That’s an intelligent decision, especially given how litigious some people can be. Inviting an expert as a guest on the show sounds like a really cool idea!

Hi, Teresa! I'm currently going through physical therapy for, pretty much, my whole body. That is, from my feet to the muscles in my neck. And as long as you aren't suffering from a disease or have joint/muscle damage that can only be fixed with surgery, you are on the right track. Obviously, going to a doctor and getting a professional observation is the safest course, but let's run forward assuming that you're healthy and your ailment can be rectified through targeted exercise. But first, I'd like to bring up another point Marshall made in the podcast. When things start to hurt, people avoid doing what makes them hurt. That's just the human thing. When one walks up the stairs and gets knee pain, what's the universal reaction? Avoiding the stairs. But, really, that just lets the injuries get worse. According to the professional I'm seeing, who has a Doctor of Physical Therapy, being active is the only hope you have. I took the Doctor Jo route before seeing a professional. And it didn't help me. The reason it didn't help me, was because I was recruiting the wrong muscles. For instance, when I tried to exercise my glutes, I would use my hamstrings. Doctor Jo actually has a video about this called, Dead Butt Syndrome. I didn't know I had this though, it took a professional to point it out and get me to recruit the muscles properly. If you can save up for physical therapy, or you have health insurance that will cover it, that's the way to go for any kind of recurring pains that have to deal with muscles. But, let's say you want to tackle this all by yourself. The most important tip that I got out of my therapist is Stability. Let's delve into wrist pain. It's going to be a common point of injury for artists. My wrists, along with all of the other joints in my body, are weak. The good part about that is the fact that they can be strengthened. So I have a wrist injury. If I feel the muscles of my forearm I can feel where the muscles are tight and uncomfortable. If I feel the muscles on my "good" forearm, I'll notice that they are smooth and much looser. So, what's happening? The muscles in my forearm are working overtime to keep my wrist stable. My bones moved too much and my brain didn't like that, so now my forearm is eternally cramped. To remedy this, my physical therapist has me wearing wrist supports when I do exercises, i.e., pushups, pullups and band work. And then as a separate set of exercises, I do grip strengthening. This includes focusing on wrist extensor, wrist flexor and general gripping exercises. Slowly but surely, I am strengthening the weak, opposing muscles in my forearm and my wrist is feeling better. I also have a rounded shoulder. It's common for rounding to happen to both shoulders, but my bodies been fairly twisted since birth. So the side of injury rotates as you go down my body. Anyway, my neck hurts. Why? Because a lot of the muscles attached to the neck are also attached to the shoulder. My shoulder lacks stability. So all of the muscles around it are misused in order to compensate and get back that stability. Unrounding my right shoulder has released the tension in my neck. To sum all of that up for an artist: I'm guessing the most common art-injuries are going to be wrist pain, shoulder pain and pain from forward head posture. The forward head posture is a side effect of looking down at a desk (or phone) for too long and your body adjusting to that position. So for wrist stability, you're looking for grip training. There are plenty of videos on youtube. The important part here is to focus on stability. Doctor Jo, is great but when I look at her wrist videos they "don't dig too deep" into strengthening opposing muscles. They focus on stretching. If stretching fixes your problem, great! You win! But if the pain comes back the next day, it's because your brain is still trying to provide joint stability. Stretching tight muscles and using a lacrosse/tennis ball for self myofascial release can help greatly here. But the most important part is beefing up the muscles that aren't doing their job. For shoulder pain, I would start with shoulder-impingement exercises and rotator-cuff exercises. As well has lower, trapezius exercises. If the pain gets worse when you do it, keep going- no, wait. What I meant was, "Stop. Stop and figure out something else." Here's a tricky part to my recommendation. I've tried all of these for my shoulder (my left shoulder, not the rounded one I just mentioned fixing) and I've only gotten mild relief. That's the next body part I'm tackling with my physical therapist this week. What I'm expecting to find is going to be similar to my glute problem. My guess is that I was doing the correct exercises with good form, but something that I couldn't diagnose myself is holding me back. Perhaps one of the rotator cuff muscles wasn't being used properly just like my glutes weren't being used properly. Come on, will I hurry up already. This message is going on forever :P Also, here's this: https://www.amazon.com/TENS-7000-Digital-Unit-Accessories/dp/B00NCRE4GO/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=tens+unit&qid=1593550586&sr=8-6 Immediate pain relief from a Tens Unit. It doesn't solve the problem though. Just let's you ignore it.