Did you know that the carpal tunnel is actually a tunnel? Yep. The bones in your wrist form a "U" shape, and a band of tissue covers the "U" like a roof. Through the tunnel run a number of tendons as well as the median nerve.
Most sources will tell you that carpal tunnel syndrome is caused when the structures in the carpal tunnel become inflamed, thus compressing the median nerve. What they often (but not always) neglect to tell you is that compression anywhere along the median nerve can lead to symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.
Over the two-day period, we learned and practiced various techniques that relax the muscles in the neck, shoulders, arms, and hands, and we also worked to increase range of motion in the joints.
Our instructor, Garry Adkins, demonstrated each technique on student volunteers. When it came time to demonstrate our last technique, Garry didn't ask for a volunteer; he chose me. He walked right over to me, set up his video camera, and all I could think was, woo hoo! Massage from the teacher is a wonderful thing.
Clearly, Garry picked me because of my neck. Rather, my hump. Earlier, he told me I had the beginning of a Dowager's Hump, to which I immediately replied, "No I don't!"
Do you know what a Dowager's Hump is? It's that slumpy hunchback lump usually attributed to osteoporosis. Do you know what a dowager is? A dowager is an elderly woman of high social station.Now. I am neither elderly nor of high social station, but I have the hump. I ask you, is that fair? If I'm going to have the hump, and if, as I expect, I am eventually going to be elderly, then I think I ought to have the high social station t' boot, don't you? And all the ladies said: Amen!
Seriously, I believe that my pre- (repeat, PRE-) dowager's hump is the result of poor posture over the past several years, no doubt due in part to the rounded shoulders and hanging head that accompanies depression.
No more! Depressed or no, I'll hold my head up, thank you very much. And my shoulders back. You may think this a digression, but it's not. Poor posture, rounded shoulders, a hanging head, all these can and likely will lead to a compressed median nerve, which causes symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.
So, in order to work my neck and relax my tight muscles, Garry lifted my head and turned it and pulled it this way and that way, all the while digging his fingers into and along the sides and back of my neck. Mercy! It hurt, but when he finished, I felt fantastic. Felt like I had a new head. (I checked. Nope. Same noggin.) And oh, did my neck feel wonderful. Lighter, longer.
1 comment:
Never! Unless all the drummers and guitarists get carpal tunnel syndrome. Then it's curtains for rock 'n' roll.
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