Observation

You know what? That weak right thumb? It turned out to be mostly a locked muscle problem.

I know this because inside 12 hours (yesterday itself) with sporadic bouts of of stretching, very gentle massaging of the general area, and a very mild rhythmic chi-kung hand exercise I learnt for wrist pains some time ago; the thumb regained 80% ability to play as fluidly as the other; and WITHOUT the kink in the joint.

If it was weak, it would have taken at least a week to build up, no?

(Locked muscle = seized up = in spasm, ie. like when you get a stiff neck and can't turn your head.)

The muscle is still a bit sore but has improved so dramatically in such a short space of time that I am very encouraged to keep at it.

Wonder what caused it? Perhaps that time I had a local anaesthetic before getting a biopsy to positively identify the fungus? That might be possible; since I didn't play much at that time... and I only noticed the 'weak knuckle' when I last tried to play 9ths / 10ths .... around June last year...

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