Thread: hand warm-ups for zils

For about two years now, my hands have started to really seize up when I zil (or is it zill?) for more than a few minutes.

I've tried stretching beforehand and that does seem to help, but I'm wondering what warm-up exercises I could do. We warm up the rest of our bodies, but (at least in my troupe), there's not a lot of attention to warming up the hands and wrists.

Any tips? What about post-ziling care?

Stretches aren't really a warmup.

One good warmup is to make a fist, then rapidly pop your fingers as wide open as possible.

For another good idea, see this thread on my tribe at tribe.net: "Reverse" Zill Practise - Belly Dancing - the Shira.net Tribe - tribe.net . You may want to do this as a daily exercise outside of your dance classes or rehearsals, to ensure your hands have muscle balance. Ie, to balance the muscles that get developed by zilling.

Another good warmup is circling your wrists like a helicopter rotor with your fingers relaxed.

Stretching out your hand and fingers afterward is a good cooldown.

Just another thought, in case it happens to be useful. I've noticed some dancers have an unconscious tendency to hold the hands in a lifted position while zilling (lifted from the wrist, that is) and that tension through the wrist can lead to pain or stiffness in the hands. It helps to keep the wrists in a relaxed, neutral position. Sometimes it really takes some specific attention and practice to develop this habit.
Rosette

Put on some music, put on your finger cymbals.

Hold one arm up in 5th position, and one out to the side in 2nd position.

Use only the hand that is being held up in 5th position to "zill" starting 1/4x, then 1/2x, full time then double time.

Reverse arms, and reverse zilling hand so that now your other arm is in 5th position and zilling 1/4x, 1/2x, full time then double time.

After going through both drills with each arm/hand in 5th position, put both arms up in 5th position, and drill Right-Left-Right (or Left-Right-Left depending on which you prefer) starting in 1/4x, then to 1/2x, then full time and double time.

This will help to strenghen your arms as well as your hands and fingers, and also help with your dexterity and the speed of your zilling.

Thanks for the tips. I have tried that zill drill, erika and thought it was great! If I can get myself to do it regularly, I can see how it would definitely build muscle.

I also am beginning to suspect I might have carpal tunnel in my right wrist, which would be part of the problem.

Originally Posted by rachelw

For about two years now, my hands have started to really seize up when I zil (or is it zill?) for more than a few minutes.

I've tried stretching beforehand and that does seem to help, but I'm wondering what warm-up exercises I could do. We warm up the rest of our bodies, but (at least in my troupe), there's not a lot of attention to warming up the hands and wrists.

Any tips? What about post-ziling care?

I'm terrible with zils, but I'll go from advice from my own teacher. First, make sure your hands are aligned with your wrist--not turned up. As Rosette said, that tension in keeping your hands turned up is not good for you.

As for warmups, when we do zils in class, we do wrist circles, hand ripples, and an exercise where we close the hand into a fist one finger at a time starting with the pinkie followed by opening it back up one finger at a time starting with the thumb.