Are You Using Your Body Properly?

You wouldn’t think so, but just sitting at a computer or playing your guitar, or combining both of these activities in a frequent manner could do your body a lot of harm.

You would think that injuries would occur either from accidents or from extreme activities like sports and what not, but you would be mistaken to think that.

As I am writing this, I can feel my shoulders tensing, and as they tense I just know that the next stage is a stiff neck and so on.

Apparently, it can be a lot worse than that. Rob Hampton, a guitar teacher had little  nagging feelings like that in the beginning of May, payed no attention to the signals his body was giving him, until it was obvious it was nothing that could be ignored

By the time the Jam rolled around, my arm and shoulder were feeling pretty tight and sore. Normally I would have rested, but there was no way I was going to sit out of the Jam-I had a dozen students counting on me to back them up.

I limped my way through the show. A week later I went hiking, and the pressure of the daypack on my shoulders caused numbness and tingling in my left hand, and sharp pain up and down my arm. My right arm started hurting too.

I spent the hike totally horrified. My mind raced as it pursued one catastrophic scenario after another: I’d have to stop playing guitar. My rock climbing days were over. I had to wake up from my dream job and go work for Microsoft, using voice recognition software. My arms would shrivel to twigs and I’d be shunned by women for the rest of my days…

It wasn’t a slipped disc or pinch nerve or anything as dramatic - it was a combination of poor posture, muscle tension and a bit of an over load of the muscles - the result was that rob was pretty much out of commission for 6 months as a result.

One of the ways to learn how to use your body properly, and which is great for musicians is Alexander technique.

If you would like to pursue this further, here is the link to the American Society for the Alexander Technique

From there FAQ page

How can the Alexander Technique help me?
The Technique offers you a way to streamline what you do, making your activities less stressful and more pleasurable. You come to understand how your body can move most efficiently. As you learn to move more easily, you make surprising improvements in how you look and feel. As you learn to apply Alexander’s principles, you practice an effective, lasting method of self care.

What is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique is an intelligent way to solve the common movement problems that cause chronic pain and stress. It is a way to notice your movement habits, release compression and move with ease and expansion. A proven self care method, it is a set of skills that you learn to relieve pain, prevent injury and enhance performance.

Check it out.

(I probably should to)