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Jackson's Gymnastics for the Fingers and Wrist / being a system of gymnastics, based on anatomical principles, for developing and strengthening the muscles of the hand for musical, mechanical and medical purposes: with thirty-seven diagrams cover

Jackson's Gymnastics for the Fingers and Wrist / being a system of gymnastics, based on anatomical principles, for developing and strengthening the muscles of the hand for musical, mechanical and medical purposes: with thirty-seven diagrams

Chapter 19: Second movement.
By Edwin Ward Jackson
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About This Book

The author sets out a system of exercises grounded in anatomy and physiology to develop and strengthen the muscles, ligaments, and joints of the fingers, hand, and wrist. After describing experimental origins and critiques of standard instrumental training, the work presents practical routines, explanatory diagrams, and apparatus recommendations for musicians, artisans, and those with hand ailments. It explains principles, methods of instruction, and staged exercises for free movement and use of portable and fixed implements, and outlines therapeutic applications such as treatment for rheumatism and contortions, concluding with guidance on instruction, testing, and adoption of these techniques in gymnastic and medical practice.

CHAPTER IX.
FREE GYMNASTIC EXERCISES FOR THE FINGERS AND THUMB.

First movement.

Fig. 5.
Fig. 6.

Stretch the fingers as much as possible one from the other, let them fall on the large muscle of the thumb (thumb-ball), and press them firmly on it; remain for a moment in this position, and bring the thumb against the forefinger, 40 times up and down.

You will find that this exercise, as well as several others, if vigorously continued for three minutes only, is very fatiguing; a clear proof that the muscles of the fingers, although they may be quite fit for ordinary daily occupations, are, nevertheless, very weak and incapable when anything more is demanded from them, and without proper gymnastical training, they must remain so.

Second movement.

Fig. 7.
Fig. 8.

Stretch the fingers as before, but let the finger-ends fall against the middle of the cavity of the hand, instead of against the great muscle of the thumb, and press them firmly. To be repeated 40 times.

Third movement.

The following exercise (9 and 10) is intended particularly for the small joints of the fingers. It is effective, but difficult.

Fig. 9.
Fig. 10.

Do not stretch the fingers away from one another, but hold them firmly and close together, as this produces the effect particularly desired. Bend the two first finger-joints of the four fingers closely together; move them vigorously up and down, and press them on firmly, without, however, moving the large joints. Repeat this movement until you are tired, which will not be long, thus affording another practical proof how weak the untrained finger-joints are. This is also an excellent exercise for the thumb, provided it is made slowly and vigorously. It may also be made with outstretched fingers.

I again repeat that no one who has not already tried the above or similar exercises of the fingers, will be able vigorously to continue them for even so short a time as three minutes without experiencing painful fatigue. And why? Because, as I have demonstrated before, the joints of the fingers and wrists are, in the ordinary occupations of life, the least of all exercised, and consequently the weakest, in comparison with what they have afterwards to perform.

After this experience people will, in future, hardly venture to teach and to continue the exercise of an art like music (which, from a muscular point of view, is the most difficult of all), with muscles the weakest and least trained, without having previously prepared them by proper gymnastic exercises.

Fourth movement.

Fig. 11.
Fig. 12.

The last free exercise for the finger-joints, which I will recommend here (11 and 12), consists in moving all the fingers and the thumb simultaneously together, that is to say, in stretching them far away from one another, like claws, and making all sorts of eccentric movements in whatever direction you please, and as long as you like or are able, but always vigorously.