My wrist and carpal tunnel, prevenative measures.

[Lithicon]

I've been playing a lot more frequently now than I had previous. I'm riddled with injuries from other sports, and every day life in general. I haven't injured myself in DG, or from DG "YET." But, this is more of a preventive measure so I don't. I have sort of a medium case of Carpal tunnel in my throwing hand. My right hand, and I throw RHBH. As you can imagine it can get uncomfortable at the days end sometimes. It doesn't happen as often as I thought it would. I have a few braces and none that I really like. I'm going to buy another tomorrow more than likely that I've been looking at, and tried one like it from a friend. Heh, not really the point of this post.

My main concern is how detrimental is throwing to my wrist, and do you think it could accelerate the damage? I wear my brace when it hurts, and usually don't play when it hurts. Since it's obvious I can't wear anything while playing, due to it completely limiting wrist movement. But, is there anything I should do? Or anything I could possibly try when throwing to reduce the risk of injury, or irritating those tendons?

[JR]

I've heard carpal tunnel syndrome has sent many musicians to early retirement. Guitarists and bassists are especially at risk. When it gets bad it must be really bad to debilitate musicians to the point of not being able to pay. You need to see what's going on get your facts straight. DG may be a matter of earning the other arm or you may ruin your quality of life.

[Lithicon]

Anyone have any idea's, could this possibly completely ruin my hand? Would it be worth the conversion to lefty? This would take a long time, and really set my progress back a lot.

[nohr]

I have suffered from my wrists hurting me over the past couple years. A couple things you can try that really helped me out was.

I worked in a factory and 3 times a day they encouraged everyone to do stretches and the following
1)Hold arms straight out in front of you rotate palms up and down
2)Hold arms straight out and relax your wrists flex your wrist up and down.
3)Stretch your thumbs across your palms hold for like 5 seconds and relax
4)Wrist circles inwards (like 3 or 4 rotations) and outwards
5)Make a fist hold it for like 3 or 4 seconds then open
6)press your palms together with your elbows out hold for like 6 seconds then relax.

Those are the wrist exercise that they had everyone do. Some people did and some didn't. I personally did it b/c I didn't want to f over my wrist for the rest of my life.

Since I moved to a computer job they don't have this type of system. I started looking around and I found
http://www.powerballs.com/ . It is wierd they are a plastic shell containing a gyroscope which you can get spinning extremely fast (>10k rpms). The faster you spin the thing the harder it is to hold on to it. Even after a couple mins of using it you can feel it in your wrist. I am not a doctor but what I think it is doing is working all the muscles in the whole hand/wrist/upper arm area.

Several times I have "rehabbed" my wrists by using this once or twice a day for 5-10 mins. I actually just brought one back into my cube today. Initially I didn't want to use it b/c it can get kind of loud. But i have gotten over that.

I was looking at prices today and you can pick up the basic model for like $25. A little bit more you get the digital read out thing. I would suggest getting that so you can make it into a game. How fast can you spin it!!! It also helps definitely prove you can spin it faster than your friends.

[SkaBob]

I'll second the powerball suggestion. I injured the heck out of my wrist a couple years ago and was using mine for rehab after the tendons got out of the "OMG TOO STRETCHED INJURED OWIE!" state.

As always, see a doctor first to ask if it's a good idea, or if there's something better you can do. You don't want to go off doing a bunch of motions with good intentions that just happen to be exactly the wrong ones for what's messed up with your wrist.

Personally I'd say if you're going to get a powerball, invest in one of the more expensive (not insanely so) models, or accept that you're going to need to replace parts as they wear out, because they will. I was using mine for 10-15 minutes 20 or so times a day for a while (btw- that really helped my grip and got me some distance in my drives) and now mine is in need of a new housing or track or something, because the gyro is much looser than it should be.

[Lithicon]

Awesome, I've been looking into something like that. I know A LOT of motocross racers used these to combat Arm pump. But, they're using one that had something very similar to that. But, it had a grip extending out one side, and used it as if they were throttling the bike. I heard they worked awesome for that. The only problem is that with an already bad wrist, I could see that working the forearm, but, worry it could still be detrimental to the wrist, due to repeating motions. Which is what makes Carpal Tunnel happen in the first place. I'll have to speak to my physician to see if this would help at all. Because, I have been wanting one of those, LOL!

