Hand exercisier surprise

[tjcurtin1]

A couple of months ago I bought a Planet Waves 'Varigrip' guitar player's hand/finger exerciser. I actually bought it because I injured a right hand finger this summer and the doc told me to work it with some kind of rehab squeezing thing. I wasn't surprised as a right-hander to find my right hand stronger and more 'capable' than my left, but I was kind of stunned to find that, despite finger exercises and playing, my left-hand fingers were way less independently operable than my right. This was most noticeable with the ring/pinky combination. On my right hand they are easily independent of one another, but on the left hand I could not depress one without the other! If I held back the ring finger, I could not depress the pinky and had a hard time restraining the ring (and to a lesser extent, the middle). Using it daily on the drive to work I am beginning to be able to build some separation, but I was really surprised. FWIW, I am finding that using the exerciser is increasing usefully for guitar playing the strength and dexterity (hmm, 'dexterity' comes from the Latin for 'right hand'!) of my left hand.