Typically, the deadlift and chins are enough work for grip training. We'll ask the board.
Member
Hand/Finger Training for Pianists?
Dear Coach & Team,
For about a year, I‘ve been taking piano lessons and in recent weeks, the exercises have been getting so intense, that my forearms & fingers get tired quickly and sometimes sore the day after.
Since strength training has done a lot for my overall wellbeing, I was wondering if the stress-recovery-adaptation principle can be applied to finger/wrist-strength specifically.
Pressing piano keys and holding the wrists in pronation is a submaximal effort of sorts, so I wonder if the involved muscles can be strengthened to make those activities easier and/or improve endurance.
Over the years I‘ve experimented with all sorts of rubber bands and other contraptions to manage symptoms from too much mouse/keyboard work, but I didn‘t have the impressions anything got stronger.
Does anybody have experience with this or ideas about where to look for material?
Thanks a lot and greetings from Germany!
-Sascha
TMPHBITEU
Typically, the deadlift and chins are enough work for grip training. We'll ask the board.
Member
A little while ago, deadlifts increased my grip strength such that the monkey grip in weighted chins felt like unbreakable hooks. I don’t know if that translates to piano, but it did make my acoustic guitar plinking more comfortable - while it lasted. (Lifting has been interfered with since then. )
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I started learning piano earlier this year myself. I was already doing intermediate programming by then but I recall my piano teacher talking about "finger strength" and how certain chords required more strength than others. I'm not qualified to answer the question but my intuition tells me hand strength has little to do with it. In my own experience with starting to learn piano chords was the challenge had more to do with getting used to the hand positions and stretching my fingers in weird ways and moving them in ways that were at times counter intuitive.
I would guess proprioception rather than strength is the thing that transfers more between the two. That, and maybe even more importantly, the psychological skills that training with barbells teaches us. I think the same habits that make a successful trainee are precisely the same habits that you need to get good anything really.
Member
Sure you're not just tensening up? If you've been playing regularly for a year this sounds like it shouldn't happen if you play relaxed.Originally Posted by sascha_herfort
I don't think strength is ever going to be a bottleneck: Maksim Mrvica playing Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 - YouTube
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Repetitive finger flexion (guitars, pianos, typing), especially with improper wrist angle, can make it worse. One trick I found was to make a "beak" hand, put a rubberband around the ends of my fingers and thumb, and then do 3 sets of 10-15 reps of finger and thumb extensions while keeping them straight. Helped with the hand and finger pain.
Member
I'm a computer programmer and I've found that wrist rolling helps strengthen my wrists and forearms. I have a roller mounted about shoulder height and a plate loading pin so I can work a LP in the training. I don't do it all the time since I've been training the big four, but it did make a difference for me.
TMPHBITEU
What is the OP's deadlift? What is Diana's deadlift? Diana Krall - Walk On By (Live) - YouTube
Member
I play the guitar and the banjo, recreationally, I’m not very good. It seems from my limited that the thing with any instrument that is played with the hand is not strength, but rather the opposite, learning how to hold the shapes softly.
Member
I‘ll go out on a limb and say that mine‘s bigger than hers.
My guess is that range of motion plays into this.
i.e. I‘ve spent most of my youth at the computer and as a result my right wrist won‘t pronate very far and holding it pronated for a long time makes my forearms sore.
So I‘m wondering if there is a way to specifically strengthen those weak positions.
Yes, I‘ve been paying attention to staying relaxed and I usually take breaks when my forearms get too tense.
I‘ve recently added specific finger drills (Hanon etc. if that rings a bell) and maybe I‘m still adjusting, but specifically playing lots of staccato leaves me a bit sore and can lead to crampiness and a sensation of my finger muscles wanting to get stretched.
It feels like many of the smaller muscles in the hand get exhausted quickly by these exercises and they aren‘t much involved in deads, chins and other exercises that improve grip strength.
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