How do you take care of your wrists?

As an aikidoka I follow a set routine of stretching that, I feel, really helps my wrists and hands stay healthy. Stretching keeps everything loose and helps keep everything in shape. Luckily I don't suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, a medical condition in which the median nerve is compressed at the wrist, leading to pain, paresthesias, and muscle weakness in the forearm and hand. Carpal tunnel would prevent me from participating in aikido, kenjutsu, making bokken, and running my business selling futons online.

Is there anything that can be done to treat carpal tunnel syndrome?

If you're asking yourself that same question, here are some great tips on carpal tunnel relief.

Traditional therapies include (several things that most people would have a hard time doing):
1. You must rest your hand for weeks
2. Your doctor may include some drugs to relieve the pain
3. Your Doctor may give you a cast to help ease pain
4. If your hand does not heal, you may need surgery

Prevention therapies (which I just read about) include:

1. For daytime wrist relief, wear a soft, flexible support that does not restrict movement of your hands and wrists. Also, look for a support that has a cushion to protect the underside of your wrist and your pisiform bone (the sensitive little bone you feel when you put your wrist on a hard surface). Soft support is available in the form of the Smart Glove, which does not limit movement while providing support.

2. Take frequent breaks from repetitive movement such as computer keyboard usage or use of browser based games that encourage the user for excessive finger movement. Such movements put stress on the nerves of the wrist.

My best Bokken to Date - That's a wooden sword guys!

So... as some of you may remember I've been trying my hand at hand made white oak bokken. Well, I wanted to share an image of my latest bokken. I planed it by hand, sanded it, and finished it with tung oil. Here's an image, what do you all think?

Gear for Aikido and Mixed Martial Arts

Today I've been browsing the internet quite a bit looking at training equipment when I found a site called Ground and Pound.

Ground and Pound is a site that specializes in MMA Gear and more. They have a fairly complete selection of training equipment from MMA Fight Gloves to bite guards and MMA Fight Shorts to traditional Judo style uniforms.

What made Ground and Pound

One thing that I really appreciated in looking through the selection over at Ground and Pound was the practical nature of their items. They have things on the site that most Aikidoka never use, gloves, guards, shorts, even soap (don't worry, aikidoka do use soap, but you'd never find it on an aikido website). It's because of the physical nature of MMA and what they promote that this practical nature is passed on to the Ground and Pound website, because let's face it, MMA is a seriously hard style. You need tough, practical equipment to last through that kind of practice.

So, if you're interested, head over and see for yourself.

Wooden Weapons

So, as some of you may remember, I've been working on some handmade bokken for the kenjutsu class at River Valley Aikido. I started with white oak, and I am fairly pleased with the result. But, for my next batch I plan on trying Jatoba, also known as Brazilian Cherry. I hear it has good dent resistance, a tight grain and is extremely durable.

Here's what I've done so far:

I must say it's a satisfying process, to take a hunk of wood and refine it by hand into a well balanced training tool.



This image shows the large plank of white oak that I picked up in Greenfield, MA. I traced out the outline of four bokken and cut them into bokken blanks (shown below).



After planing for two to three hours the bokken has taken shape, with a prominent taper, well shaped mune, and close to proper balance. Below you can see a side by side comparison between the original bokken and one in progress.



Stay tune for a sanded and refined update soon.