Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today
I'm going to show you some stretches and
exercises for artists.
Let's get started.
Sweet Willow Designs
sent me a message asking me to do a
stretching and exercise program for
artists who tend to have pain and their
neck, shoulders, wrists, and fingers, so
that's what I'm going to show you today.
We're going to start off with the neck.
I'm going to go through the exercises
a little bit faster than normal just to
get through all of them for you.
Typically with stretches, you to hold
them for about 30 seconds. You can do 10
to 15 seconds and just do a couple more
sets of them. So let's start off with the
trap muscles. Those tend to get really
irritated especially when you're
focusing on something your head tends
seem to lean forward just a little bit,
so for a trap stretch, you're going to
take the hand of the side that you're
stretching and either push it straight
down to keep that shoulder down, or you
can sit on it. You want to keep your head
in a straight neutral position in front
of you and then take the hand of the
opposite side and gently pull it over to
the side. So again, you'd hold it for
about 30 seconds, we're just going to do
about 10 or 15 to save some time, but
again you don't have to put your hand
down like this, but it's going to stretch
a lot better if you keep that shoulder
down when you're stretching. And then
after that
30 seconds, switch sides and do the other
one. So you usually want to do 30 seconds
three on each side, and you'll feel that
stretch right in through there. So just
holding it, get that nice stretch. It
should feel good, it shouldn't hurt so if
it's painful
back off just a little bit. Stretches
should always be a good hurt, not a bad
hurt. And doing three on each
side for those. Then we're going to go
into the wrists and arms just a little
bit doing some stretches for those wrist
extensors and those wrist flexors which
are ones that tend to get really
irritated especially with artists who
are doing a lot of stuff with our hands.
So put your arms straight out in front
of you, and to stretch the flexors
underneath, you're going to bring your hand
up this way. Now pulling this way
might be a lot of a stretch under there,
so if you just want to hold it there you
can. You can put pressure with your hand
or if you have a wall you can put your
hand on the wall, and again holding that
for about 30 seconds. If this is too much,
you can do it with your fist and it
won't be quite as much of a stretch
under there and pull it, but if you want
a little bit more, fingers up when you're
stretching. And especially if you're an
artist like doing sculpture and stuff do
both sides. If you are drawing something,
you might just want to do one side, but I
always recommend doing both sides just
to keep everything even while you're
stretching. Then the next stretch is
getting the extensor wrist muscles so
that's going down this way.
So this one's the opposite, the fingers
straight are not quite as much of a
stretch. If you want a little bit more
than that, make your hand into a fist,
curl those fingers in, and then pull and
then you really should feel it out there
that stretch right there. So again,
holding it for 30 seconds or doing 10 to
15 maybe 4 or 5 times, 30 seconds three times, or
if you know you're in a hurry you're just taking a
little break, five-minute break in
between what you're doing, you can just
do 5 to 10 seconds, once or twice just to
get everything nice and stretched out, and
then get right back into it again.
So after you do those, then you're going
to go stretch your thumb here because
again a lot of that is gripping doing
things, so to get the thumb extensors
take your thumb put it down, and grab
over it like that so you're hiding your
thumb in your fingers, and then go down
this way. So that should stretch the top
right there, and again holding that for
about 30 seconds, or if you wanted to do
both of them and just do kind of
a continuous motion you can do that as
well. If that's too much, you can put your
thumb on top, but to get that extra
stretch tuck it in there and hold it
down and that's radial deviation right
there, getting that nice stretch. Then you
can stretch the flexors by taking the
thumb and just pulling out a little bit.
The same thing, you want these to be
comfortable you don't want them to be
super painful, so if it's hurting a
little bit, take a little bit of pressure
off of it. And sometimes arthritis will
set in in those joints there, and you
want to keep those stretched out nice, but
you don't want to over stretch them and
irritate those spots.
Ok so after you get the thumbs, you can
do the webbing in between your fingers
by just stretching them out a little bit
like that. For this one it doesn't
necessarily have to be a 30-second hold
since there's a whole bunch of them, but
just kind of going back and forth just
stretching those spots in between there
really just getting that nice stretch in
there, and again doing both sides, and you
should feel that right in the nook right
there, and it's a very nice feeling
stretch. Then to strengthen the fingers a
little bit,
all you need is just a rubber band. It
doesn't have to be anything special, but
you're just going to wrap the band like
this around and just come open, spreading
the fingers a little bit. So you don't
have to go all the way out because the
rubber band my pop or it might slide down,
but this is just getting those fingers
strengthened a little bit, getting them
moving going back and forth so probably
just five to 10 of these especially if
you're doing it while you're working.
Again you don't want to overwork these
muscles, you just want to kind of stretch
them out and get them going a little bit.
Now going back into the wrist a little
bit, a wrist stretch exercise is an
exercise well that I really like, you
have to rig something up a little bit,
but it's not too hard to rig up. You can
take a stick or cane if you have it, just
something solid that you can hold on to.
Take a little string of some sort, tie it
in a knot, and then put some weight on it.
These are just two tennis balls her
wrapped up, it was the quickest thing I
can find, but it doesn't have to be a lot.
It can be one pound, two pounds, three
pounds, but you hold it out and then
making sure that the Rope is tight so it
will roll,
you're just going to kind of roll it up
this way. So see how I'm working my wrist?
And then after you roll it up, then come
back down, but try and make it a smooth
motion. And this is surprisingly a lot of
work on the wrist, so you're really going
to be able to feel it while you're doing
it, and then you can rotate back the
other way to get those extensors, and
then roll it down to get those flexors.
So again, this is a lot of exercise for
these muscles because they're small and
so it doesn't take a lot, so I would just
do to one way to the other way and then
be done with that. And so the last one is
going to be doing some pendulums for
your shoulder really to loosen those up
because those get really tight as well. I'm
gonna stand up for that. For the pendulums,
you're just gonna hang your arm down.
Standing up is easier. If you're sitting
down and you don't really want to stand
up, you can just lean over if you've got
a desktop to hold onto but it is a lot
easier standing up.
You want your arm to be completely relaxed.
You're not actually moving the arm,
you're moving your body so the arm's
really just kind of hanging there
opening up that joint, really loosening
those muscles around the shoulder, so
just let it hang and move your whole
body to make the circle. So it's not
going to be big circles and you're
probably going to activate the arm just
a little bit if you don't have an injury,
that's ok, but just really try and let it
hang. That helps those muscles relax and
do so about ten one way and then reverse
it and do 10 circles the other way.
Then you can do 10 kind of side to side,
again just you're moving your body to
let the arm kind of swing, and then after
you do 10 of those kind of then go front
to back. So again just moving that whole
body letting that arm kinda hang, letting
those muscles relax getting everything
nice and loose and feeling good. Getting
that tension out of your body. So there
you have it.
Those were your stretches and exercises
for artists. Sweet Willow Designs, I hope
that helps. If you have any questions,
leave them in the comments section. If
you like check out some other videos go
to askdoctorjo.com. Remember safe, keep your body happy,
Have fun, drawing something pretty for me,
and I hope you feel better soon.