The violin places the wrist at sustained pressure, and this can result in wrist injury. This is why some violinists use a violin wrist aid in an attempt to prevent these injuries and make their playing easier.
The term RSI stands for repetitive strain injury. RSIs are sometimes suffered by musicians, on potentially any instrument. Performing the same, sometimes strenuous, movement of the hand thousands of times through a period of days, weeks or months can give rise to an RSI. Soft tissue, such as tendons or ligaments (or even muscles), starts to swell and experience pain, and cannot move as easily at it used to.
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 arrangement makes the extensive rotational movement by the hand possible. But there is a problem associated with this where the hand is constantly used for a specific motion or activity. The ligaments between the carpals sometimes become swollen and painful, and this limits the movement of the hand.
The permanently strained wrist posture during violin playing is an obvious risk activity for this type of injury. Ligaments have no ability to expand or contract, unlike muscles and tendons, and so they cannot tolerate indefinite strain. Once injured, they take an exceptionally long time to heal because their blood circulation is poor, and their extremely strong tissue takes more time than other tissue in the body to grow. Tendinitis is the swelling and hardening of the usually flexible tendons.
Once injured, the violinist is unable to play without pain. They also have limited motion in the affected hand and wrist. Their playing not only becomes painful, but they are also unable to perform to the same standard.
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.
The term RSI stands for repetitive strain injury. RSIs are sometimes suffered by musicians, on potentially any instrument. Performing the same, sometimes strenuous, movement of the hand thousands of times through a period of days, weeks or months can give rise to an RSI. Soft tissue, such as tendons or ligaments (or even muscles), starts to swell and experience pain, and cannot move as easily at it used to.
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 arrangement makes the extensive rotational movement by the hand possible. But there is a problem associated with this where the hand is constantly used for a specific motion or activity. The ligaments between the carpals sometimes become swollen and painful, and this limits the movement of the hand.
The permanently strained wrist posture during violin playing is an obvious risk activity for this type of injury. Ligaments have no ability to expand or contract, unlike muscles and tendons, and so they cannot tolerate indefinite strain. Once injured, they take an exceptionally long time to heal because their blood circulation is poor, and their extremely strong tissue takes more time than other tissue in the body to grow. Tendinitis is the swelling and hardening of the usually flexible tendons.
Once injured, the violinist is unable to play without pain. They also have limited motion in the affected hand and wrist. Their playing not only becomes painful, but they are also unable to perform to the same standard.
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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