Shut down due to Carpal Tunnel - How to safely start up again ?

[dmc]

I've had to shelve my practicing due to CT (first time I've had it).  Things are starting to improve thanks to rest and some Physical Therapy.  I should be ready to start up again in about two weeks and I obviously have some changes to make so it doesn't return.  Just looking for advice on how to safely resume practicing.  Posture is the most obvious change but what about pieces to avoid, length of time to warm up, practice, etc.

Anyone whose dealt with this (or who hasn't) - Thoughts ?

[thalberg]

For carpal tunnel I recommend finding an active release practitioner

www.activerelease.com

They say that helps a lot.  Find a practitioner near you.  They cured my friend's tendonitis and really helped with my hand problems too.

[dmc]

Way ahead of ya'  Thal...!

I actually learned about ART from searching here and found a post about it (maybe it was from you ?).  That led to the PT I'm working with who is certified in it.  So far I've only seen him twice but inital results are promising.    Good suggestion (fingers crossed - no pun intended)....

[thalberg]

Cool, I'm glad it's working.

(that other post probably was from me--I recommend it all the time)

[iumonito]

I am sorry to hear you got CTS.  Surely you have been thinking about what caused it in the first place (my guess, not knowing you, is that a combination of overpractice, tense playing, dual-pull movements in your technique and a repertoire heavy on the loud and fast stuff may be involved).

If I would you, I would try to find in my heart the patience and love to spend some time with Haydn and Mozart (never wasted time) and look into the culture of healthy playing, along the lines of Taubman, Golandsky, Matthay, etc.

 

Best wishes, good luck, and put the Paganini-Brahms and the Prokofiev war sonatas down for a while.

Also, a letter to Leon Fleisher would not be out of place.   

[dmc]

I am sorry to hear you got CTS.  Surely you have been thinking about what caused it in the first place (my guess, not knowing you, is that a combination of overpractice, tense playing, dual-pull movements in your technique and a repertoire heavy on the loud and fast stuff may be involved).

If I would you, I would try to find in my heart the patience and love to spend some time with Haydn and Mozart (never wasted time) and look into the culture of healthy playing, along the lines of Taubman, Golandsky, Matthay, etc.

Heh heh...It wasn't Brahms/Paganni or Prokofiev but you're right.  I do have a pretty good idea where this came from.  I recently started ratcheting up on the Chopin Heroic Polonaise because I felt like I was getting it close to where I wanted.  So I started spending more time on it.  As y'all probably know, there's a lot of stretching in that piece as well as plenty of power.  My suspicion is that probably over time I accumulated enough micro-tears in the transverse carpal tendon in each hand until it began to continuously hurt (mostly in the palms & base of the thumb).  I was also spending a fair amount of time on Chopin 10/2 Etude which probably didn't help.  Obviously when I feel ready to work on these again, I'll take a much more measured & careful approach.   For the moment, I'm limiting myself to Bach WTC, Mozart & some smaller Beethoven pieces.  Maybe I'll check out Haydn too.  I've always wanted to learn some of his material and now might be a good time.