There is a fairly 'new' approach to elbow pain from epicondylitis (tennis elbow), involving using a stiff but flexible bar. This, like several new approaches, works by 'turning off' reflexes through antagonistic muscle action and a combination of concentric and eccentric motion muscle contraction. Anyone suffering from tennis elbow-like complaints ought to download this little article - it has easy to follow instructions that one can do at home ( sorry, nothing available specifically for wrist pains yet, but this exercise could potentially help the wrist too):
http://www.optp.com/userfiles/file/PDF%20Storage/NY%20Times%20article_flexbar.pdf (Original article from NewYork Times, PDF from www.OPTP.com website) -----Original Message----- From: William Samson <[email protected]> To: Anthony Hind <[email protected]> Cc: lute <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, Dec 1, 2011 1:17 am Subject: [LUTE] Re: injury prevention Hi Anthony, Interesting that you should mention the NSD Powerball. For UK readers info, I was shopping in Sainsbury's yesterday and they had Powerball copies at -L-5 among their 'scientific toys'. If I remember right, there was a three-for-the-price-of-two or similar offer so they could work out even cheaper. Certainly as I age old injuries are coming back to haunt me - mostly intermittent tendonitis and painful joints. Still, I believe that lute playing is very good for helping me deal with these and keeps things moving. Bill From: Anthony Hind <[email protected]> To: David van Ooijen <[email protected]>; "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2011, 10:19 Subject: [LUTE] Re: injury prevention David I sympathise as suffering myself from capsulitis (computer induced?); and the effect is far worse using my 70cm lute, in particular when the piece demands that LH stay on the lower frets. I try to adop a position which minimizes the extension of the left arm, but I am never quite free of these effects. I have used Chinese balls, exercises with Gripmansters of various strngths, and also Condo digiextend hand. I do find that five minutes with a medium gripmaster followed by a digiextend gets me over most hand pains, and the Grip master also seems to improve finger tip touch. It has a rough surface, and after a few minutes the surface and contact area seems to change. I have better contact with the strings. I do not use any of these to get stronger, but to warm up before playing. Clearly, it is not strength but economical use of it which helps avoid RSI. Now I just saw an extreme machine for strenthening wrists, the Marcy wedge, and some wrist and carpal damaged people seem to have some success with it, but others not. It seems that an early model made of metal was better than the present plastic one, but it does look as though it might do as much damage itself, as good. It makes me think about Schumann, although apparently that his injury was due to a machine, might be more myth than reality (even flutists suffer from RSI) [1]http://www.lunnflutes.com/ho6.htm Nevertheless, I am ready to try the NSD Power ball hoping it may help, but I notice on Amazon that the NSD version has few write-ups, while two others Dynaflex Digital Speed meter and Dynaflex extreme steel do have a number of good reviews. Which one are you using David? I am willing to give it a whirl to try to undo a few year's damage. Regards Anthony __________________________________________________________________ De : David van Ooijen <[2][email protected]> A : lutelist Net <[3][email protected]> Envoye le : Jeudi 1 Decembre 2011 9h49 Objet : [LUTE] injury prevention Tendinitis in arms and hands comes up once in a while on this list. The woman from our local Thai take away suffers from a similar form as I do: inflamed tendons at the wrist. In her case it comes from doing too much fancy vegetable carving. She found relief (notice the spelling!) in a 'power ball'. Her husband runs a shop in (Thai) sports' articles across the street, so she got me a 'Nsd Power Ball'. Strong stuff, like her food! Perhaps approached with care when you are suffering now, but it is supposed to be a good injury prevention, used e.g. by people spending many hours behind a computer keyboard. David -- ******************************* David van Ooijen [1][4][email protected] www.davidvanooijen.nl ******************************* To get on or off this list see list information at [2][5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References Visible links 1. mailto:[6][email protected] 2. [7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html Hidden links: 3. [8]http://www.amazon.com/Dynaflex-SM-01-Speedometer-Power-Balls/dp/B000 W1OMRO/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1322733497&sr=1-1 4. [9]http://www.amazon.com/Dynaflex-SM-01-Speedometer-Power-Balls/dp/B000 W1OMRO/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1322733497&sr=1-1 -- References 1. http://www.lunnflutes.com/ho6.htm 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 6. mailto:[email protected] 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 8. http://www.amazon.com/Dynaflex-SM-01-Speedometer-Power-Balls/dp/B000W1OMRO/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1322733497&sr=1-1 9. http://www.amazon.com/Dynaflex-SM-01-Speedometer-Power-Balls/dp/B000W1OMRO/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1322733497&sr=1-1 --
