Repetative strain?

S

SteveD

Inspired
Hi
I thought others here must have experienced this sort of thing so thought I'd ask.
I've just started practicing abt 8 hrs a week after not playing much. I'm getting cramp-like feelings in my arms if I practice fast stuff repetatively; I hv to slow down & then it goes off. Better when ive warmed up for abt an hour.
Any thoughts on how to address this. I'm 56 & wondering if thats part of it...
Thx.

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SteveD said:
Hi
I thought others here must have experienced this sort of thing so thought I'd ask.
I've just started practicing abt 8 hrs a week after not playing much. I'm getting cramp-like feelings in my arms if I practice fast stuff repetatively; I hv to slow down & then it goes off. Better when ive warmed up for abt an hour.
Any thoughts on how to address this. I'm 56 & wondering if thats part of it...
Thx.

Sent from my GT-I9295 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Well, I don't have proper posture when I play, so I started getting horrible painful knobs in my neck. When I went to the Chiropractor I am currently seeing for the first time, she said you should never do one thing for more than 30 minutes, even when you are completely healthy. Your age may have something to do with it, but you know it's really hard to say. My advice would be to see a physical therapist, or a Chiropractor if they deal with that kind of thing. I know my Chiropractor took a look at my hands and took x-rays to see if I had arthritis, so one could probably help you. Good luck Steve, I hope you get this resolved.
*EDIT- For now, just try practicing for 30 minutes, take a 15 minute or more break, then 30 minutes, etc. Can't hurt to try.
 
There was a guy in this forum that had some good stretching exercises for guitar players. It was pretty good. There was a video that he made too. Maybe you can find it in the search function. I've been doing them ever since i watched it.
 
pima1234 said:
Stretch. Warm up properly (a lot longer than most people think).

Start taking magnesium and vitamin B6.
Click to expand...

You can add Potassium to that list as well. Cramping is a buildup of lactic acid in the mussel tissue it's also referred to as forearm pump. Used to get that a lot from riding dirt bikes and quads.
 
Thanks guys. I've never suffered this before but I have been trying to build speed. I know it takes me an hour to warm up properly but theres only so many hours in a day! I'll get the vitamins & stuff. Talking of age...I'm on the cusp of diabetes, have arthritis but not in my hands (thank god!) So health issues are starting to bite. Ive been seeing a chiropractor for a bad neck too so I'll ask abt this issue next time. The joys of ageing! I'll watch the video & stuff, may be that I need to warm up properly these days.
Thx for taking the time to give good advice all.


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That video & the thread are great - some of those stretches I use for tennis already. I think its the sudden increase in playing. I should have been more gradual about it (as I sit here with a pulled calf muscle from suddenly playing a lot of tennis!). My body is clearly trying to tell me something! Hopefully this stuff will cure it.
Thx again.

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One sure-fire way to reduce pain is to play more lightly. It's easy for tension to build up, especially when you're trying to build speed. Your hands and arms—even your whole body—get tighter as you try to squeeze out that extra bit of speed. And tension kills speed; you put out more and more effort to get less and less results.

Concentrate on playing with only enough force to make the string ring out cleanly. That will probably slow you down for a little while, but the ultimate rewards in pain-free speed will be more than worth the brief sacrifice.
 
Going from hardly playing to practicing 8 hours a day is extremely excessive even for a 20 year old guy, for someone 56 years old it's asking for painful tendinitis for life.

If it's "just" a bit of arm muscle cramp intermittently, reduce the hours considerably - like 1 hour twice a day with proper warm up exercises and stretching.

If you have a sore, warm and stinging pain in your wrist and forearm, stop playing for a while and focus 100% on full recovery before focusing further on playing. In that case I'd advice a short treatment with NSAID, stretching exercises and a neoprene wrist band.

I know this from hard earned experience from when I was young and the band I was in decided to go full steam ahead an try to get a record deal. We practiced like crazy and put way to much strain on our bodies.
I stopped it just in time, but the other guitarist in that band didn't and ended up with both arms in cast for a while and went onto surgery in one wrist - needless to say he never played again afterwards. The drummer from that band has intermittent pains in his wrists and at least one day each week where he can hardly do anything, so he has a very hard time holding onto a job.

This stuff needs to be addresses very seriously and very early on in the process.
 
8hrs per week I said! 8 hrs a day & I'd be hospitalised! Thx though, I have a pain in my wrist but hv rested & it has improved.
Cheers.

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Sorry Steve, I misread your post.
Still, when you get a pain in your wrist, you need to back down on the intensity and time, just like you did.
 
Lots of great advice here, as usual. I take a joint supplement (bones not the other joint) that seems to help a lot. I use Triple Flex available at Costco. Anything that helps these old hands is a blessing.
 
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