You want to follow this with stretches – I find PNF stretches to be the most effective because you can’t contract two opposing muscle groups at the same time. These are not passive stretches, they are active. Things to note:
- Hands should be flat, but don’t force them if they don’t go. Go as far as they will let you. NO pressure on the hands.
- Keep your elbows straight. If your elbows really want to bend, stop right before they do and start from there. The more you do this the farther you will go and your elbows will eventually be straight
- Your hands should be DIRECTLY underneath your shoulders, not behind and not ahead. When you are trying to pick up your fingers or knuckles, you’ll know if you’re cheating because if you are, you’ll be able to do it. Picking up knuckles/fingers should be impossible if you’re directly below
- Follow these with gentle wrist rolls not shaking.
Shoulder, Wrist and Neck – those are the three most common complaints of pain I get from musicians, and there’s little wonder. If you combine the repetitive stress of playing an instrument in a fixed position for hours a day, with the repetitive stress of typing and texting (and writer’s cramp back in the day from writing), it’s pretty easy to see how the muscles can get strained from overuse.
Musicians aren’t the only ones prone to this. I have met two different flutists, in the space of a week, in two different states, both also quilters, who complain of wrist pain. Really, no one is immune – anyone who does anything repetitively with their hands in fixed position is at risk. So, what’s to be done? Let’s look at some possible culprits and possible solutions.
Where is the “Wrist”?
If you touch your finger with the opposite hand, and then run it down your hand until you lose the finger and feel a mass of bones that are all together, THAT is your wrist. “But I thought it was my hand”! It’s a common misconception. Where the finger joint meets the wrist is actually the first joint of your finger, which means your fingers are a LOT longer than you may have thought they were. Also, your wrist bones are not fused – they can move, and if you happen to get one a little out of place, it can be very painful. I hope you know a good chiropractor that also treats extremities – they are lifesavers if this happens!
The bones of your arm, the radius and ulna, where they meet your “hand” is probably what you thought of as your wrist bones. But now, that we have corrected your body map, now we can talk about “wrist pain”. My guess is that you are referencing pain just below the wrist where the arm bones meet.
Is it Carpal Tunnel?
First off, to be fair, everyone has a carpal tunnel, what you are referencing is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and it is a favorite scary buzzword among musicians. I have talked to 2 well known health professionals, both A.R.T. practitioners, one having given an interview for drummer’s magazine (and a former health practitioner for the Tennessee Titans football team) and I asked them both about it. Both said “I have never seen a true case of carpal tunnel syndrome”.
That’s exciting, isn’t it?
So the short version of the syndrome is that the tunnel gets inflamed, squeezing nerves and tendons and causing pain and/or numbness. A surgeon’s favorite solution to this is to cut the sheath surrounding the tendons to relieve the pressure. However, both of these practitioners told me something that has stuck with me, and on 90% of the people I ask, I find it to be true as well.
This is their answer:
As you know now, the muscles of the forearm extensors originate at the elbow and as they travel southward towards the wrist they become tendons. When the muscles are tight, they can cause the tendons to swell, this causes the tunnel to become compressed and the same tightness/pain/numbness to occur.
What Can I Do?
Remember 2 things:
- The site of pain is not always the source of pain
- The body does not work in isolation but as a whole, and you must treat it as such.
For the former: now that you know about the muscles of the forearm, that should make a lot more sense. However, this does not mean that your forearm can be the only muscle to blame – you could have an imbalance in your tricep/bicep muscles, or other places, which is why I included the second point. However, this is not a comprehensive article, so let’s try the most common solution and see if it works for you.
Inhibit. AKA: Find the painful point and press on it
Ever had a massage, a really good that give you that “oh that hurts in such a good way” pain?
Well, that’s what we’re going to do here. The muscles of the forearm are not the easiest to massage yourself, so I recommend using the Arm Aid. (click below to check it out and use discount code MusicStrong for 10% off if you decide to get it!)
Whether you use this or another implement, you want to press on the tender points until the pain level goes down to almost non-existent:
You’re going to want to follow this with strengthening exercises for the forearm (no that doesn’t mean more playing 🙂 ) Here’s the full flow below.
Putting it all together
This is just the start. If you want more, I have an entire series of corrective exercise flows and workouts for the wrist and the forearm that you can access in the Music Strong Membership. Get everything in one place: courses, recipes, a private Discord community with other like minded musicians, mobility, mindfulness, yoga, guest artists, presentations and of course, workouts! Check it out here – we’ll see you inside!
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