Playing a musical instrument is considered a creative, fun vocation or hobby. Many people don’t realize that musicians are like athletes, practicing for hours, pushing their physical limits, and placing strain on their bodies with repetitive movements in less-than-ideal positions. Like athletes, musicians may experience pain, injury, and decreased performance. Fortunately, chiropractic treatment can address these issues.
How Common Is Chronic Pain in Orchestra Musicians?
Chronic pain is common among all types of musicians. Musicians and back pain go together like bass and treble. Playing an instrument also can be hard on the arms, shoulders, and neck, as well as the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Playing certain instruments may cause localized issues. For example, wind instrument players may develop neck and jaw issues from maintaining proper embouchure. Musicians who play a heavy instrument or one that requires wearing a neck or shoulder strap may experience added strain on their neck and shoulders.
In addition to neck, back, and joint pain, musicians can develop postural imbalances or repetitive strain injuries from poor posture and frequently repeated motions. For example, violinists often develop neck issues due to how their head is positioned while playing.
Can Chiropractic Care Help Musicians?
Chiropractic care can be incredibly beneficial for musicians. Total Chiropractic Care and Wellness offers holistic care that includes chiropractic adjustments, massage therapy, physical therapy, lifestyle advice, and other treatments to remove subluxations, reduce pain, increase range of motion, resolve bodily imbalances, and improve posture.
Subluxations are partial misalignments of the joints, often caused by repetitive motion injuries. Subluxations can cause discomfort, pain, decreased range of motion, and neurological symptoms like pins and needles or numbness in the extremities. In musicians, subluxations occur frequently in the spine, elbow, and shoulders. Chiropractors can detect and correct subluxations, realigning these joints, decreasing pain, restoring range of motion, and taking pressure off compressed nerves.
Holistic chiropractic care doesn’t just focus on joint and spine alignment. It also strives to balance the bodily function of the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems.
A frequent problem when playing an instrument is that some muscles are overworked while others are underworked. The former becomes tighter, shorter, and stronger, and the latter becomes weak. This leads to joint-stressing imbalances in the body that cause pain and injury. Chiropractic care can address these imbalances, improving posture, stamina, and overall function. We treat the whole person, focusing on functionality and restoration of peak performance. We may recommend ergonomic and postural exercises to maximize function and reduce the risk of future injury.
Total Chiropractic Care Helps You to Keep Making Beautiful Music
Whether you’re a professional musician or a casual hobbyist, chiropractic treatments from the experts at Total Chiropractic Care and Wellness can relieve discomfort and restore range of motion in affected areas. Schedule an appointment today and get back to making beautiful music.