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I recently discovered some of Grisha's wonderful exercises on YouTube and have been particularly enamoured with this one:
But about two thirds of the way through the first run, I develop pain in the fleshy muscle at the base of my thumb on my left palm (I believe it's called the adductor pollicis, but I'm not a medical doctor). I'm a fairly young, physically fit guy, so I find the pain, which persists to the next day (!), a bit weird. Now, it's either the case that I have a condition (unlikely) or I'm doing something wrong with my left thumb placement, or perhaps because I'm not doing any warm up stretches before hand. Any principles or, better yet, pictures on how and where to place one's left thumb in difficult stretching exercises such as the above would be much appreciated.
It goes without saying, but this issue is no reflection of Grisha's fantastic exercises. Hugely grateful to him and others who share their knowledge with the public for free.
RE: Pain in left hand after Grisha's... (in reply to bahen)
quote:
ORIGINAL: bahen
But about two thirds of the way through the first run, I develop pain in the fleshy muscle at the base of my thumb on my left palm (I believe it's called the adductor pollicis, but I'm not a medical doctor). I'm a fairly young, physically fit guy, so I find the pain, which persists to the next day (!), a bit weird. Now, it's either the case that I have a condition (unlikely) or I'm doing something wrong with my left thumb placement, or perhaps because I'm not doing any warm up stretches before hand.
You are right that you should be warming up first before any stretching exercises. Also, don't keep practicing through pain.
It does sound like you are probably squeezing too hard with your thumb for an extended period of time. The muscles of the thumb within the hand (since that is where you feel the pain) are
1) Adductor Pollicis (this one mostly not opposing, though; it mainly brings the thumb toward the index finger within the plane of the hand) 2) Abductor Pollicis Brevis (assists in opposing the thumb to the other fingers; "Abducts" thumb away from plane of palm) 2) Flexor Pollicis Brevis 3) Opponens Pollisis
Check out this illustration:
You can also use the diagnostic assessment videos within the physiopedia links below to determine more accurately the source of the pain:
RE: Pain in left hand after Grisha's... (in reply to bahen)
quote:
Any principles or, better yet, pictures on how and where to place one's left thumb in difficult stretching exercises such as the above would be much appreciated.
The principle is keeping your wrist straight.
I second kitarist's advice about not playing through the pain -- that's how you get injuries.
RE: Pain in left hand after Grisha's... (in reply to bahen)
Grisha says don’t be a big baby and do more pushups!
I’ve had this happen quite a few times. Squeezing too hard or too much thumb pressure on the back of the neck like others said. It can be a sharp pain.
Takes me a couple weeks of rest, and lesson learned to check that grip when working on challenging, unfamiliar fretting.
RE: Pain in left hand after Grisha's... (in reply to bahen)
Many thanks to all for the helpful and illustrative replies. Much appreciated. I'm much more conscious of left thumb placement now but—in case someone else finds this thread in the future and suffers the same issue—what was especially revelatory for me was to imagine the rest of my fingers 'hanging on' to the strings with a very slight downward pulling motion, getting gravity to do some of the work in impressing the strings you need. That *significantly* reduces the need to clamp down hard with the thumb.
It does seem to be taking a while to recover from the pain from a few days ago, as I can still feel a slight soreness.
*Edit:
Just found this hilarious, ridiculous, twitchy video by Ruben Diaz about how to treat the issue noted in this thread, which I'll just leave here for wider amusement:
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