arms/hands/wrists hurt in any position?

  • Thread starter Thread starter chamelious
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chamelious

www.thesunexplodes.com
Its getting worse and worse, im finding that i just cannot find a position that i can play without something hurting. Im having to stop myself snapping the neck off my guitar in frustration. If i play with the guitar high then my fretting hand is kind of ok but hurts at the wrist if i have to play around first position. Picking arm hurts, hurts at my shoulder, bicep hurts, forearm hurts, only get 1 or 2 minutes into a song. If i lower the guitar my picking arm hurts a bit less and my fretting hand has to bend at unnatural angles to get my thumb on the back of the neck and that hurts, as well as the rest of that arm as well. Even sitting down i cant make it be comfortable anymore. I dont have any tension in my arms when playing, it just hurts.

Im days away from selling the rest of my gear after having smashed my guitar in half in frustration, has anyone encountered this before?
 
That sounds like you need to go to the doctor, if you haven't already.

Andrew
 
I dunno, i think hurt is maybe the wrong word, its like uncomfortable and really really quick fatigue.
 
chamelious said:
Its getting worse and worse, im finding that i just cannot find a position that i can play without something hurting. Im having to stop myself snapping the neck off my guitar in frustration. If i play with the guitar high then my fretting hand is kind of ok but hurts at the wrist if i have to play around first position. Picking arm hurts, hurts at my shoulder, bicep hurts, forearm hurts, only get 1 or 2 minutes into a song. If i lower the guitar my picking arm hurts a bit less and my fretting hand has to bend at unnatural angles to get my thumb on the back of the neck and that hurts, as well as the rest of that arm as well. Even sitting down i cant make it be comfortable anymore. I dont have any tension in my arms when playing, it just hurts.

Im days away from selling the rest of my gear after having smashed my guitar in half in frustration, has anyone encountered this before?
Click to expand...
Stop smashing shit.

Look, honestly, when you're playing a guitar, the movements should be pretty small and light anyway (unless you're Pete Townsend). If these movements are hurting, something is wrong, perhaps it's your posture, perhaps it's your technique, but all perhaps aside, it sounds like it's really hurting.

If you KEEP playing and it KEEPS hurting, you'll do yourself an injury for sure - RSI stands for Repetitive Strain Injury - so stop repetitively straining! Relax!

Go to a doctor, or sports physiotherapist, maybe even a chiropractor and get yourself looked at. It's not normal. I had acupuncture on my wrists once and it helped a lot too. And it's not enough to go in and say "my arms/wrists hurt when I play guitar" - take your guitar INTO the doctor/physio/chiro and SHOW them what hurts when you're doing whatever it is that you're doing.
 
always stop when there is pain

never play through pain..
and yeah talk to a doctor in this case, too.

TWANG
 
I had something like that a few years ago and becuase I waited too long to get it looked at I had to stop playing for a few months before it got better. Sounds like repetitive strain injury but it could even be carpal tunnel syndrome (lets hope its just RPS). You need to go to a proper qualified and recognised physiotherapist with a sound medical background (not a snakeoil merchant). I used to do a lot of MMA and I stupidly trained through a load of different injuries and now I'm paying the price with some chronic injuries that will require surgery - all could have been avoided if I took time out and had them looked at when they first started troubling me. Go get professional help and stop smashing your gear!
 
Not in any way to contradict the advice to see a doctor - that was my first thought as well - but if you are wearing your guitar slung low and level with the floor, that will force you to bend the wrist of your fretting hand at an extreme (and potentially unsafe) angle. You might try shortening your strap and pointing the neck higher so that your wrist is up at shoulder level or higher and fairly straight.

Good luck, and as others have said, don't play through pain; doing that will make the problems you are having worse.
 
ggunn said:
Not in any way to contradict the advice to see a doctor - that was my first thought as well - but if you are wearing your guitar slung low and level with the floor, that will force you to bend the wrist of your fretting hand at an extreme (and potentially unsafe) angle. You might try shortening your strap and pointing the neck higher so that your wrist is up at shoulder level or higher and fairly straight.

Good luck, and as others have said, don't play through pain; doing that will make the problems you are having worse.
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+1 - I mean, we don't know if that's what's happening, but this does happen to a lot of people - a matter of [not wrong "technique"] but wrong posturing and gripping - easily corrected with the help of an instructor (but through your efforts).

but maybe it's something else - go to the doctor either way.

I had wrist pain before from playing a huge acoustic bass (which I did not take lessons for) - it gradually went away and I play guitar now, no problems (I use .11's gauge strings too).

Other times it's the instrument/strings/setup - if your instrument has the wrong shape for your hands (scale too long, neck shape not comfy) - that can be fixed by finding the right instrument. For instance my hands hurt on shred-type guitars with thin necks (ibanez comes to mind) and fender type guitars - i feel better with gibson/gretsch type necks. but that's just me.
 
chamelious said:
Its getting worse and worse, im finding that i just cannot find a position that i can play without something hurting. Im having to stop myself snapping the neck off my guitar in frustration. If i play with the guitar high then my fretting hand is kind of ok but hurts at the wrist if i have to play around first position. Picking arm hurts, hurts at my shoulder, bicep hurts, forearm hurts, only get 1 or 2 minutes into a song. If i lower the guitar my picking arm hurts a bit less and my fretting hand has to bend at unnatural angles to get my thumb on the back of the neck and that hurts, as well as the rest of that arm as well. Even sitting down i cant make it be comfortable anymore. I dont have any tension in my arms when playing, it just hurts.

Im days away from selling the rest of my gear after having smashed my guitar in half in frustration, has anyone encountered this before?
Click to expand...


I can see your wrists getting screwy, maybe some elbow pain, but if you've got pain in your shoulders, biceps, forearms and wrists all at the same time you should go see a doctor. That sounds pretty extreme and certainly not typical.

From what you describe of your playing position, I'd say you need to find a compromise. Lower the guitar enough to make your picking hand comfortable, but elevate the neck enough to take the stress off of your fretting hand wrist.
 
I had the same problem, still do as a matter of fact. My old record company sent me to a sports medicine specialist and she told me to use heat before going onstage and cold after. Seemed to help.

But yeah, hurting to play sucks.
 
I had to stop playing guitar for two years.. my finger tips very messed up... guitar was not the only thing that I stopped using, clicking a mouse button was even hurting as hell and even I have suffered things like kidney stone it was bad...

and it really sucks when it hurts while playing..
 
metalhead28 said:
but if you've got pain in your shoulders, biceps, forearms and wrists all at the same time
Click to expand...

wonder if there's one pressure point causing all of it?
my ol uncle stopped playing one day due to this crap, he alway said play as often as you can because it'll all stop one day.

right up there with the ear/ hearing problems and tinnitus.

good luck on ya...
 
I just want to second superhuman..
having had a badly pulled muscle in my shoulder I saw a physical therapist..
and it was total BS.. did more harm than good.
there are good ones and then there are these creeps that go through school with big money for little effort in mind, which is who I ran into.
In my case, doing nothing was ten times quicker and less painful than
stretching rubber bands and getting shocked.

TWANG
 
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