Stretching is something that we have all heard of and we have all done at some point throughout our lives. Everyone can remember at some point during school where your gym teacher or coach told you to stretch before you started doing any activity. Some people may not have an issue with stretching but there are also many who dread doing stretches because they saw it as being pointless. Although art does not seem as physically demanding as other occupations or hobbies, it is quite the opposite. Artists tend to face injury more than you would expect. Artists’ injuries are not as fatal as other occupations however, they do happen, and they do have the potential to have a big impact on their everyday life. However, something as simple as stretching can be much more beneficial than you think.
Preventing Injury. – Stretching before you begin helps to stretch out the many muscles in your hand, wrist, and arm which can reduce the chances of you obtaining an injury. However, it is important to remember that stretching before doing art does not make you immune to any injury, it merely just reduces your chances. It is good to do a variety of stretches, especially ones that focus on different parts of your hand and arm because your wrist is not the only part of your body that can become injured.
Stretching As a Form of Treatment. – Now let’s say that you did not stretch or you have been, but still ended up injuring yourself. Stretching can help you here as well! There is a chance, depending on the type of injury you have, that there might be a bit of inflammation in the injured area. Well, stretching can actually help to reduce the inflammation that you may be experiencing. It also is a form of treatment depending on the type of injury and the severity of it. It even has the potential to slow or even stop your injury from worsening. However, it is important though, to have a physiotherapist recommend what stretches for you to do instead of you just doing whichever ones you want to do. As you can see now stretching has many benefits to it. Not only can it help reduce the chances of you injuring yourself but it can be part of treatment for when you are injured.
Posture and Ergonomics.- It is not uncommon for an artist to have poor posture due to them being hunched over as they do certain activities such as drawing. However, stretching is another way to help fix this. As well, stretching can help to reverse the effects of sitting for a long period of time. The tightness of muscles being one of these effects. This poor posture can lead to severe back pain which can have multiple negative effects on your health. Alongside with stretching, changing your work environment is important to maintaining proper posture.
For an artist, stretching before doing any sort of artwork can be helpful in many ways. It is very common for artists to suffer from some sort of wrist, arm or neck injury due to the many hours they put into their artwork. Consider these tips and see how your body will thank you the next time you are in the midst of an art project!
