If Ant offered something similar in MD, I probably wouldn't even consider any other camp.
Subbing to this thread. I've thought about doing some kind of
"bass-instructional-retreat-thingie" for a while, but
"LIFE" keeps distracting me away. Getting some semi-local and up-to-date information would be a great kick in the pants. Also, in Northern DE and have a pretty good range for what I'm willing to drive to.
(Carpool, anyone? 
)
I approach this the same way I did language learning, when I learned Japanese some of my best progress was just showing up to the country and using it with other people, it was also some of the best motivation I would have coming back to study harder.
Learning by
"Immersion", aka the
"chucking yourself into the deep end" technique?
Can you describe your stretches? I have tennis elbow from doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and I have to be very careful about how I hold my bass, how long I play, etc.
Now you're getting into my professional territory! I'm a long-time massage/neuromuscular/sports therapist and am always looking for new approaches and techniques, especially…
You basically just hold your arms out straight in front of you with your palms facing away & fingers towards the ceiling.
You curl your fingers in like you're gripping something & then back to straight up, and repeat quickly until you can't stand it anymore.
The other involves using a towel or large cloth to do a wringing motion with your hands twisting in opposing directions & then switch/reverse position & continue.
…when they're simple and solid like this one above.
One concept I often have to impart to my clients is how much grip-strength comes from the forearms. But it's understandable that people might not make the connection, what with their pain being seven to ten inches away from the root cause.
Another thing you can do is once you have gotten your fingers good and tired from grip and release, turn your hands palms side down and repeat. It works a different set of muscles. Once you have finished, hold the palms up again, grab your fingers of one hand with the other hand in a group and gently stretch the fingers down for 30 seconds which stretches the tendons of the wrist. As the time passes, and the tendons relax, you can add slightly more pull, but don't pull excessively. Gently release then do the other hand.
That's a technique called
"Proprioreceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation", aka
"PNF", and it's awesome!
I won't get into the deep, deep science of it, but it's actually a pretty easy concept to wrap one's brain around it. Basically, the brain sends two sets of signals to the muscles…one to contract and one to release. Let's say you're flexing your bicep. Simultaneously, your brain is telling your tricep to release. By bombarding a muscle with the release-signal, you can achieve a little relief for those cranky, overworked areas.
There are ways to enhance one's results, but I'll save that for a later post, if people are interested.
Aha! A Volkswagen sponsored event (Kidding)
View attachment 2869309.
Now, that is an event I can definitely get behind!
