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How to stop joints from aching from playing?

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  • How to stop joints from aching from playing?

    I've recently taken a break from playing guitar to focus more on other things, but now that I've gotten back to it I've noticed that my joints are starting to hurt from playing a lot more than they used to. I assume this will go away with time as I get reconditioned to the extreme hand positions of a guitar, but in the meantime are there any tricks to minimize the discomfort associated with playing?

  • #2
    Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

    All I do is play guitar, play video games, cook and type and my hands were starting to give out about a year ago. I bought a bunch of compression gloves and used them for a while without slowing down and after like 3 months I found myself needing them less often.
    green globe burned black by sunn

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    • #3
      Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

      When you're not playing, stretch your hands. There are plenty of online sources for good hand stretches, if you can't find them under "guitar hand stretches", try looking using search terms related to typing/keyboarding.
      You will never understand How it feels to live your life With no meaning or control And with nowhere left to go You are amazed that they exist And they burn so bright
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      • #4
        Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

        Yep stretching

        That's the ticket

        My wrist and the center of my palm were what got me when I restarted playing
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        • #5
          Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

          Stretching, acupuncture, and massages as I can get them helps a lot. You might want to go to someone who can look at how you are standing, the angles of your wrists, etc and make suggestions as how to modify your approach.
          Administrator of the SDUGF

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          • #6
            Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

            I've found this relieves may aches and pains quite well. Purely for medicinal purposes of course.

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            • #7
              Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

              Keep your hands warm and try to avoid extreme heat changes in general and always warm up / stretch before put a tense on fingers / wrists. I hope your pain will go soon.

              I learned to live with it. I've been suffering from polyarthritis since '95. It has phases, from sublime slow foggy pain through ice picky to paralysing but it's always on. I took everything from legal to illegal, I tried every method, I visited all sort of docs, specialists, shamans and whomsoever said he can help. They couldn't.

              The only way solving this was to accept this is what it is and to say **** pain, I want to play and I won't let pain to stop this. Anger helped me a lot. After a time it is possible to get used to both pain and anger and to channel them to good things and from that point focus on good things only.
              Wackor
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              Diabolus in Musica
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              • #8
                Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

                you probably dont, but if you do, dont wear a watch..
                www.crossleyguitars.com

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                • #9
                  Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

                  Adjust your guitar strap. It looks cool to have your guitar dangling below your balls, but it's murder on your wrists. :P
                  Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

                  Originally posted by Douglas Adams
                  This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

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                  • #10
                    Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

                    Originally posted by GuitarStv View Post
                    Adjust your guitar strap. It looks cool to have your guitar dangling below your balls, but it's murder on your wrists. :P
                    I must be one of the few who don't think that it looks cool.
                    I like how Petrucci carries his.

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                    • #11
                      Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

                      Stretch and warm up. To go in running Malmsteen and Vai licks off the bat. You'll kill your hands that way. Warm up with some scale patterns at a slow pace. Slowly increase the speed. Do chord changes up and down the neck. Pick a song that works as a good warmup and run through it a bit by yourself. I know if I don't warm up before rehearsal or a gig, my hands will let me know about it later.

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                      • #12
                        Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

                        Actually, one stupid thing that took me forever to unlearn was to relax. I used to try playing something fast on the guitar and my whole shoulder/arm/wrist would tense up. Then I'd try to power through it which would increase tension everywhere and after a while everything would start to hurt.

                        Relax. Shake out your hands a bit. Consciously force yourself to loosen up if you feel tension building. You'll play faster and more smoothly once you figure out whatever method works to do this for you.
                        Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

                        Originally posted by Douglas Adams
                        This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

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                        • #13
                          Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

                          Try a different guitar. Seriously. I have owned guitars that hurt my hand and/or wrist and some that don't. It is all about the shape of the neck, width of the neck, curved the fretboard, and the position the guitar hangs when you stand and/or sits on your legs when you sit.
                          Try some other guitars. It's all individual: if I play a wide, thin neck for long I will cramp and my wrist will hurt later. A narrow, round neck I can play for hours. Etc.

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                          • #14
                            Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

                            I use Capsaicin in one form or another. I still hurt, but at least I can move.

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                            • #15
                              Re: How to stop joints from aching from playing?

                              Playing guitar is like a sport. If I've not been playing for some time, then I get back to playing the guitar gradually. Going to the "deep end" straight away will hurt more than getting fit in small dosages. Streching allways helps.

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