Most people think that wrist pain comes from high-repetition of unnatural motion, such as those which occur at the grocery store moving items across the scanner at the checkout counter or those who spend all day typing on a key-board. It’s not that those things are not problematic or cause carpal tunnel, research proves they do, but what people fail to realize is there are so many other things which cause hand and wrist pain. I’d like to tell you about one you hadn’t yet considered; that of a life art model, attempting to hold a pose for a long-period of time for a group of painters. Let’s talk.
Try this sometime; sit on the ground and lean back, then turn your body slightly sideways and put one arm stretched out, and then bring it in another 8 inches so your elbow is bent. Next take the move your hand and rotate it 120-degrees and spread out your fingers in your hand. Then take a book in your other hand put your thumb in the center of the book and hold open the pages. Put your elbow on that arm facing forward and slightly angle your hand backwards. Now hold that pose for 30 minutes. How does that make you feel?
I am sure you are able to hold that pose just because this is a challenge and you didn’t want to look silly. But go ahead and hold it for another 30 minutes after taking a 10 minute pause. Well, now you know what it’s like to have hand and wrist pain as a life art model. If you do these things every day, eventually you will have a real challenge, and yes you will eventually adapt and your muscles will get stronger, but you will also have problems with your joints, wrists, and hands. You might think that being a life art model is easy because you just sit there and make money for doing nothing.
Still, believe me, it’s much more difficult. There are ergonomically ideal positions to sit in or lie in, and it is tricky to find a good pose that you can hold for a long duration of time without getting sore, tired, or having muscle cramps or pain afterwards. What’s the answer? Start out with the simpler poses and as you get better at it you can work into the more difficult poses without injuring yourself. Please consider all this and think on it.