Pains in my wrist

[Brick]

Allright well i've been playing alot lately and my wrist is really starting to hurt. ouch. I think it might be carple tunnel syndrome. i thought i had it last year for a bit then i went away and couldn't play as much so it went away. but now i have the same kind of pains but i don't want to stop playing. so i was wondering if you guys had any advise oh away to change my picking to make my arm not hurt.

[thetroy]

Re: Pains in my wrist

Is this in your picking hand? I get pain sometimes in my picking hand if I'm not relaxing enough. I found that having my guitar hang lower allowed my picking arm to extend a bit more and relax, that helped a lot.

[Brick]

Re: Pains in my wrist

yeah its my picking hand. i'll try relaxing.

[AlexL]

Re: Pains in my wrist

Give playing a rest for a few weeks and let it heal. I had a similar problem with my fretting hand from playing bass. It hurt so bad that it was keeping me awake at night. My doctor made me stop playing for three weeks, and she gave me a brace to wear. That seemed to clear it up.

Definitely relax when you play, but it would not hurt to have a doc check your wrist out to keep you from doing any permanent damage.


- E.

[mpigott]

Re: Pains in my wrist

Cam......Remember when i told you that stretching before playing is good........Do it every time..........And everyone is right about the relaxation bit. You can play faster anyway.....When you are picking, just focus on not tensing your arm. When youre doing those picking things i showed you, remember to relax and take them slow enough so you dont have to tense up. If you start to tense up youre trying to play faster than you can so just chill on it and drop the metronome a touch. Eventually the speed will come, but it wont hurt (and it'll be cleaner anyway). And alex is right....go to the doc and make sure everything is in order....See you in may dude [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[stevieb91]

Re: Pains in my wrist

In the meantime,take 600 mg of Ibuprofen every 6 hours.It is an anti-inflamitory and will help reduce any swelling..But make sure you see the doc,if it is carpal and you let it go too long,anyone who has had it will tell you the surgery isn't all it is cracked up to be..

[Wolf11]

Re: Pains in my wrist



With guitar the slogan should be "Any Pain = no gain" so as has been said put your guitar down and let your hands rest.

I have tendonitus at the moment (not due to guitar, but due to rsi type stuff at work) so cant play guitar,it sucks but I know playing guitar will just make it worse and want to fully heal.

I find on the subject of warming up ,that a hot water bottle to rest my arms on to get the blood flowing can help before trying to play. Or alternatively gently dip your arms/hands into warm water for a minute or so ,then when not playing for a minute or so massage your arms a bit.

Hope it heals up quickly for you anyhow [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Wolf [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Brick]

Re: Pains in my wrist

allright thanks guys. I don't think its bad enough to see my doctor i was just afraid it'd get worse and i'd get serious damage but i think if i just relax and stretch i'll be allright

[mjtripper]

Re: Pains in my wrist

First - see a doctor. I have lots of wrist pain from way too many years coding and gaming at a keyboard and using bad form. Relax always any tension complicates everything. Now I can't play nearly as long as I used to because my wrists are already shot and I have to be carefull so I can keep working. Watch what non-guitar stuff you do that could also be causing pain or swelling - like typing [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] the playstation really aggravates mine so I pretty much gave it up

Here is what works for me when my wrists get really bad.

warm up and streatch your hands/wrists - I do this before typing or playing and it really helps. Don't stretch for range of motion increase but just to get things loose and the blood flowing, there are office hand yoga stretches on the net for people that type a lot, do a search and you will find some

Ice - when I get home from work and before I go to bed, this helps quite a bit

Brace while sleeping - this helps me the most, immobilize it so it can heal, I found one called the pilo-splint that works best for me very comfy and form fitting, I do this if they are sore or not because for me it is the best at keeping the pain away

Ibuprofen - but only when I won't be using my wrists as I don't want it to mask the "stop doing this and take a break pain" taking too much pain killer while using the wrists can actually make things much much worse in the long run because you can easily overwork them but it does work to take down swelling.

Breaks - every 30 minutes or so I have to take a break, relax the hands and do some stretching, this really helps

Hope this helps, but PLEASE see a doctor, if you screw up your wrists - that's it they are screwed up for life - like mine [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Creepy]

Re: Pains in my wrist

I'll second that on the Ibuprofen. I have mild arthiritis in my fingers of my fretting hand and Motrin or something like that really helps.

[Soap]

Re: Pains in my wrist

Pains in my wrist?
Just cut it off...hee, heeeee.

[mjtripper]

Re: Pains in my wrist

No, no, no, that's when it's a pain in the NECK!! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Brick]

Re: Pains in my wrist

hahahahhahhahhhahah nice