Massage & Bodywork

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2016

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32 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k n o v e m b e r / d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 6 TABLE LESSONS best practices Ferraris & Eccentric Control By Douglas Nelson Greeting Miss S. and her mom in my waiting room, I could see the worried looks on their faces. "My daughter is very serious about her music," the mom began. "She works very hard at it, and we are worried that this could be a real problem going forward." "What instrument do you play?" I asked. Miss S.'s face immediately took on a look somewhere between pride and embarrassment. "Four instruments, actually," she said. "The piano, string bass, guitar, and baritone horn." "Let me guess. Is the problem in your left hand?" I inquired. "It is," replied Miss S. with a little surprise in her voice. "Am I correct in remembering that the baritone horn is held with the left hand and the valves are played with the right?" "Yes, that's correct," Miss S. answered. "The pain I feel in my arm and hand started after a long session of playing the baritone. My school band played in the Fourth of July parade, which was unusually long this year. The pain started the next day." "Show me where you hurt," I instructed. Miss S. pointed to the flexor digitorum muscles on her left forearm. "It is a deep ache and when it starts, I cannot continue playing." "Did you notice any pain before the parade episode?" I asked. "Not really," she answered. "One thing I did notice is that I haven't been able to do trills and more intricate passages the last few weeks. It seemed like the more I practiced them, the worse I got. I also don't understand why it now hurts on this side of the arm," she said, pointing to the extensors. "When I press down on the keys or strings, doesn't it involve the muscles on this side (pointing to the flexor muscles) of the arm?" "Correct, but it is a little more complicated than that," I replied. "Put your hand over my extensor muscles and feel what happens when I contract my finger flexors, like playing the guitar. Do you feel all that movement?" "Wow, that's more movement than I thought," Miss S. said. "How come?" "Two reasons," I replied. "First, every push with your finger requires these extensor muscles to lift the finger upward to repeat the motion. That's the simple part. Second, and much more complicated, the extensor muscles control the descent of your finger to its intended target. When you press down the strings on the bass or guitar, do you always attack them with equal intensity?" "No, varying the pressure is how you get the differences in tone," she said. "Exactly," I concurred. "Nuances of pressure are made possible by the control of the extensor muscles, more than varying the power of contraction of the flexors Whenever I think about this concept, I think of a chance meeting I had with someone who was parking his new Ferrari. I was totally awed by this amazing vehicle, especially since I had never actually seen one. Seeing my fixed stare at the imposing engine in the back of the car, he looked at me and declared that the engine is not the most impressive feature of the car. As I scanned the car with my eyes, I couldn't stop looking at the engine. Smiling patiently, he kept saying over and over that the engine isn't the most impressive feature. I knew he was guiding me to something, but I

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