A Dilemma

[BigA]

Good evening Rip,

I have a bit of a dilemma. I have been experiencing some symptoms of carpal tunnel (pain at the base of the palm, pain and tingling in thumb, index, and middle finger, and pain in my wrist and just above it on the palm side). The pain is not very much as I am catching this very early. Pulling double overhand is what makes it hurt the most.

My dilemma, however, is that I am a pianist and all the practicing that I do affects my recovery of grip. I am 21 years old at present, still in school studying music and I have quite a long road of playing ahead of me. The piano takes the priority as it is my trade and I love it very, very dearly. I must admit that I have always been impressed by feats of grip strength and so I have been doing farmers walks and barbell holds in addition to my regular pulling and this certainly has not helped. So far, I have changed my programming to pulling double overhand once a week and not doing any additional grip work but this has not helped either. I have not tried mix grip yet as I am not pulling very much at all yet but I am going to try it in my next deadlift workout.

As far as my playing goes, I have begun to practice the Alexander technique consistently and it has definitely helped a lot with minimizing tension in my hands during playing.

Do you have any advice as to how to approach this problem? These are very early symptoms but I want to have the best possible outcome as I have many high hopes for piano playing. Would I possibly have to give up the idea of having a very strong grip?

Thank you so much for your help!

P.S On a more personal note, I read somewhere that you said that you play the trumpet. What kind of music do you like to play? When did you start?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you've just overtrained your grip. Do the 5-day ibuprofen thing, and find a chiropractor who knows how to manipulate your wrists. Don't sign up for 30 visits.

What are you deadlifting now?

I started playing the trumpet when I was 40, in 1996. I like to play very easy music.

[Suwannee Dave]

I had those symptoms a few years ago and overcame it. There are a couple of techniques you can do to help:
1. stand about an arms length away from a wall; hold your arm straight out to the side and push the palm of your hand against the wall with the fingers pointing down. Hold for 30 seconds.
2. (hard to describe) bring the finger and thumb tips of one hand together; put a fairly strong rubber band around the fingers and thumb (across the nails); then repeatedly open up the fingers against the force of the rubber band.
Do no.1 a couple of times a day. Do number 2 several times a day about 20 reps.
Also, for the pain soak your hand and wrist in a bucket of ice water about 10 minutes a day.

[russ]

Just chiming in to add my own experience here, since it sounds relevant.

I play fairly technical guitar pieces (a very serious hobby for about 27 years) and had similar experiences progressing my DL vs maintaining guitar practice (and my day job is computer programming, to boot!). My recent PR is 435 for 1 rep (without straps), and I plan to get 500 for reps over the next year or so.

I went through a mild grip-strength obsession because I couldn’t get my DL over about 350 without straps for a while towards the end of linear progression on SS. I did the typical grip-strength training stuff found via google and various articles on the web, and ended up with an overtrained grip. I reduced my DL frequency, stopped the grip training, started using chalk and a belt and my DL went up. I stopped having problems with my grip and guitar playing and haven’t ever since. I’ve suffered a grade 3 AC separation and since achieved my DL PR, still no problems.

Every now and then if I practice guitar significantly more on a specific day (say 2-3 hours more than a normal practice day) I get hand-cramps that won’t stop, but they clear up the next day.

As a side note, since my DL has gotten stronger, I’ve had to focus much less on endurance type exercises and can focus more on technique and addressing specific technical deficits more. In general, I feel my guitar technique is more resilient than it ever has been.

[BigA]

I searched the board and the protocol is 800mg x 4 x 5 days? I just want to make sure this is correct.

I am deadlifting 290 x 5.

Should I just rest this upcoming week following this protocol? I am scheduled to make a PR (i am doing 5/3/1, two days a week, so i don't do the deload unless it is necessary) but I am a patient person and I want to make a prudent decision and get out of this situation as fast as possible. I got some burning and cold sensations this morning during the church service that I was playing for, I think I am being a bit paranoid though.

Have you ever done any improv before?

Once again, thank you for your help! It is very generous of you to run this forum. I enjoy reading your books very much.

[Mark Rippetoe]

3200mg/day x 5 days is correct. You're not deadlifting anything heavy enough now to be a grip problem unless your fingers are very short, so I'm pretty confident that you need to stop doing a bunch of grip work, chalk your hands, and just deadlift.

You were using chalk, right?

And I lack the chops to play improvisational jazz.

[Bluntschli]

3200mg/day x 5 days is correct. You're not deadlifting anything heavy enough now to be a grip problem unless your fingers are very short, so I'm pretty confident that you need to stop doing a bunch of grip work, chalk your hands, and just deadlift.

You were using chalk, right?

And I lack the chops to play improvisational jazz.

Any particular suggestions/grip training for people with short (3") fingers?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Straps.

[BigA]

3200mg/day x 5 days is correct. You're not deadlifting anything heavy enough now to be a grip problem unless your fingers are very short, so I'm pretty confident that you need to stop doing a bunch of grip work, chalk your hands, and just deadlift.

You were using chalk, right?

And I lack the chops to play improvisational jazz.

No, I wasn't using chalk. I will start to use it from now on.

One last question, should I train this week or take it off to let my grip recover and then pick up where I left off, minus the grip work?

Thank you all for your responses!

[Bluntschli]

Straps.

Thank you.