Preventing Tendonitis

[WecklsMechanic]

Might be the reason why both Buddy Rich and Vinnie were both into martial arts at one time??

[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

John

[benrand]

A recent study on women said that women that are obese and don't excercise regularily (at least 3-4 times a week, fairly hard, working up a sweat) are 200% as likely to die vs. a woman that works out and keeps her weight at a normal level.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is huge news, death is avoidable. [img]wink.gif[/img]

I got a bit in my elbow when I was playing in a top 40 band that played for four hours a night and the things that stopped it, reversed it were stopping drinking, changing my technique so that I was not placing as much emphasis on the fulcrum between my index finger a dn thumb (this was a big change) and exercise.

Stopping drinking helped for soreness and changing my grip allowed me to play a LOT longer before I was spent. I felt a whole hell of a lot better at the end of the night. I follwed the Weckl/Gruber thing thinking of rotating the stick in the butt of my hand rather than all the way out in front.

[Randy walker]

tendonitis is a series of micro tears in the tendon, they repair themselves and then reopen if used. This is how it was explained to me prior to having surgery, in my case not only did i suffer from tendonitis, i had to have a major nerve ending moved in my elbow.
I had the tendon rebuilt and attached, then on the elbow had a tendon repaired and a nerve fixed.
The official term is called Tommy Johns.
There are times that i still have numbness in the elbow, but i will take that over the numb feeling i had in the ring and pinky finger before the surgery.

[WecklsMechanic]

Gosh!!

Randy!! You sound like the Bionic man!!! I think it's still amazing you're still playing!!

I remember back in 95', when I was almost killed by a drunk driver. Hit me doing around 75MPH head on. Seat ripped out of the floor of my 69 Nova with me still belted. Broke and tore off my R. Kneecap along with the tendon. Lucky to be alive!! I was sad thinking that I probably would never be able to do martial arts again or beat my bass drum. But after they sewed my tendon back onto my knee, and a year later of working it alot, it's back to nearly 80-90%. Now my R. shoulder socket is worn from years of abuse. My whole R. arm goes numb if its in the right position. Just had an MRI. Looks like some nerve damage. Under the knife again!! Oh well!!

I've been dealing with one injury after another since before Haloween of 03' (back, shoulder, and now R.arm). Haven't been back to the gym since then. Picked up some 30lbs. I think I'm falling apart!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

But ya know what!!?? It doesn't keep me from playing and practicing. I don't think anything will keep me from the drums. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

But the one thing I'll always remember. I always felt better, got sick less, slept better, had better memory, and could play for hours upon hours when I excercised regularily and kept my weight under control.

Im glad to see that you're ok now.

ps.... Benrand.... "meant to say 200% more likely to die at an earlier age".

If we think about the early hominids..... we used to hunt for our food. We weren't the lazy humans that we are today with cars, supermarkets, and the such. We barely kept enough food in our stomachs to make it to the next meal, and we would have to keep in shape to hunt and avoid predators. So these little things (not nesscessarily so little) like carpultunnel or tendonitis caused from repetitive motion are the current injury trends with our lifestyles these days. And can be sometimes as dis-abilitating as a broken leg.

[Randy walker]

i won't lie, the Dr at first did not give a perfect outlook. When i went in my arm was beyond perfection and they gave me only a few months to fix it or the possibility of not playing anymore.
it was that bad, my rotator cuff is still in need of repair but that's a more strung out recovery, not ready to there yet.
I did what the Dr and therapists said to do and bounced back to playing 30 days.....no scar even, very slight.
what brought me to the Dr was 2 things, the pain in the forearm and the numbness in the fingers to the point of dropping sticks on a gig.

[no_bells]

Recently i've been doing that old stretch where you hold a pair of sticks together w/ arms straight out and palms up, and close together and then you turn your arms inside out. I was told awhile back by one of my first teachers who was a legit percussionist to NEVER do that because it will do permanent damage to the tendons in your foream. Has anyone had or know anyone that has had problems from doing this stretch? All I know is that it relieves tension immediately in my left elbow. I just hope I'm not messing myself up. [img]confused.gif[/img]