Stretch Yourself: Avoid RSI, Tendonitis and Carpal Tunnel, etc.

Something about RSI, via this page.

Ok so this isn't a post about music or music stuff but it's important (you can't play an instrument or compose very easily if you hands/arms are in pain)

Whether you play an instrument or compose a lot, and/or sit at a computer for a few hours a day you are risking a repetitive strain injury of some sort. Jazz saxophonist Matt Otto has suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome since the 1990s but is still playing regularly, daily stretches, exercise and diet are his solution (you can here him play if you go to his blog as linked to above, two free albums to listen to.)

He has uploaded some useful YouTube videos of the stretches he does (see embedded vid below) and he talks a bit about the condition and his experience of it, here is a link to his YouTube channel.

Also he answers some questions on this topic here (Casa Valdez, a jazz blog mostly focusing on saxophone, that's where I got the blanksheetmusic.net link in the previous post from too.)

I am trying to do these stretches every day and in my opinion (so far) they help avoid aches and pains and hopefully keep any more serious injuries at bay (I was getting a slightly annoying 'clarinet thumb' recently, seems to have gone away now after exercising, better to try and fix these things sooner rather than later for obvious reasons.)