Pain-Free Pottery
Pottery can be hard on your body in a number of ways, and being proactive about looking after yourself is important if you want to keep doing it pain-free in the long run.
The first thing to say is that I’m not a doctor, and I’m definitely not YOUR doctor. So check with an actual professional who knows your situation if you have any doubts whatsoever. Also, what works for me might not work for you, but I did ask on Instagram for suggestions and I’ll add those further down for a greater breadth of ideas.
My starting point here is going to be a little different to a lot of other potters. Before I became a potter I was working at a desk 9-5 and doing powerlifting* as a hobby, which means I had a more extreme version of two of the main issues with making pottery - being sat hunched over, and lifting heavy things.
I found that the most effective way to deal with the issues associated with either was by getting into good habits, rather than waiting for issues to arise and making changes then. The good news is that good habits are usually free and often don’t even cost you any extra time, but it’s not easy to make changes like that.
Making a conscious effort to move and rest with good posture (or rather, choosing not to slump into a temporarily comfortable position) is a great idea generally. Making sure you work in a way that doesn’t cause pain (this could be adjusting the height of surfaces or making small changes to your movement patterns) will cost you almost no time once you’ve made them a habit but can prevent a lot of long term imbalances building up.
The next level of prevention is a little more time consuming, but in my opinion is much easier to implement consistently. Stretch and warm up before doing anything potentially injurious in the studio. It could be moving an order of clay in and stacking it or warming up your wrists before throwing, but adding a couple of minutes of time to prepare before can make you more efficient during the task and reduces the likelihood of injury.
The next level would be the longer stretching/strength/posture routines you would do outside the studio. These would generally be more like 10-30 minutes in the morning or evening, and exactly what these are would depend on your needs, schedule, and preference. I don’t get much time to train now I have a toddler, My preference is still for strength training wherever possible, but stretching is easier to do in the living room surrounded by toys.
There isn’t much in the way of equipment needed, but there are a few things I use more or less daily to help relieve muscle tension, which are:
Foam Roller (US link / UK Link)
Lacrosse Ball (US link / UK Link)
Of these, the Theracane is by far the most useful to me. It is designed to let you give yourself a deep tissue massage, and the shape of it is ideal for relieving tension in the neck and upper back with a significant amount of pressure and without having to contort yourself into an awkward position to do it. Here is a video with a few demonstrations of how to use it on the upper body:
Small changes
The first step to correcting posture is to think about what’s currently incorrect with your posture. Obviously I have absolutely no idea what, if anything, is wrong with your current posture. However, the most common issues from sitting hunched over (as I understand it) would be things like Anterior Pelvic Tilt and Upper Crossed Syndrome. These are cause by muscle imbalances, where the muscles on one side of the joint are weak and the other side are tight. You’ll probably want to address that with stretching and strengthening too, but one of the most immediate things you can do is recognising that pattern and making simple changes to correct it. Posture is, at least in part, a habit that can be changed. It’s also partly down to the physical environment you are in, so that would be one of the first simple things to look at.
Workspace
Are there any changes you can make to your working environment?
Raise the height of working surfaces so you hunch over less. I do my Pebble/Peacock Eye stamping on a high banding wheel, which brings the work to nearer eye level. You could have a dedicated workbench or one with height adjustment so you can do different tasks at suitable heights.
Consider throwing standing if that’s an option for your working space and wheel. I throw standing now I have my Skutt wheel (although that change wasn’t in response to back pain) and it definitely makes it easier to avoid the full hunched position. There’s still a degree of leaning over the wheel but the overall rounding of the spine is less, and should greatly reduce ATP issues at the hip.
If you hunch over the wheel to see what you’re doing, consider a mirror on the far side of the wheel, so you can see the form reflected. This will give a more realistic view of the profile anyway, as there’s lens distortion from viewing things up close, but also allows you to watch what you’re doing with a more neutral head position.
Consider where you store heavy things like clay and glaze buckets. The more awkward the location, the more strain there will be when storing and retrieving them and the greater the probability of injury.
Try a softer clay. There is a huge variation in how a clay behaves fresh out of the bag, and unless there’s a good reason to use one that’s too firm then you might as well spare your wrists and get a softer one. My dark clay is really firm but I’ve not found any other option with the same colour and characteristics, whereas firmness from the bag was one of the biggest factors in deciding which light clay option I went with.
Routine
Can you rearrange your working day to avoid too long spent on any one task and to break tasks up in a way that spaces out similar physical positions?
