A Question About Tension And/or Arm Getting Tired..., ... while doing certain excercises Options

[Frobb]

Hey fellow GMCers,
I've got this question I've been wondering about for a couple of weeks or so.

Chromatic excercises are a part of my practicing schedule and I do classics such as "1234", "1324" and "1423". Meaning, if we take "1234" for instance, that I play frets 1234 from low E to high E, and then reversing the pattern and going 4321 from high E to low E, and continues the same thing down the fretboard all the way to fret 12, and then going back to fret 1. You get the picture!

A couple of weeks ago I started doing this at 110 bpm, playing sixteenth notes, and when I do these excercises at this tempo I tend to get a tiring feeling in my right arm when I've done the excercise for a couple of minutes or so.

Is this tiring feeling a sign of my arm being tense while playing this and that I've pushed myself too hard? Or is it simply that I haven't developed the endurance required for doing these kind of things at this speed for a longer period of time?

Thanks in advance.

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[fatstrat]

Hey fellow GMCers,
I've got this question I've been wondering about for a couple of weeks or so.

Chromatic excercises are a part of my practicing schedule and I do classics such as "1234", "1324" and "1423". Meaning, if we take "1234" for instance, that I play frets 1234 from low E to high E, and then reversing the pattern and going 4321 from high E to low E, and continues the same thing down the fretboard all the way to fret 12, and then going back to fret 1. You get the picture!

A couple of weeks ago I started doing this at 110 bpm, playing sixteenth notes, and when I do these excercises at this tempo I tend to get a tiring feeling in my right arm when I've done the excercise for a couple of minutes or so.

Is this tiring feeling a sign of my arm being tense while playing this and that I've pushed myself too hard? Or is it simply that I haven't developed the endurance required for doing these kind of things at this speed for a longer period of time?

Thanks in advance.

Hey I had the same problem when I first started with a serious practice schedule....fortunately though it's a quick fix!

The first thing you could try is elevating the leg that you rest your guitar on when sitting down. It feels to me like an unnatural position having both legs on the ground without one elevated. The second thing you could try is slowing down your exercises to a comfortable pace. When your arm stops hurting and you can go for 10 or 15 minutes (alternate and chromatic picking) without it cramping up then you know that you've reached a good pace. The cramping is usually a sign that your arms aren't ready for that speed.

So just make sure you always warm up prior to jumping into the higher speeds and you should be fine.

Hope this helps!!!!

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

You should practice at slower tempo first then jump to 110bpm and always warm up man

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[Frobb]

Thanks for the advice guys. Since I already do elevate the leg that I rest my guitar on and warm up before I do these excercises I guess I'll jump to the conclusion that I've pushed myself too hard. I'll simply have to slow down a bit.

Thanks again.

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[Dejan Farkas]

Try this, after a proper warm-up play it as you play so far, but when you start feeling the tension slow down a bit, and when tension releases then speed up again, and repeat it several times. Try pushing yourself to the limit but don't stay there too long. And always, if you feel a pain then STOP imediately and check what are you doing wrong.

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[Bogdan Radovic]

Just take your time with this and your body will adapt and you will have more endurance

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[Frobb]

I've realized I can do these excercises for approx. 8 minutes at 110 bpm before my arm starts to get tired, so I guess I've found a pretty good speed to practice at. Maybe I should to it a tad bit slower.
Thank you guys for helping me figuring this out and thanks Dejan for that advice of yours, it seems to work quite good actually.

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