Got A Thumb Question

[joker]

Not sure if this is the right place or not but I got a question. I have been really busy the last 5 or 6 months and have been doing alot of tooling. Heres my problem. I am right handed and I hold my tools with my left hand. Now when ever I tool my thumb on my left hand hurts like crazy. It mainly in the first joint and if it bend back even a little bit I almost come out of the chair. I work security in a hospital and asked the doc what it could be and he told me it sounded like "Trigger Thumb". If I go a little while without tooling it gets a little better but like today I tooled for about 2 hours and tonight at work its killing me. Its stiff all the time and hurts like crazy. Am I the only one that has had this problem? Im 47 years old and know im falling apart but just wondering if this is common.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Joker

[BAD HIDE]

Are you clenching up on your tools? If you're holding them too tight all the time, it'll start working against you. Loosen your hand up, take more breaks, stretch, learn to switch hands and tool with your right for a bit, or make up some kind of rubber sleeve you can slip on to increase the tool's grip. If that doesn't work, I'd seek medical advice from a hand doc. It could be that you've spent most of your life not really using your left hand and now you're asking it to do fine motor skills it's not used to.

I've not experienced this while tooling, I don't tool much more than an hour or two at a time, but as a tattoo artist, my right hand is clenching on a metal cylinder for hours at a time. I started with 1/2" grips and after about a year I switched to 1" grips and the difference was huge. Now I almost always use a rubber sleeve on the outside of that, so the total grip size is about 1 1/2" - it's like giving a fat crayon to a little kid instead of little ones because the fat ones are easier to control and hang on to.

[joker]

I think that might be my problem. I will try to find some tubing I can slide over the tools to see if that helps.

Thanks!

Joker

Are you clenching up on your tools? If you're holding them too tight all the time, it'll start working against you. Loosen your hand up, take more breaks, stretch, learn to switch hands and tool with your right for a bit, or make up some kind of rubber sleeve you can slip on to increase the tool's grip. If that doesn't work, I'd seek medical advice from a hand doc. It could be that you've spent most of your life not really using your left hand and now you're asking it to do fine motor skills it's not used to.

I've not experienced this while tooling, I don't tool much more than an hour or two at a time, but as a tattoo artist, my right hand is clenching on a metal cylinder for hours at a time. I started with 1/2" grips and after about a year I switched to 1" grips and the difference was huge. Now I almost always use a rubber sleeve on the outside of that, so the total grip size is about 1 1/2" - it's like giving a fat crayon to a little kid instead of little ones because the fat ones are easier to control and hang on to.

[King's X]

I suffered the same thing when I started tooling until I learned not to choke the living you know what out of my tools. I tried the pencil cushions and surgical tubing, but it continued. It wasn't until I had someone with quite a bit of experience take a look at my tooling and noticed this. When they reset me up and told me to hold firm, but not choking tight is when I became concisousness of my faults. Over time through Paul Burnett's instructional tools and articles did I learn how to control this tool holding issue. Now, my shoulder hurt after tooling for a long time, but that is a separate non related issue. If you get a chance, read Burnett's Pictorial Definition book (several times) and he goes step by step. I don't know, it might help you realize what is going on or wrong?

Good luck.

[joker]

I suffered the same thing when I started tooling until I learned not to choke the living you know what out of my tools. I tried the pencil cushions and surgical tubing, but it continued. It wasn't until I had someone with quite a bit of experience take a look at my tooling and noticed this. When they reset me up and told me to hold firm, but not choking tight is when I became concisousness of my faults. Over time through Paul Burnett's instructional tools and articles did I learn how to control this tool holding issue. Now, my shoulder hurt after tooling for a long time, but that is a separate non related issue. If you get a chance, read Burnett's Pictorial Definition book (several times) and he goes step by step. I don't know, it might help you realize what is going on or wrong?

Good luck.

Hey Thanks! I think your right. I think im holding the tools to tight. I need to teach myself to hold them more lightly and to not bend my thumb so much at the first joint. I guess it will be a retrain thing like ya said.

Thanks guys

Joker

[albane]

Joker,

I feel your pain. I had the same problem. I found it came from gripping my tools and allowing my thumb to bend backwards.

It is easy to fix but you have to change the way you grip. Here are a couple pics so you can see.

one using the tip of my thumb to hold the tool with the joint bent in a natural position. At first this grip will feel strange but you thumb will thank you.

the other pic is clearly bent backward. holding the tool with my finger print. Instinctively this feels correct put that's how I hurt my thumb.

I catch myself reverting to the "wrong grip" all the time. On days when I am planing a lot of punching larger tools I will use athletic tape to stabilize the joint and minimize the range of motion.

(a trick I learned in sports med class.).

Good luck and get well soon,

looks like it will only let me post one pick so I'll post the second pic in another reply

[albane]

Joker,

Here is a pic of the pain causing grip.

Note to self: LEARN TO RESIZE PICS SO THEY WORK IN THIS FORUM!!!!!