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Author Topic: Playing with gloves  (Read 1472 times)

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Boyen

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Playing with gloves
« on: June 04, 2017, 10:42:57 PM »

Last few weeks I've been feeling some pain in my hands while playing. Might be a case of repetitive strain injury or alike. Not happy with that at all as it means that I could only play for 5 minutes, or play with pain.

Today I had the thought that I might be bending and unbending my fingers too much so I put on some sailing gloves. They're relatively stiff and don't  have finger-tops. I  didn't feel any pain at all! I was constrained in my movements however,  but at least I could play. Not sure if this is a long term solution but for now this'll work.

If any of you has tips for me, it's more than welcome! In any case, maybe the gloves help someone else as well.
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robotmay

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Re: Playing with gloves
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2017, 12:39:13 AM »

I find that I can give myself hand pains from playing too much/too hard in a short space of time. When I was practising for a competition recently I probably played for about 3-4 or so hours a day for a week and they were certainly aching during that. I took a couple of days off with no playing whatsoever (and limited the amount I used computers too, as it's a similar movement) and that seemed to sort it out. Changing playing position, e.g. moving from thumb-behind-the-keyboard to thumb-on-the-side-of-the-keyboard also alleviates the strain for me.

I can definitely see gloves working; I imagine they restrict your hand in much the same way an elbow or knee brace does.

I have a couple of mechanical keyboards for my computers to help reduce the amount of impact my fingers go through in a day, which I can highly recommend if you too spend a lot of time on computers. Between computers and melodeons I probably spend more than 10 hours a day mashing keys, so any way of lowering the strain is well worthwhile ;D
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NickF

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Re: Playing with gloves
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2017, 12:18:28 PM »

I recently damaged the tendon in my left wrist/forearm and was provided with a splint to wear for a few days. Now that time has elapsed I still find that I can't play without quite a lot of pain if I don't use the splint. As with the gloves (I imagine...) the splint does mean that how I move my hand is restricted and therefore pain free :)
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Re: Playing with gloves
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2017, 12:35:23 PM »

I don't wear gloves because of hand pain, but I do wear fingerless woollen gloves when playing in the open air in cold weather, of which we get a lot in the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, where I play most frequently. On the one hand, they protect my hands from the cold, which I try to do as much as possible in the hope that I will prevent or delay the onset of arthritis or other conditions that restrict manual dexterity. On the other hand, fingerless gloves undoubtedly impair the fluency with which I can play. It is a trade-off, but when in doubt, I err on the side of protecting my hands.
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arty

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Re: Playing with gloves
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2017, 01:06:00 PM »

Please excuse the thread drift but I thought I would share something which has helped me. I was in conversation with a friend, a nurse and carer, a couple of years ago, when I mentioned that most evenings my fingers ached. I took this to be the onset of arthritis, which can be really annoying and sometimes painful.
Later, we got on to the subject of diet and I told her that I tend to eat very simply usually choosing a small piece of meat or fish, potatoes and vegetables and a nice knob of butter on top. She said, forget the butter and replace it with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some black pepper. Then, if you do this regularly, I think you will find that your arthritis will go.
I took her advice and she was right, my fingers have stopped aching almost completely. Olive oil is good stuff and has certainly helped me.
Just thought I would share that....
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deltasalmon

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Re: Playing with gloves
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2017, 01:24:32 PM »

My wife is a physical therapist and I complained about having some pain when playing accordion. For some background information, I'm also tall with poor posture and work an office job where I sit at a computer desk all day.

She was able to evaluate me and give me exercises to work on and it helped immensely. If you have the resources available to you I would highly suggest seeing a physical therapist or other professional.
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Re: Playing with gloves
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2017, 02:18:39 AM »

I don't wear gloves because of hand pain, but I do wear fingerless woollen gloves when playing in the open air in cold weather, of which we get a lot in the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, where I play most frequently. On the one hand, they protect my hands from the cold, which I try to do as much as possible in the hope that I will prevent or delay the onset of arthritis or other conditions that restrict manual dexterity. On the other hand, fingerless gloves undoubtedly impair the fluency with which I can play. It is a trade-off, but when in doubt, I err on the side of protecting my hands.

Same problem, different region. Although I just brave the cold when busking without gloves (people pity me, and give me moneys,) I did experiment with a few types at one point. the two most successful gloves not to hamper movement were a set of gloves cut off before the actual finger joint (although this was still quite cold,) and something you may not have considered, high quality mountaineering base layer gloves, designed to be worn underneath standard gloves. They are pretty skin tight - possibly useful for OP's need too, although my hands are still youthful so I wouldn't really know.
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