I’ve discussed this at more length in other blog posts, but I generally do some of most tasks each day rather than devoting a whole day to a single process. This is primarily because I have a small studio and kiln, but comes with the added benefit of physical variation. I rarely spend more than an hour on a task, especially not one that has me stood/sat in the same position for the whole time, and I think this variation is really helpful in avoiding pain by the end of the day.
Stretching/Warming Up
This could be anything from a few seconds to a more involved 10-15 minute routine, but doing something either on arriving at the studio or before a more intensive physical task is probably a good idea. For me the most important stretch would be warming up the wrists, as forearm tightness will reduce the comfortable range of motion and can make processes like wedging and centring painful. Something like this should be a good starting point.
A full body warmup might be a little overkill depending on what you’re doing that day, but on the other hand it’s really hard to see a future version of you looking back and regretting how excessively flexible and pain-free you are, so maybe doing it every time you walk into the studio might be a good habit to get in to. There are thousands of variations on YouTube, but this one looked good:
Outside of the Studio
There are two things I’d separate out here, those activities that are the sole focus and those that can be done while performing another activity (like watching TV).
Focused Activities
These can be things like yoga, pilates, weight training, stretching, prehab or rehab activities. You’ll probably know what appeals to you more, but a mix of strength and flexibility training is going to help with life in general as well as staying injury free while doing pottery.
I do a really basic free weight routine a few times a week to maintain strength, and try to do some stretching daily even if it’s not a comprehensive full body routine. The stretches I’ve got the most mileage out of by far are stretches for the neck and chest. This is because in the Upper Crossed Syndrome I mentioned above, the opposing muscle pairs have one tight group and one weak group. Stretching the tight group and strengthening the weak group should help address both sides of the issue.
Background Activities
These are the ones I’m more interested in, as they’re easier to fit in around your day. This where the Theracane and lacrosse balls are particularly useful to me, because they can be done alongside other activities. It used to be while sat watching TV, but now I have a toddler it is far more likely to be while joining in one of the games that doesn’t actually involve me in any way (but I’m required to watch or the game can’t proceed) or reading Richard Scarry (again).
I use the Theracane (US link / UK Link) to relax any tension in my upper back and neck. It can also be used for most other parts of the body if you wanted, but the upper back is where it is really irreplaceable. Once you get used to it you can do it automatically, so it becomes a background activity while your attention can be focused elsewhere. You can get cheaper alternatives, but I’d recommend sticking to the Theracane shape, as some of the other designs just doesn’t work as well. I bought one of the cheaper ones in the Theracane design, it was perfectly usable but had sharp seams from the manufacturing which I had to remove before I could use it. They’re worth considering if you’d rather save the money and you’re happy to do that yourself.
Similarly, I can use the lacrosse balls to release tension in the soles of my feet while watching TV. If you’re on your feet a lot during the day and have never tried anything to lower the tightness of the muscles, this will probably feel very tender the first few times but will make you so much more comfortable afterwards.
The foam roller is great for the muscles in the legs and lower back, but does require floorspace and more attention than the previous two. You can still do it while watching TV if you have the room and no small people/animals who will interrupt.
I’ve never quite needed one badly enough to buy, but there is a really useful tool for massaging forearms (US link / UK link). If you’re finding that your forearms are tight and it’s affecting your wrist flexibility then one of those might be a wise investment, I know a lot of higher level climbers use them to stay healthy.
Instagram Suggestions
This was the post with the full set of suggestions and discussion, but I’ll list the main points here:
Regularly interrupt an activity (either stretching, moving around, or changing activity) rather than spending too much time on the same thing without a break
Visit a professional (massage / osteopath / chiropractor)
Do another physical activity (swimming / yoga / pilates)
Diversify your business to avoid having to do too much of one thing
Other aspects
I’m not going to go into all the other potential health issues with ceramics here, because I think they deserve their own post. Essentially though, you don’t want to be breathing in anything in the studio that isn’t fresh air, and that’s done through a couple of best practises. You want to minimise the amount of dust you produce, minimise the amount of that dust you kick up into the air, then minimise the amount of that air you breathe. Sensible cleaning habits will make up the majority of the solution, clean often and with water to keep dry dust to a minimum.
Other than that, try to eat well, sleep well, and look after yourself!
*I never competed though. Best gym lifts with relatively passable competition form were 130kg bench, 180kg squat, 220kg deadlift (sumo) at a bodyweight of 70-75kg.
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