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I had a frightening event 8 weeks ago, while seated at the piano,and it's been a climb back to normalcy with the help of a big 65cm stability ball. I thought I'd share.
http://arioso7.wordpress.com/2013/1...d-my-personal-rehab-bundled-into-a-ball/

As a physicians son, Mark C. where are you?: I take tremendous umbrage at this type of post.

There is not a pianist, who has ever lived, who has not had some problems with back pain/discomfort.

I, personally, have psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and chronic tendinitis in both heels. And, I daily use a regimen which I have specifically designed for ME! - and not anyone else.

There is no way in Hades that anyone watching this should even remotely attempt to adapt this to their own situation.

SHAME ON YOU!!!!

I'm not sure what "type of post" Louis is referring to, and I'm not going to get into it with him.

I'll just say to the OP that, as someone who has suffered severely at the piano from injury (and still suffers, although it's managed now), I'm really sorry to hear what happened to you, I thank you for sharing your experience-- much of which is relevant to me-- and I wish you luck and grace as you find your way back to a stable normalcy.

-Jason

Have you some inside information the rest of us don't have? I've not ever had back pain, or discomfort from playing and know many others who can attest to the same.

I haven't either. I don't know what Mr. Podesta is talking about.

When are we going to get to hear you play the organ, AF?

Trust me... the fact that I replied to his post does not mean that I take him seriously... far from it, in fact.

I guess that Mr. Podesta has just proven that I am not a pianist.

Yes. Obviously, all REAL pianists have back pain, Bruce.

But see, I have had a bout with terrible back pain these past two months. And given my mid-intermediate skill level, I'm less a pianist yet than I am "one who often plays the piano."

Hmm, I think the only logical conclusion we can reach from this exhaustive data set of my own personal experience is the following: if you have back pain you are not really a pianist.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Playing the piano is physically therapeutic for me.

John

According to some here you're no less a pianist than Horowitz.

Nice try though.

I play piano all day. I sit on a rolling office chair with a good little pillow and a regulated back. I sit with my knees crossed which takes the pressure off the lower back. Been doing this for 800 years and it works. I have never had back problems.

Artist Shmartist. Both pianists.

There's a distinction.

If a comparison requires tortured semantics in order to make it, I think we can all agree it's probably not worth making. So let's not waste much time finding the ways in which I may or may not be comparable to Horowitz. Not that I wouldn't want it to be true in some way--in fact, I had a dream just this week in which I was in a large dining room filled with long worn wooden tables, and I saw Horowitz sitting there. The room was filled with people milling about, but he was by himself, ignored by everybody else in the room. He was simply sitting there in that characteristic way in which he sat, sort of domed over his lap. I sat down next to him and told him I was so glad to find him there. He turned and smiled kindly at me and when he turned back, he began to play on the table. "Listen," he said. I tilted my head and sure enough, the table was making music. He played and played and played, his old fingers drumming and gliding over this rough wood table, and music was coming out that apparently only he and I could hear because nobody was reacting. I felt like as long as I sat there, he would just play, and it's all I wanted to do.

Anyway, I don't know why I dreamt that. But it was a lovely dream.

There are real threads about back pain (and other pains pianists can have) elsewhere on PW; a little time using the Search feature might bring them up--- and good luck with that.

Snowflake, you melted on me before I could get motivated to find out about your ball. If you're happy with it, good for you. If you're prescribing treatments for people with back pain, you're playing with fire.

Anyone who has aches and pains that don't yield to the ordinary first-aid measures--- rest, NSAIDs as the label directs (if you tolerate them), correct seated posture and bench height, and maybe ice packs or a heating pad for a few 15-minute sessions per day--- those people should be talking to their doc, for more real help with their pain. Bad advice can be very expensive, and one person's perfect exercise program can be another's ruin.

I liked your wood table with Horowitz, though, sort of. Very minimalist--- to the vanishing point. Do I take it that the rest of the people in the room who couldn't hear his masterworks, played on a plank, referred to the rest of us?

Of course, there is, but you've made no distinction elsewhere.

Goodness, no. I'm sure if any of you had been there, you'd have heard it, too. The people in the background were not anybody specific.

I was afraid somebody would recognize him, too, and then I'd have to share, or something. Or maybe he would go home. I woke up before anything else happened.

And poof, he was gone.