-EDIT-
Maybe I should have just read their site instead. This was taken from their site, Heh.
"The perfect instrument to gently rehabilitate lower forearm and wrist joints affected by carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive strain injury RSI, arthritis or previous breakage"

[SkaBob]

Seriously, ask your doctor about your specific injury first. Their site is marketing. It's possible that any given injury may exclude them from being appropriate therapy.

[nohr]

SkaBob how fast can you get yours going? I broke 10k a couple times I think the cheapest model would work out just fine. Only thing to think about is if you want to upgrade to the digital display.

[Lithicon]

Well, I'm going to. I've been wanting one of those anyway. And, pretty sure I'm going to get one. Told my GF I wanted one for Christmas! But, better talk to the Doc first. Would make a great toy anyway.

[AciDBatH666]

I got a gyroscope a while back for carpal tunnel problems I was having. I draft 8 hours a day at work, come home and do computer work most nights... Used to play a ton of Warcraft. All those things combined really killed my wrists.
I used the gyroscope for a while in my car on the way to work and on the way home. I have no problems now really, but when I'm at a computer for long periods of time like at work or home I wear a wrist brace. Helps a ton.

But the gyroscope really helped to basically rehabilitate my wrist to where I wasn't getting the sharp pains like I used to. I play bass too, so I found some youtube vids that showed some finger exercises that I tend to do a lot at work without even realizing it. Just some simple stretches here and there to help out.

[SkaBob]

SkaBob how fast can you get yours going? I broke 10k a couple times I think the cheapest model would work out just fine. Only thing to think about is if you want to upgrade to the digital display.

I think my top speed was 11.9k, but I almost never went for top speed...I'd keep it hovering around 7-8k I think (could be wrong, it's been a LONG time since I knew what box it's in lol) for when I was using it for rehab

[nohr]

My wrist problems also came from a combination of programming 8 hours a day. Then going home to work on the computer. Sadly I used to play world of warcraft also. So there were some days that I would spend most of the time on the computer.

The powerballs I got I am very pleased with. One I think I messed up a little bit. When I first got the sucker it took me like a half an hour before I got it spinning good. As soon as it was going real fast it shot out of hand and hit the ground. I didn't realize how hard you have to hold on to it. I guess that is why they offer wrist straps. So the one that hit the ground kinda hard has a little knocking when it gets up to speed. A couple days ago I contacted them about a repair/replacement. They told me to open it up and check a couple things. That was pretty easy. I requested some replacement parts for the unit I dropped. Time will tell how that works out.

I have shown the powerball to a bunch of people that do computer work. They all really like it and wanted to know where to get one. No matter what your fitness level is this thing will give your arms/wrist a work out.

The basic movement is like a wrist circle. You can make it as hard or as easy to hold on to as you want. The 7-8k like SkaBob said is pretty good. That is the point where it gets a little harder to hold onto (and makes some cool noise and lights up the LEDs if your unit has that).

The one thing I would suggest is getting an extra 10 pack of starter strings. Apparently you can start the thing without the string but I haven't gotten that to work yet. It is like $2.50 for 10 strings. If you order just the strings then it is $2.50 plus like $5 shipping. Nothing worse than wanting to show your friends how the bugger works and you can start it.

I have seen these sold in various outdoor stores (ie. Active Endeavors in Iowa City). Any place that sells stuff for sports that grip is super important might have them (like rock climbing supply stores)

[SkaBob]

Starting it without the string is weird. You kind of have to spin your wrist back and forth forcefully until it gets up a bit of speed, rather than move it in the twisting circle like you do once it's going. The string is definitely easier to get it going with, but I don't use it anymore.

[AciDBatH666]

Don't pay for extra strings. Starting is easy once you get it down. Hold your hand in a knife position. And roll the gyro on the bottom if your hand from your wrist to the tip of your pinky.
Once you get this motion down you should be able to start it up pretty consistently.

[nohr]

To each there own. I can't do it. I had some luck spinning it on my jeans. But then I found out this can like kill the unit (fuzz building up). Actually here in my cube a couple mins ago another guy accidently temporarly broke mine by trying to start it by hand.