Here's a website that I found with interesting and useful information about some common injuries musicians tend to suffer from.

Musician's Health is an educational web site devoted to the understanding and the explanation of musician's injuries, along with guidelines regarding injury prevention, optimizing your musical performance, and for achieving an optimum state of health.

As a drummer, I feared getting Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, but I experienced a muscular issue that scared me even more.

While living in Los Angeles, California, I would hold 2-hour long practice sessions - just "woodshedding" in my garage. Of course, I had to build up to the 2-hour session. I started out with 45-minute sessions, 5 times a week.

I improved my skills, technique and sound, but I started noticing an intermittent sharp pain in my chest during the second week. I was alarmed by the pain because I would only feel it when I inhaled.

Long story short, I ended up in the emergency room (because it was a "chest pain" issue, I was directed to the ER) and when I saw the doctor, he quickly eliminated any heart trouble. The doctor looked me over and listened to my heart and then asked me if I had been lifting anything in the past few days. I hadn't been lifting anything but drumsticks, so I told him "No". Then, he asked me if I had been doin any strenuous exercising. I thought, "No", but I told hims about my drum sessions. That's when he told me that I was experiencing a muscle issue related to the repetitive nature of the sessions. He also explained that because of my "thin build", I'm susceptible to this kind of issue.

I put the sessions on hold for a little while and the pain stopped. I restarted the sessions later and very gradually added more time and intensity without experiencing the pain again.

Do you have a Musician's Health story of your own?Let me know about it.

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