Cellist's Pain

by Tamsadej Kaosal, DDS

 Most common area

Neck Shoulder area

Upper Back pain

Lower Back pain

 Basic
Anatomy
- We called vertebrae,
- Its bone act like
skeleton of our body
- Its run from our head to
our bottom
- All of these bone when
placed like stack, we
called vertebral column
We divide your vertebrae in
different zone,

zone of your neck

zone of your upper back
zone of your lower back
zone of your pelvic
Each vertebra has a hole

When we place all these

vertebrae together,
therell be a vertical hole
for spinal cord
This spinal cord run
along your back
spinal cord

and it has left and right branches

go out along the way
Not only your nerve run in this column
but also your blood vessel
 Key points
Your posture when sitting or playing cello affect to
this nerve and blood vessels

It can be nerve compression, blood vessel

compression

If your vertebral column not sit down along with the

gravity, you must use your muscle to maintain
balance in any position, so cause muscle pain
 Look great, but it increase
load to your neck

gravity
long axis

it means your nerve, your

blood vessel compressed
Area around your
neck to shoulder has
continuous large
nerve and blood
vessels
 This Diagram
called Dermatome

It told you which

nerve involve in each
area

For example, when you told that

you feel pain from the back to left
arm, it means that your pain
maybe come from neck
problem(green area).
Thoracic outlet syndrome
The main features include
- fatigue or numbness of the hand or arm with use
- nonspecific aching of the limb(s)
- vascular changes causing coldness
- or discoloration of the hands.
 Big nerve near
neck and shoulder

along the way to your hand

 Pain with lower back
Cause from poor chair height and slope.
coccyx bone
when standing
 Compression of sitting bone

Not in line with gravity

A lot of nerve fiber was compressed

 Solution
Use cushion wedge or slope cello chair
 Center of gravity is behind
sitting bone, muscular force is
needed to sit up upright

Using wedge cushion, more relax

 Zhan Zhuang
standing like tree
Recommend book
Straight vertebra column
means easily flow of your More flow means more
blood, less compression nutrients and circulation
of nerve and blood to many part of body,
vessels =more energy
 Like holding the balloon
and imagine you have many balloon support
your elbow, between your legs, under armpit, and like sitting
on balloon
Key point is to make flow to your body, no obstruction,
most relax with no use of muscle
Zhan Zhuang
 Conclusion
Posture is very important to cellist

Proper chair height very important

Bent endpin may help using gravity more than muscle

Cellist tend to have nerve and blood vessel

compression, so after the practice should relax

Relax by Zhan Zhuang is one of very effective method

You can try some VDO on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOp7wPtE6qA