Musical Injuries

So I suppose most of you don't deal with this as composers, but right now I'm about up to my neck in tendonitis (not literally). I've had it since November (my therapist said that means it's chronic and it's going to take a while to heal :< ), and it involves two different types of tendons: the extensors (fingers, upper side of forearm) and flexors (wrists, underside of forearm)--in both arms. I'm also having some problems with my radial and ulnar nerves, though that seems to correlate with the tendonitis problems (the swelling is causing some nerve compression).

So in order to fix that, I've been going to hand/arm therapy for a few months now. Right now I have a lot of stretches, these crazy exercises called "nerve glides", and strengthening exercises involving very light weight lifting (about 1-2 lbs of tension, using a theraband) and gripping exercises using hand putty. I guess the goal is to build up my stamina, so I have to do a lot of very light weights, with a lot of repetitions. Apparently my arms are strong, but not durable--it's like a sprinter trying to run a marathon.

So, has anyone else dealt/is dealing with music-related injuries, and if so how did you go about fixing them?

I'm a 6 foot 3 cellist, so I'm constantly getting back problems from not having big enough chairs! Playing the tenor sax probably doesn't help much either. It got really bad a couple of years ago, to the point where walking was painful. I'm more careful now to stop and sit back whenever I feel my back playing up. Other than that, I've been lucky enough not to damage anything seriously.

I've also got all the standard complaints: blisters on my left hand, bruised left thumb (too much thumb position practise ) etc. I play clarinet too, and over Easter I played so much my lip bled, which was a bit silly. I've also got a lovely dome of dead skin on my right thumb, from where my clarinet sits.

Ah, the things we do for our art

Originally Posted by Andrew Hopper

I've also got a lovely dome of dead skin on my right thumb, from where my clarinet sits.

I think all of us clarinet players should start a thread and photograph them, to see who has the worst one.

It's important that you exercise (yes, that is moving around and stretching) after playing. You need to to avoid injury. Think about it: you're better off excersicing for 5 min. or so after every time you play, rather than getting tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome and not being able to play again. I've seen it ruin people.

Hah, percussionists get those "domes" too. While I played exclusively Burton grip, I had a big ol pile of skin inside my right hand index finger. Now that I play Stevens grip too, I have lumps on the insides of my middle fingers. Percussionists like to compare and contrast

As a violist, I feel if you do things the right way with right sized equipment, and always focus on relaxing an correct posture that no injuries will occur.

Take plenty of breaks too.

You have to be so careful with tendinitis. I have a friend who went to St. Olaf University to study violin, but within the first six months, she got tendinitis so bad that she could never play again. She had to switch majors to something she doesn't like very much - English. I had another friend who got tendinitis and couldn't play for a year. I think it happens most frequently with violinists / string players.

Yeah, I'm trying to be very careful right now.

Corbin- I was of the same belief for a while--I got a much less severe case my freshman year from having poor technique. I believe this case was brought on by practicing way more than my body was prepared too-I went from practicing like, 2 hours a day to playing about 6-8 hours a day! I'll have to be more careful, and gradually build up my playing time...

Nothing major but I have given myself carpal tunnel in both hands. Left hand from guitar and right hand from piano. I'd contemplated surgery before but in the long run, I'm glad I didn't.

an amp once fell on my foot.. does that count?

I've never had any serious injury, but I have lots of chronic pains and weird calluses like a lot of you guys. I'm a pretty skinny guy, so during marching band season, my shoulder was in constant pain from my Sousaphone... I'm also developing a callus on the inside of my thumb from the thumb ring on my concert tuba.