IS CARDISTRY DANGEROUS?

Mr_ARPY

Mr_ARPY

Sep 10, 2017
347
231
I am just gonna post my personal experience here. I had been doing cardistry for almost 2 years now and in the past 6 months, after learning bullet and kryptonite and etc, I started feeling a kind of numbness and tingling in my left hand's fingers. After doing some research and consulting a neurologist, I found out that I have CTS(Carpal Tunnel Syndrome). If you dont know what it is, it's basically a problem in which the carpal tunnel in your hand becomes smaller and starts putting pressure on your median nerve which is what we use to move our thumb, index and middle finger. It is caused by excessive repettetive wrist work. (Which I do a lot while practicing cardistry). It is fairly dangerous since after a while, your hands could be paralysed from wrist down completely. I dont say this will happen to everybody but it might, so be careful how much you are using your hands.




P.S. Shin lim has the same problem, which is why he doesnt play the piano anymore.
 
obrienmagic

obrienmagic

Elite Member
Nov 4, 2014
1,473
1,423
Orange County, Ca
www.obrienmagic.com
You can get these types of repetitive motion injuries doing anything too much. It is prolly best to stretch before hand and make sure that moves you are doing do not push your hands to the limits. You should aboid fully bending the wrist and take breaks when practicing.

We had a whole class on this at work just to train the employees how not to injure themselves at work.
 
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MattieuZ1

Jan 14, 2018
100
125
Philadelphia, PA
It depends on how much you work your wrist and hands. I personally don’t do cardistry as often and so I only practice maybe 2 hours a week at most, I’m a lot more into sleights and stuff. However, I set a limit on how much I practice intense sleights so I don’t develop CTS since I also play the piano. Whenever I can’t use my hands, I always work on theory, presentation, gimmick crafting, there’s a lot more to card magic than just sleight of hand.

CTS is a real danger for magicians so stay safe :)
 
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WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,886
2,946
What they said - it's not flourishing/cardistry that's dangerous, it's obsessively practicing without paying attention to your body.

There are stretches you can find online, and it's a good idea to take breaks periodically. The stretches I learned in Aikido helped me a lot when I was dealing with a bit of CTS.
 
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james20002

Oct 7, 2018
1
0
.....don,t see research on it if your have a problem before then yes but saying it is the cause of the problem i would have to see more then thought and personal exp/but not dum but would have to look at it in more depth in a study
 
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