Injury Management – and back pain: Are You Aware?
Injury management – It all starts with Awareness
Could you feel tension in your head or neck the last time you were working or playing your instrument? What about your shoulders or other parts of your body? Are you sitting in a way that leads to tension build-up? If you don’t have an answer for these questions, or you have to think really hard to find one, then you may be lacking Body Awareness. Body awareness is simply the body’s awareness about itself and its positioning in space.
Your body gives you millions of messages a day about how it is physically feeling and how it is positioned in space. Most times these messages are in response to a stress that has been placed on your body. For example; when you sit with poor posture your muscles get tired and weak. Your body sends you messages saying that your back is tired and you are uncomfortable, you then respond by changing your position to sit back in your chair so that you give your tired muscles a rest. Unfortunately some messages aren’t as clear cut as this example and they can go by unnoticed or even ignored by us. This is undesirable and can lead to a build up of unnecessary muscle tension in the body.
Muscles tense naturally as a part of movement, however to much tension or a constant build up over time can have negative effects on your physical state. Sitting in poor positions can force muscles to work harder than they need to leading to a tension build up. This is where your body awareness can help you. Take the example from the last paragraph. Your body eventually told you that it was uncomfortable but the message could have come earlier. If you were more aware of your poor posture, you would be able to adjust and relieve your tiring muscles before they developed to much undue tension. Less tension = less potential for injury or discomfort.
You can start improving your body awareness by asking yourself more questions that relate to how you are feeling and how your body is positioned in space. Are you sitting in a position right now that is causing discomfort or undue tension? What is this position? How do you sit when you are not playing? Does this cause tension? What postures cause the most tension or discomfort for you? Can you avoid these postures, at least for some of the time?
This all sounds quite simple but some poor postures are hard to avoid, especially considering the technique and positioning required to play musical instruments. What you need to ask yourself is am I sitting in a position that is causing undue tension? And if so, can I adjust? By improving your awareness you start to build a healthier message system which will enhance your ability to identify and relieve the unnecessary tension in your muscles.
We hope you have found this article relevant and informative. Stay tuned for our next article on flexibility and strength