Hand pain- any advice?

[dracken]

As many people note it's pretty damn easy to hurt your wrist or fingers while drawing. However, I recently managed to develop some different kind of malady, lucky me.

For the past month or so the back of my hand hurts like a bitch after just a few hours of drawing. It's not my wrist, more likely my tendons. Because of this pain I took a complete break from drawing for two weeks and started up again last night. Well, the pain is back just like before.

I tried looking it up, but couldn't find any art related advice, does anyone on here know how to deal with it? Did anyone else have it?

Thank you so much.

[Sjuu]

Maybe this?

http://goo.gl/AGJ3D

It is only when you draw or always?
And it is wise to visit the doctor!

[EduardoGaray]

I´m no expert in the matter but it looks like carpal tunnel.
Or hopefully the pain comes from the position of your hand while drawing.
Go visit a doctor anyways.

[dracken]

The one thing I found while looking on-line was that carpal tunnel is usually accompanied by numbness, which I don't have at all.

I only get the pain after drawing (and more so when I use the wacom rather than a regular pencil) so I suspect it might have something to do with the way I hold the stylus.

I suspect it's probably some kind of tendonitis due to my bad habit of moving my fingers too much when painting, instead of using my elbow more.

Either way I do plan on stopping by a doctor's office soon, just wanted to see if there was maybe some simple solution to try first.

Thank you!

[EduardoGaray]

then it isnt that bad. :)
Just take a break after one hour of work and adopt a comfortable way to paint.
glad to help.

[Mig]

If the pain is bad enough to stop you drawing it's definitely time to go and see a physiotherapist. They'll be able to identify what actions are causing the pain and give you rehab options. Hopefully its not carpal tunnel, I've heard that can require surgery.

Good luck!

[trosh4d]

If this pain occur only while drawing it is 99 percent from your position when you are drawing.In my case the problem was the furniture, the desk compared to the level of my hands was bad, and this reflected in a crevice pain in the shoulder.And before that I had an elbow pain because my chair was too height......

[dracken]

For future reference and in case someone has a similar pain and needs help.

I talked to a chiropractor briefly and managed to figure out a few issues with the way I work.

#1. I have a medium intuos and had it mapped (recently) to 2 screens, but I only use 1 screen for painting meaning that whenever I was working I would be almost forced to use small, repetitive movements.

#2. My desk is too high for my current chair, which forces me to use my fingers and wrist instead of my elbow. I will eventually have to get a different table or a taller chair, for now I have a "but pillow" that makes me sit higher.

#3. I would routinely paint for 3-4 hours without a break. Now I use workrave and take a break every 25 minutes. Also (at least until the pain goes away completely) every hour or so I try to ice my hand for a few seconds.

#4. I moved my tablet and set up to match what Daarken recommends here: http://enliighten.com/blog/ergonomics-cr...rkstation/

Good video in case you haven't watched it.

#5. I changed the sensitivity curves for the tablet so it's a lot more sensitive (Basically followed this tutorial: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77043, except that now you can do those changes in the wacom drivers instead of manually setting things.)

After following these points for a few days, already my hand feels better. Moral of the lesson? Don't do small repetitive movements for hours or you'll regret it.

Thank you for your replies and good luck!

[Sickbrush]

Here's how i handled mine
1. change tablet sensitivity settings so you don't need to press hard
2. try using pens instead of pencils for a while so you don't need to press
3. use Workrave and respect the breaks
4. get a rubber donut, spring or the gyroscope toy thing. and do Not abuse them
5. eat healthy, get iron and vitamin C in your body [hydrate!!]
6. try things like ping-pong. it did wonders for me"

[Chiritsu]

I was thinking maybe you can try using hand strengthening items as well (like squeezing a foam ball to excercise the hand) for the back of your hand. It's definitely different to the kind of wrist pain i get sometimes so it's a little harder to think of solutions.. well.. ones other than the ones already suggested lol.

