Tapestry Weaving Ergonomics and Shoulder Pain
If you do an online search for tapestry weaving ergonomics, several articles come up.
Lots of tips that apply to knitting also apply to weaving.
Most helpful are the articles involving Rebecca Mezoff, occupational therapist turned tapestry weaver. What better authority to advise us tapestry weavers? Whether it’s a blog post from Rebecca herself, or an interview with Rebecca, the information is spot on and very helpful. Mirrix also did a blog post with lots of good tips.
A lot of the advice out there applies to any activity that puts your body in the same position for long periods of time. Sensible points we should apply daily to any activity: take breaks, hydrate, lighting, and exercise.
But let’s get specific with tapestry weaving on a vertical loom.
What you’ll find in the above articles are recommendations on how to sit, balance of chair and loom or table adjustments, and the importance of stretching and strengthening those overworked muscles and tendons.
Like this quote from the Mirrix blog post:
Weaving tapestry requires a lot of pinching motions. The muscle bellies that flex our fingers are in our forearms. Lots of pinching or rotating of the forearm bones around each other can cause tendonitis or inflammation in these muscles and tendons. Stretching and taking breaks frequently is the best way to keep this kind of inflammation from building up.
And speaking of inflammation…
I’m a bit of a health nut, so I don’t like to turn to ibuprofen, although I do know it to be effective. For years, I have taken turmeric in place of ibuprofen. However, there were times when it just didn’t work for me and I would still have to reach for the Advil. It might have been the kind of delivery method, what was added into the turmeric, or other reasons, but it didn’t seem to do the trick.
The turmeric products I now use - and take on a daily basis - are both fermented turmeric. I vary the dose from time to time, but I’m a firm believer in it’s effectiveness. If you’re interested, here are the links to what I take.
*Fermented Turmeric from Organnix - a trusted company with 3rd party testing and a commitment to quality. This product does also contain Vitamin D.
*Fermented Turmeric from Dr Mercola - I’ve ordered Mercola products for years. I like this one because there are no additional vitamins.
Another quote from the Mirrix blog:
If you are using an upright loom like a Mirrix or a large upright tapestry loom, make sure you are advancing your work often enough that you’re not reaching above your shoulders. Ideally your work area should be chest level or below. Take the time to advance your work or change your chair height.
This brings me to another issue I want to address: shoulder pain.
In January of this year, I was gifted a new table for my studio and put my Zach loom on it. It seemed like the perfect set-up until I started noticing a little ache in my shoulder. I’ve had lots of neck and shoulder aches over the years with my knitting practice but never like this.
The tapestry behind the shoulder pain…
Looking back, I realize that it was not only the new table (height) but I was also very likely to have ignored a key part of the practice: taking breaks. I was so engrossed in the weaving that I wasn’t stopping and moving around as often as I should have been. AND in addition to the wrong table to chair ratio and lack of breaks, I was using the shedding mechanism more than I had with any other weaving. The perfect set-up became the perfect storm.
Over the next few months, that shoulder discomfort elevated to red hot pain. It was so painful, it woke me up at night. It scared the heck out of me, so I started another google search. This one led me to both the fermented turmeric mentioned previously and you tube videos for more exercises I could do. These also included best sleeping practices, which has proved invaluable for me.
I actually discovered these guys a few years ago when I broke my wrist. Below are some of the videos that have helped me the most. They’re (more than) a little goofy, but immensely helpful!
What’s causing your shoulder pain… This one really helped me identify where the problems were.
7 exercises to improve your shoulder pain Now part of my daily routine.
Sleeping positions for shoulder pain Invaluable! This has been a game changer for me in getting a good night’s sleep and controlling the shoulder pain.
One more helpful ritual I practice on a daily basis is yoga.
I have a number of DVD’s I rotate through, but for issues we’ve been talking about here, my go-to is Shiva Rea. My two current favorites:
*Fluid Power - I discovered this DVD when I broke my wrist. There are some very mild- and fluid - exercises that really helped.
*Trance Dance - This is a new one for me. I purchased it less than a month ago but it’s the one I just can’t get enough of. Lots of slow prana yoga mixed with dance sequences that get the blood flowing!
Have you battled any of these aches and pains associated with your weaving practice? Got a remedy we tapestry weavers need to know about? Please post it below!
*affiliate links are noted with an asterisk. I might earn a very small amount if you use the link to purchase.