Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Thumbs
My attention has been increasingly drawn to my thumbs recently. Yes, I did say thumbs... Do you have much awareness of your thumbs or are you like most of us who just think of them as part of our hands that enable us to hold a glass of wine, beer or text a message? It may surprise you to know that our thumbs have many more nerve endings than any other finger and a very large proportion of our motor cortex in the brain is devoted to them. They not only help us do things, but they also feed back a lot of information to our brain when we are actively using them.
My interest in thumbs is particularly focused at the moment with a view to improving my violin playing; the holding of the bow in my right hand but also the support of the instrument in my left. Any unnecessary tension in our thumbs(!) can interfere significantly with the freedom and dexterity to perform.
But you may be interested in how tension in our thumbs can have a quite an effect on our shoulders, pulling them inwards and forwards so we are hunched and narrowed. Thumbs are very strong and habitual contractions shorten right up the arm, through the shoulder to our neck. They can certainly get very tight if we do a lot of typing at a computer and can be a part of getting RSI or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. If you suffer from rounded shoulders and a stoop then you may like to consider what your thumbs are doing! I'm not saying that if you relax your thumbs this will automatically improve your posture. But if you can do so and if you attend to your posture as well, for instance by means of the Alexander Techique, you may find it helps a great deal.
Ideally our thumbs should be relaxed and quite free, but it's common for residual tension from activity to remain even when at rest.
When standing our thumbs should not be stuck out but allowed to hang with gravity. Our whole hand can become rather contracted and narrowed; we want our hands to be expansive and free. By thinking in Alexander's manner we can 'think' our hands to be expansive and 'getting bigger'. This helps to release many of the intrinsic muscles of our hands. We can probably do this easiest when sitting.
If we look at the anatomy of our hand, we can see that our thumb starts right inside the hand; the metacarpals (bones) start at the wrist just as any other finger. Feel with a finger of your other hand for a small bony bump under your thumb and next to your wrist. This is the start of your thumb; it's right next to the end of the Radius in your arm. It is from this point that we want our thumbs to widen, for the soft fleshy web between our thumb and our hand to be wide and expansive.
Releasing your thumbs may seem a strange and unfamiliar concept. However, by thinking them to release over a few days can bring changes to our physique, by reducing stiffness and contraction. Use the opportunity when watching TV; let your hands rest on your lap or arm of a chair and allow your hand to spread outwards, for your fingers to lengthen, your hand to widen, for your thumb to be soft and loose. Try to 'let it go'. We want all the 'webbing' in our hands between the metacarpals to release so our hands widen.
You can also help this widening and opening out of your hand by standing in front of a table. Lean over slightly and place your hand palm downwards on it so your fingers are straight and fanned outwards. Your wrist will be almost at right angles. Allow your hands to spread outwards for a minute or two. This helps to stretch out all the flexor muscles in your hand that can hold onto contractions.
Yes, thumbs are important, we all know that. But they have an even greater importance on our whole posture, never mind playing an instrument than most of us may realise. The more we free up our thumbs the better will be our blood circulation and sensitivity so we can feel more, which is most important in playing a musical instrument or any other dexterous activity. I recommend you make their acquaintance and get to know them better!
:-)
