recently played a weekender so had the opportunity to watch lots of other bassists. The players that went for a similar sound to what I'm aiming for (low end thump with no click pickup) played much softer than I was. As the focus on this sound isn't the slap there is no need to play so aggressively. I've stopped digging in so much and it's made a world of difference.