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GMC Forum _ PRACTICE ROOM _ Wrist Hurts...pitty

Posted by: gitarcitolga Jul 23 2011, 04:00 PM

Hey guys!

I think because I practised too much, my left wrist and along with my left arm(fretting hand) hurts a lot. Feels like it's burning and hot boiling inside on my wrist coming towards in the back of my arm. But I dont want to stop practising, I still do practise as much as I can and little bit rest my hands,arms time to time. Do u thnk I should stop for a week or so practising completely? what would u suggest?

Posted by: Mudbone Jul 23 2011, 05:44 PM

If you continue practicing and your condition gets worse, not playing guitar for a week will be the least of worries. I suggest using a stop watch when you practice - 7 minutes practice, 3 minutes rest, and repeat. This way you give your hands time to recover. Practicing guitar is really not too different from training with weights; you're exercising muscles in your hands are arms, and they need momentary rest.

I also recommend practicing for only an hour a day for the next week. If its still bothering you, just put the guitar down for a week. In the big picture of your guitar playing life, one week is nothing.

Posted by: Azzaboi Jul 23 2011, 08:39 PM

Make sure you do hand and finger stretchs and warmup before playing hardcore. The burning feeling if your been playing for ages might be lactic acid buildup in the hand which is an actual normal response when working on increasing your stamina. Your muscles in the hand aren't getting enough oxygen while they build strength. Just don't let it get to carpal tunnel symptoms! Eaze up a bit and shake it out. Don't keep playing the same thing over and over for ages but mix up the patterns. Never play if it's hurting, make sure your also not applying too much pressure and stay relaxed. If it continues, take a break for a bit, it's not worth the damage it might cause in the future (a few days break vs a few years recovery or lifetime) ekk that!

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jul 23 2011, 08:49 PM

As Azzaboi said, stretching before a practicing routine is very important. I would stop playing at least for 1 or 2 days because the problem could get worse if you continue hurting your wrist.

Posted by: gitarcitolga Jul 23 2011, 10:48 PM

It hurts pretty bad. Im gonna take a rest for a week and at the end of the week Ill visit a good doctor whom I know is a true specialist for this kind of situations. And yes, I need physical warm ups before every practise session just like in petrucci's video lessons. I have to take this period seriously otherwise I might pay the price with bigger consequences. Well, thinking about the good part, this is a good chance for me to study and focus on theory lessons during this one week:))

Posted by: dark dude Jul 23 2011, 11:18 PM

Yes, take a week off. You need to learn your boundaries, play relaxed and always warm-up before playing.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jul 24 2011, 09:50 AM

You probably pushed too far with practice mate, it happens. It's good to visit a specialist, but it's also good to create a clear idea on how to practice. Before starting to practice, you need to warm up for 10-15 minutes, stretching fingers and all. Never attempt to do a marathon session of 2 hours without a break. It might feel good, but you will suffer later. Take 10 minute breaks every 45 minutes, and try not to do any difficult exercises longer than 10 minutes. Mix your exercises so you create a balanced session. Remember that your hands, muscles, nerves are irreplaceable!

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 24 2011, 09:59 AM

When it comes to guitar practice, the key is to recognise the difference between fatigue and pain. Tiredness and fatigue is a noraml process after working your muscles.. but pain is a sign that we're either doing something wrong, or we're doing too much of it

Also, strecthing is good but I prefer to do long stretches after the activity. If you stretch the muscles, they become longer. When this happens they don't contract and relax as efficiently.. this is best done when you've finished the activity and you want to avoid them getting tight and sore. It's more important to warm your hands up.. circulation is key to your bits and pieces operating efficiently.

If anyone's interested further, I'd recommend looking up the differences between dynamic stretching and static stretching. I was quite surprised to read some of that stuff because the popular opinion has always been 'stretch before any activity or exercise' but now I see that it's better to lightly roll your body through some actual motions to get them warm and woken up and save the long, static stretches for after the playing.