Violin playing uses the wrist in a position of continuous, sometimes severe exertion. Such activity can obviously cause injury over time, and so violinist sometimes wear a violin wrist aid to protect their arm and assist their playing.
Repetitive strain injuries (RSI) are common among musicians. This applies to practically any instrument. An RSI is caused when the same movement is performed many times, over a prolonged period, not merely hours but weeks or months. The cumulative stress to the soft tissue (i. E. Muscles, tendons and ligaments) can result in a painful and incapacitating injury over time.
However, an RSI is difficult to determine before its acute stage. There are no symptoms before it becomes serious. The sudden manifestation of pain, swelling or hardening and reduced movement do not have prior warning and the musician is not going to realize that they are causing the injury. Once it has reached the acute stage, it takes a long time for an RSI to recover. Practise and performance then become much more difficult or even impossible.
Concerning the wrist specifically, the potential for RSI is significant. In order to understand how the wrist gets injured, one needs to know its anatomy. Starting with the skeletal structure, there are the bones of the hand, the two long bones in the forearm, and the bones in the wrist that attached them to each other. These wrist bones are known as the carpals. The carpal area therefore comprises many small bones with irregular shapes that are packed together and joined to each other by ligaments. The forearm bones connect to them on one side, and the metacarpals, or bones of the palm, on the other.
The carpal formation allows the hand to perform the immense range of activity that it is able to. If the wrist is subjected to a repetitive and strenuous activity, though, the strong yet inflexible ligaments become swollen and painful, and the hand is more limited in how it moves.
It is not surprising that the continuously exerted position displayed by the violinist's wrist during playing of the instrument is a serious risk factor for RSI. A ligament cannot change its shape or length, unlike muscles or tendons. It is therefore prone to injury through repetitive strain. It also takes much longer than other tissue types to heal because, structurally, it is so dense and strong, and also because its circulation is so limited. Where a tendon is inflamed and hard, the condition is known as tendinitis, and this is also a common problem among musicians, not only on the violin.
An injured musician cannot play to their usual ability. Their hand cannot move as it usually does, and the instrument's use is accompanied by pain.
The attitude of some musicians is to play as usual, no matter the pain or the nature of the injury. This is not as sensible as it may seem, since an RSI gets progressively more serious if it is not allowed to rest and repair itself. In time, the damage or disability can become permanent. Performing the same, injuring activity despite the pain is not advisable. Musicians who are experiencing an RSI should, as a matter of course, see a physiotherapist or doctor, and also try to arrange extra rest opportunities in their playing timetable.
Repetitive strain injuries (RSI) are common among musicians. This applies to practically any instrument. An RSI is caused when the same movement is performed many times, over a prolonged period, not merely hours but weeks or months. The cumulative stress to the soft tissue (i. E. Muscles, tendons and ligaments) can result in a painful and incapacitating injury over time.
However, an RSI is difficult to determine before its acute stage. There are no symptoms before it becomes serious. The sudden manifestation of pain, swelling or hardening and reduced movement do not have prior warning and the musician is not going to realize that they are causing the injury. Once it has reached the acute stage, it takes a long time for an RSI to recover. Practise and performance then become much more difficult or even impossible.
Concerning the wrist specifically, the potential for RSI is significant. In order to understand how the wrist gets injured, one needs to know its anatomy. Starting with the skeletal structure, there are the bones of the hand, the two long bones in the forearm, and the bones in the wrist that attached them to each other. These wrist bones are known as the carpals. The carpal area therefore comprises many small bones with irregular shapes that are packed together and joined to each other by ligaments. The forearm bones connect to them on one side, and the metacarpals, or bones of the palm, on the other.
The carpal formation allows the hand to perform the immense range of activity that it is able to. If the wrist is subjected to a repetitive and strenuous activity, though, the strong yet inflexible ligaments become swollen and painful, and the hand is more limited in how it moves.
It is not surprising that the continuously exerted position displayed by the violinist's wrist during playing of the instrument is a serious risk factor for RSI. A ligament cannot change its shape or length, unlike muscles or tendons. It is therefore prone to injury through repetitive strain. It also takes much longer than other tissue types to heal because, structurally, it is so dense and strong, and also because its circulation is so limited. Where a tendon is inflamed and hard, the condition is known as tendinitis, and this is also a common problem among musicians, not only on the violin.
An injured musician cannot play to their usual ability. Their hand cannot move as it usually does, and the instrument's use is accompanied by pain.
The attitude of some musicians is to play as usual, no matter the pain or the nature of the injury. This is not as sensible as it may seem, since an RSI gets progressively more serious if it is not allowed to rest and repair itself. In time, the damage or disability can become permanent. Performing the same, injuring activity despite the pain is not advisable. Musicians who are experiencing an RSI should, as a matter of course, see a physiotherapist or doctor, and also try to arrange extra rest opportunities in their playing timetable.
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