As part of recovering from yesterday's wrist soreness, I reviewed GMB's articles How to Get Stronger Wrists: Bodyweight Strengthening and Flexibility Exercises and 4 Exercises to Build Unbreakable Wrists. While I did not decide to follow any of the exercises in either article - exactly, anyway - I was convinced to resume the Elements program, at it incorporates similar exercises in the warmups, and in the featured movements (the three animals) - all of which make you load your hands with varying amounts of your bodyweight. Elements is probably the best thing I can do to strengthen the wrists and compensate for all-day guitar playing.
I repeated Week 3, Day 5 - where I left off in this program - without any major problems. I may have mentioned that my surgeon told me that I may walk for exercise. Today's warmups, Frogger practice, and cool down did not cause any more strain than walking does. I came close to straining a bit in the lunge stretch when I raised my arm but I quickly pulled myself back from the edge by simply lowering it.
I had a bit better time playing guitar today. The main issue this time was that my left thumb was sore - in the meat of the palm area. It may have been because I put a little bit too much pressure on it during the thumb portion of the wrist structure warmup routine. I need to be much lighter than that next time I do this warmup routine.
Hopefully I'll decide by tomorrow morning how I shall spend the day if the thumb is still feeling sore by then. I'll definitely do Elements, then my usual lazy breakfast routine (eating, sipping 2-4 cups of coffee, web surfing). Some possibilities are messing around with the MS-20 Mini, the OP-1, or the Bassbot TT-303. Another is reading this web comic that I recently discovered called Stand Still, Stay Silent. I could also watch some more Captain Harlock.
On a more positive note, my new monitor speakers arrived. Due to the recent wrist/thumb issues, I've been practicing only on electric guitar - don't want to take chances playing my acoustic guitar and risk more problems. I was using my tube amp but it died - tube probably just went bad. I switched to using my Roland VG-99 amp modeler/multi-effects unit but had to run it through a cheap little speaker that's not particularly loud. I got tired of the low volume and shopped for a pair of low-cost monitor speakers, finally deciding on Mackie CR3s. They're exactly what I wanted - relatively small and light (I can't carry anything too heavy due to this eye and the gas bubble) yet loud enough so I can hear the details I need to hear as I practice.
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