For ourselves as musicians, and to help our students, it’s crucial to continually learn how to stay strong and avoid injuries that can keep us from playing music (among other activities).
Here are five areas to be aware of: general health and exercise; muscle movement vs tendon use; rest breaks; varying our positions; and maintaining natural positions. I’ve taken the info below from several sources and thrown in my own observations, along with a few book titles; I hope you find this helpful!
1. Getting general exercise is key to avoiding problems due to your specific musical activities. Certain instruments require unbalanced movements, so it’s very important to your health to stretch and strengthen all parts of your body. Pilates is great for this, because it doesn’t require any equipment. Yoga with a good teacher, well-considered workouts at a gym, a bicycle, some good stretches, can all be helpful.
2. It’s important to keep in mind that you are able to do more than your muscles allow, but that isn’t necessarily healthy. Your fingers can do fast movements in odd positions, but you may be working the tendons too much and the muscles not enough. Always try to become stronger in the muscles you use, and don’t take them too much for granted. Even when people use equipment at gyms, or take long walks, they can hurt themselves if they don’t consciously engage their muscles in a controlled way.
3. Take some rest breaks. It’s recommended that you rest 10 minutes for every hour of effort, and that you’re not working so hard that you forget to give yourself 30 seconds of rest every 10 minutes. I know someone who practiced so intensely without breaks that she put herself right into a neck brace. Often, halfway through an exercise, I’ll ask a student to pause and relax their muscles 10%. Saying “10%” acknowledges that we do need to use the muscles so we can’t relax them very much. But taking the edge off the tension is critical.
4. Don’t stay in one position too long. One professional string player told me she alternates the use of two bows so that her hand gets a little variety in weight and positioning. Little changes make a big difference, and pushing yourself for too long risks overuse problems in the back (for pianists, cellists, wind players who sit a lot) or in the shoulder or elbow for many musicians. Sometimes the briefest breaks and changes of position can stave off a problem and keep muscles in control.
5. Be aware of natural positions. The wrist is naturally fairly straight, and our hands and tendons are weak if the wrist caves in (flexes). A straight wrist also helps keep good blood flow. The thumb and fingers are naturally bent when relaxed, so that is the position to shoot for. When they’re straight or bent back they are strained. I once calculated that the average violinist plays about 5 million bowstrokes in a year! So, slight adjustments to keep the bowing motion more natural can add up to a big help over time. Some of my exercises for students involve their shaking out their hand and finding what positions their hand wants rather than cement in place positions that they may presume to be correct. It’s good to continue being aware of and experimenting with natural positions, and to remember that physical cues are more important than verbal ones. For example, you may think verbally “stand straight” but without knowing how this feels, it’s possible to overdo and overarch into a strained position.
Simple awareness and brief breaks can go a long ways to helping. A few affordable and quality books to consider include “Stretch and Strengthen” by Judy Alter; “Core Performance” by Mark Verstegen; “The Pilates Body” by Brooke Siler. (Of course you could buy “Medical Problems of the Instrumentalist Musician” but it costs $200!) Best of luck, and stay healthy!
