10 years ago by
A Pianist
Hmmm... I've always believed that sensory stimulation directly related to, and growing out of, the FUNCTIONS of the hand moving on the keyboard are far more useful than simple mechanical exercise. However I do indeed at time prescribe exercise. I explain this contradiction by pointing out that my "exercise" is indeed always related to some functional aspect of technique - thumb push-ups being the most obvious example...
If the serious student wanted to develop hand strength and consciously linked each individual exercise of that Italian machine to a specific act executed on the keyboard, I may well indeed say, "Go ahead."
The eagle claw is way more extreme, but even there, if one used it CONSCIOUSLY one could theoretically gain benefit - "If you know what you're doing you can do what you want," even in terms of exercise and muscle development. You're not really developing the muscle anyway, but developing its capacity for real, effective work, which is a neurological more than a mechanical quality.
I used to use nautilus machines for a whole body workout. But if the trainer said put 30 kg on, I would put 5, and try to sense precisely which muscles were involved in a movement. The extra weight made these perceptions more clear, but the weights were not so extreme as to cloud my perception with huge amounts of effort. I turned it into a learning experience - kinesthetic as well as intellectual learning.
How could we use these machines in a similar way?
AFF
