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The influence of the active range of movement of pianists' wrists on repetitive strain injury

Abstract:

In the present work we studied the mobility of young pianists' wrists to pbkp_redict their potential vulnerability to suffer from Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). First, we observed that 222 individuals out of the 341 pianists studied (65.1% of the total) presented or had presented RSI. Second, from among affected performers we chose those that were younger than 16 years old (67 individuals) to analyse the active range of motion (AROM) of their wrist joints. Our results indicated that hypermobility of joints such as the wrists may be an asset in piano playing. In this respect, pianists that could perform both maximal flexions and extensions were rarely affected by RSI. In addition we observed that the individuals able to perform maximal extensions were more resistant to RSI than those that merely performed maximal flexions. To solve this situation of discrimination and inadaptation, which may bring misery to many pianists, the creation of a new repertoire would be recommendable, as well as the use of an integrative teaching regimen that considers peformers to be able to adapt individually instruction systems to the individual's morphotype. It is noted that further studies in this area are required to reduce the incidence of playing-related medical problems in general, and RSI in particular, in pianists population.