Squeezing your hand tight into a fist and suddenly releasing for a few repetitions(3-5?) should tell your hand muscle to relax.. I do this same kind of excercise for my shoulders when they start feeling stiff

[kidult]

There is also a health supplement called msm that you can take. It's all natural and has helped me loads with wrist pain

[Shaun Patterson]

I do hand, wrist &forearm stretches everyday and that really helps to keep pains like these at bay. Any bodily motion done in a repetitive way, will make you prone to these aches and pains and even more acute injury. I also sometimes dunk my hand/wrists in ice water for 10 second intervals as its something that's been found to help with such injuries. My wife is a professional sculptor so hand and wrist pain are big topics around our dinner table ;)

[Robin]

Oh man that sucks. Last year I couldn't work for over a month because of wrist pains. It actually got so bad that I felt it in my whole lower arm.

I was watching a video of Daarken, and he was talking about these support gloves. Thought I'd give them a try. I bought these:

So far they're working out for me. I waited until the pain was gone, slowly went back to work using those gloves and never had any pain afterwards. Now I still wear them when I work, I've gotten used to them so much, it just feels awkward not wearing them.

Edit: I just saw you already posted that video.

[Tyrus]

To prevent this in the future go buy a 3-10 lb weight from anywhere (Family Dollar tends to have them for...well, you know) and use exercise with that in your down time. Carperel Tunnel is, usually, a blood flow problem that can be helped with such.

Hope you get better.

[joerdenleigh]

Hey guys been looking up ergonomics latley and found two very helpful resources.

Kenny Roy over on animation mentor and the 11second club. http://blog.animationmentor.com/animatio...seriously/

And this article I am reading right now:

http://www.claytowne.com/beats-digging-d...e-workers/

I'm actually getting a little bit of carple right now and need to give my hand a rest(bin drawing/gaming for my 2 days off). Unfortunately the saying " Rome wasn't built in a day" keeps coming up in my head but I hope if stay intuitive enough and give my hands rest when that familiar feeling arrives in the smallest form Ill be able to manage it.

Cheers yo , and best of luck !

[SpectreX]

After also being a competitive gamer (FPS) for several years my wrist is shot to hell (pun intended).
Whenever the pain start to come back I usually wear a sort of glove for a few days that keeps my wrist from moving.

But the most annoying thing is my shoulders in which I have an anomaly. Makes the shoulder lock tight when using the same movement for several days after each other. The only solutions are shots of cortisone or surgery :(

[anzhou]

Ahh I posted this link in the Gyms'N Daggers,

I think if you stick to constant stretching of your entire body as you do extended art practice, you'll see a big improvement in reducing pain and easing tension.

Don't view it as a hassle :) give it a try, you'll be pleasantly suprised how a little lifestyle change can help *in my best TV salesman voice* Remember! its only 10 mins~

http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-2390.html

[Rognoll]

Do you guys recommend suspending drawing for some days if I have hand pain? (or numbness)

[Madzia]

Do you guys recommend suspending drawing for some days if I have hand pain? (or numbness)

Try to not overload your arm. Stretch it but don't lift weights.

My doctor said to get rid of mousepad with wrist support :

Pressure on inner side of your wrist can lead to worst pain.

If you feel like rotting zombie just start exercise!!! Exercise everyday, especially if you also have problems with spine and neck pain. Strengthen your body, it pays off quickly :)

[Patrick Gaumond]

Hey Dracken,

I had similar problems with my hand as well, and I've found a few things that seem to help quite a bit

1. Do something completely different with your hand to train other parts of it. I taught myself how to shuffle cards and do card springs, which is surprisingly difficult to do, and it really helped strengthen the back of my hand and my fingers. Any kind of stress ball is pretty helpful too.

2. When you rest while you work, you should try to massage every part of your hand individually. As soon as I started doing this my hands only ever got really tired if I didn't take a break for a super long time (like 5-6 hours). Also, doing dynamic stretches while you work (ie rolling your hand around, making fists repeatedly etc) is MUCH better than doing static stretches. Save the static stretches for when you are done working for the day, or you risk damaging muscles/tendons

I also agree with anzhou. Its really surprising how much getting up to stretch, walk around, and drink some water can do for your hands!