1. What advice would you give to a friend with tennis elbow about how she should lift a frying pan onto the stove or a can of paint onto a work bench? She should lift the pan with her palm facing up (underhand grip). This will use the flexor muscles. Injured tendons (as in tennis elbow) are best healed with rest.
2. Using what you have learned in this experiment, explain why a wrist brace is effective treatment for tennis elbow. A wrist splint effectively immobilizes the muscles, allowing them to rest more.
3. Some people keyboard with their wrists resting on the table or on a wrist support. In light of what you have learned from this experiment, would you recommend this practice as a way of preventing injury to the extensor muscles of the forearm? Why or why not? This can actually cause greater injury depending on the position of the wrist while typing. If the wrist is cocked back, the extensor muscles must be constantly engaged to keep the fingers elevated off the keyboard. Wrist rests are more effect to rest hands when not typing.
4. Based on this experiment, what advice would you give to a beginning piano player about proper hand position? The best position is when the wrist is level with the hand as the fingers rest on the piano keys
5. Pitcher's elbow is a repetitive use injury of the medial epicondyle. What do the muscles that attach to the medial epicondyle control? How would you adapt this experiment to test these muscles?
6. Is there a difference between the grip strengths in the different categories of height for which data was collected in Table 4? What conclusion can you draw about the relationship between height and grip strength?
7. List at least two possible reasons for the differences you see between the pinch strength of the first two fingers and the second two fingers. In your answer consider actions of the hand and musculature (Use an anatomy textbook or atlas to view the muscles of the forearm and hand).
8. Describe a situation in which such a loss of grip strength is noticeable in your day-to-day life.
9. How might fatigue increase the risk of musculoskeletal injury?