I sometimes wish that the medical world turned its eyes towards the musical world as often as it does to the sports world.
While we call it “tennis elbow” the name seems a little deceptive. Musicians (and especially string instrument players) are highly prone to muscular conditions such as lateral epicondylitis. In fact some studies indicate between 73% and 87% of string instrument players experience conditions such as this as a result of their art.
Some tips on managing and preventing tennis elbow when playing viol family instruments are:
1. Strengthen your wrist extensor muscles.
Hold on to a had weight and keep your forearm locked in place so that only your wrist can move.
Slowly tilt your wrist upwards and downwards. Don’t push through any pain worse than 2/10.
2. Massage and stretch the forearm flexor and extensor muscles before and after training. You can find these muscles by tilting your wrist up and down. The muscles that tense up when you move the wrist need to be massaged.
3. Break your normal practice routine into 10 minute blocks. Give yourself just a short break between each block to reset and have a short walk around.
4. Experiment in finding a position that leaves your wrist in a neutral and comfortable position while using your 3rd and 4th fingers to do most of the work of holding your bow.
Play Well
Dan