Musicians with Dystonia Bulletin Board

The exercises are a bit tricky to describe in words but I'll give it a go.
1. Start with hands together and fingers interleaved, unclasp and reclasp hands alternating the alignment (left fingers higher then right fingers higher). Unclasp hands by straightening fingers, not by moving hands apart. This exercises the long flexors and the extensors.
2. Start with hands apart and fingers straight and spread. Bend and unbend fingers at last 2 joints (last joint for thumb) but keep main knuckle (MCP joint) straight. This exercises the flexors and extensors but also works the intrinsic hand muscles which keep the knuckles straight and the fingers spread.
3. Start with hands apart and fingers straight and spread. Bend the fingers just at the main knuckle (where the fingers meet the hand) but keep the fingers straight - kinda like waving with your fingers. This exercises the extensors and if you keep the fingers straight enough (or even hyperextended) works the lumbricals as well.
4. Start with hands apart and in a fist. Flick the fingers out exercising the extensors.
5. Like 1 but individual fingers. Start with hands together and fingers straight and spread. Interleave the fingers but just one finger at a time alternating which finger is on top. This exercises the superficial flexors and extensors individually.
6. Like 2 but individual. Start with hands apart and fingers straight and spread. Bend the fingers at the last 2 joints (last joint for thumb) but keep the knuckle straight. One finger at a time. Concentrate on feeling the fingertip bend. Works different muscles on the moving and straight fingers.
7. Like 2 but individual. Hands apart, fingers straight and spread. Bend fingers just at 2nd last joint (ie the proximal interphalangeal joint) and keep the last joint loose. One finger at a time. Works the superficial flexors without the deep flexors.
8. Like 3 but individual. Hands apart, fingers straight and spread. Bend one finger at a time at the main knuckle (MCP) keeping the finger straight. Concentrate on keeping the fingers spread.
9. Start with hands apart and fingers straight but not spread. Open and close each finger gap separately (like the Vulcan greeting). Exercises the interossei.

I try and work the speed and endurance up on each exercise. To start with I was repeating each exercise until the muscles started to tire but now I'm doing a set number of reps for each. At the moment it takes about 20 minutes to do the whole lot or about the same time as a half hour TV episode without the ads - if I'm getting into the show I do a second set and get a second episode. I also sometimes chuck in some arm exercises (push-ups usually) and one of these days I'll get round to enrolling in a Pilates class.

The bits above about which muscles are worked are just my theories - I haven't been through these with anyone who'd be qualified to know.

I find I'm getting as much benefit out of the half hour of finger-wiggling as I was out of 3 hours of piano exercises if not more.

It's interesting reading through the old posts of people who have recovered. There are so many different perspectives on the condition. I found a couple that mentioned strength exercises (eg post 566) but obviously there are people who reject that completely, people for whom it's all in the nerves or brain or emotions etc. Maybe different causes can result in substantially similar condition. I find it hard to believe that mine is caused by anything emotional because I can notice the cramping when I'm typing which is a fairly neutral activity mostly.

Clive, I remember something similar happening to what you described - being able to play a piece without dystonic movements then moving on to something harder and the dystonia coming back. What seems to happen more with me now is that the feeling that I need to fight against dystonic cramping will start coming back when my fingers start getting tired. This is most obvious when I'm doing the Dohnanyi piano exercises and less obvious when I'm playing pieces.