Music teacher with thumb pain
Dear Dr. Abby,
I have a concern that maybe others have and would find useful to hear about as well. I’ve been having a lot of pain the fleshy part of my thumbs. I am a music teacher and I know this pain is from typing and using the mouse a lot. I never really used to do that while I was working in the classroom. I’ve also been overextending my thumbs because I’ve been using wine bottles as weights during my workouts at home (which I will stop doing now… LOL). I am wondering if you have any thoughts about this.
- New to Sitting at a Computer All Day
Dear New to Sitting,
You had me at wine bottles as weights! First of all, THANK YOU for all that you are doing as a teacher during this cluster of a school year. You are teaching music virtually through a pandemic AND working out with wine bottles, so you have reached hero status in my book.
The fleshy bits of our thumbs have my very favorite anatomical name: “Thenar eminence”. That just sounds like something you curtsy to, doesn’t it? A thenar eminence demands respect.
I think you are on to something with the wider grip the wine bottles’ width requires while you’re working out. It’s easiest to use muscles when they are in the middle of their length-tension graph. This means that muscles work better when they are not at the the most stretched (longest) or most contracted (shortest) position, but instead somewhere in between. Some weightlifters practice lifting with a wider grip to strengthen their grip muscles, but doing this all the time is fatiguing compared to if you use a dumbbell or barbell. So I like that you are thinking about changing up what you are using for your home workouts.
As for typing and mousing, this sounds like a volume or a positional problem. We can overload tissues by increasing the resistance (how much you’re lifting), asking them to work in an uncomfortable position, or suddenly increasing the volume (how many repetitions, how often, etc). When your job description unexpectedly required more time on the computer, the volume of using the thenar eminence musculature (CURTSY!) increased significantly. The good news is that you will adapt to this change in your “training" as the year progresses.
The best thing you can do to help is to schedule breaks from the computer and set-up your work station to be as comfortable and variable as possible. I am specifically thinking about the size of your keyboard. Are you working on a laptop keyboard or a separate keyboard? If it’s a smaller width, you have to pull your hands closer together and then rotate your hands out toward your pinkies. This puts your thumbs and wrists at a funky angle to do their job well. Make sure your keyboard feels super easy to type on and if not, get a wider one (I like this one: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-keyboard-k350) .
As for managing discomfort, anything that changes the sensory experience felt from your eminences (…you know what to do by now, bow down!) should help. I often recommend doing gentle self massage to the area for a few minutes throughout the day or using ice or heat (or alternate them) for about 10 minutes a few times a day. Kinesiotape can be helpful to decompress the layers of tissue over the painful area and soothe the discomfort. You can see more in this Instagram post I did about this awhile back… but if you’re at the point where you are thinking about adding thumb exercises, you probably want to just go get assessed by a physical therapist to make sure what you are doing is actually helpful.
I hope this information is helpful to you and anyone else whose thumbs have suddenly become an integral part of their work day.
I appreciate you!
Dr. Abby
Disclaimer: Advice given in the Dear Dr. Abby column is intended for educational purposes only. Always seek care from your medical provider with any questions you have regarding your medical condition.
