Some info and i'll keep it simpleif some what long, but his subject is never easy or short. Those that know of me know what is coming
The human hand is a wonderfull piece of enginering it has the ability for power, touch and dexterity as well as sensitivity to many sensations due to the volume of sensory receptors in the tips nerve endings.
If we understand that its function was never to play guitar but it has the ability to adapt, then we will see some variations of its ability, how it is prone to injury, handles recovery and how disease can affect it.
It is also prone to refered symptoms because of off its sensory capabilites and the fact it is where nerves end. That means you can have a problem anywhere between the neck and the fingertips and only feel the sensation in the fingers, not where the damage is.
Your hands are really not designed to play guitar, it is a trade off. So many talk about just playing bass as the way to train then, but that is also the way to damage them, remember playing bass is an adaption for them. So many players talk about personal things that have worked for them, THAT IS FOR THEM, and so a personal history of the hands is needed to quantify their experience.
Now if you work using keyboard skills your hand will be different to say a carpenter. If you work as a teacher your hands will be different than an assembler. So someone that uses keyboard skills daily will have a completly different make up neuro-mechanics make up as to say the the carpenter. So the hands will have had a different work out before they come to the bass.
The carpenter will have a full range of power on the Ulnar side(the little finger and ring finger side) than the keyboard user. The carpenter will have have more dexterity in the radius side (thumb and forefinger) because of the variation and power required in movement. If you understand the hand has two sides, power on the little and ring finger side, dexterity on the thumb and forefinger side, and each can share the middle finger. Put a coin on the table, pick it up, look at it. You are now using the radial side for dexterity and as a rule the little finger and ring finger curl to the palm to get out the way....that is dexterity.
If you pick up someting like a hammer, baseball bat golf club and swing it, you will be holding mainly with the little finger and ring finger with the middle joining in.....that is power.
Each one of these sides has its own nerve (ulnar and radial) and there own muscles and attachments. The main bulk of finger muscle is in the forearms, the fingers have attachments that are worked from this area.
That is two different skills in two different sides with different nerve paths with different muscle groups. So they can be targeted by exercise away from playing, not replace playing, but enhance playing. Not for all because your hand history is personal to you. Your hands ideally want to last a lifetime. So when someone claims they have done this or that for 20 years and had no problems that is not a proving point, it means they have had no problems. If after 5, 10, 15, 20 years after that statement they they develop serious problems then the statement was false.
So how do we know if problems will occur?
Well we don't, again its personal hand history, but we do know what we should and should not do.
Since body mechanics see the movement as muscular leverage, the fingers move because the muscles act and transfer the energy on them, it is in fact athletic movement and needs to be viewed as such. Not cardio-vascular, so you won't feel out of breath, but you will fatigue in someway.
It is over use and mis use that injure hands the most and where better to find that in playing a bass guitar. The hours of practise put in are the over use, the strains they encounter in stretches and spans are the mis use.
The hand has a natural curl, if you look at it now you will see this. So if you put your hand on the neck of a bass it is on the strings, so light pressure will fret the note. Now for the athletic bit, you need to lift your finger away and apply another finger. Some players see the problem of finger not going down fasst or properly, when it is in fact fingers not lifting away fast enough or properly to give the next finger room to manovere. So it is not to develop a grip action, but a lifting action.
This is a one way action, you lift the finger away, relax it and it comes back, slight pressure to fret, relax it, the pressure is released, then lift away, relax it and it comes back, slight pressure to fret, relax, lift a way and so on. So the development of a grip is not the way to go, as that plane of movement is the little bit of pressure to fret, and that is there already. It is the development of lifting away and then relaxing to let the finger come back is the movement that is needed. That being the case, how can a grip master device en-hance this movement? Well it can't it only works in one plane, the opposite of what is needed.....unless you have weak movement in that plane to start with.
As part of a short warm up with the knowlege that playing will follow to give a fuller range of movement, i see and can find now evidence that it is harmfull. On its own away from this situation it is.
Personal hand history is the key, some players have had more than enough hand use from daily life before they even pick up their bass, and then they add more use. Compared to 20 years ago hand use in daily life has increased tenfold from early age to adulthood. Computer games, keyboards and mouse, mobile phones, texting, remote controls, push pad this, keypad that, life is about the hands in Western society.
Most people need to get the days use out of their hands, not carry on by playing. So gentle stretches warm ups and massage will help prepare them before playing..... everytime and i mean evertime. There is not one situation i can think of where this is not of benifit to the hands.
So you want your hands for life, look after them and remember playing is an adaption of their use, not the only one.
Excellent post!
Much better advice here than "Placebo effect, maybe?"
So I guess it comes down to moderation, as I said? And like anything to do with training the body, the best advice would be to listen to your body, and stop as soon as you feel any discomfort or pain?
I have one in my car and I use it usually when I'm waiting for drummers or guitars players!
