Hello. I am very much a beginner at the age of 66 and I experience pain and discomfort on my left (fretting) hand, particularly in my forearm and wrist. I suspect it may be due to insufficient flexibility in the wrist. I stretch before practicing and keep practice sessions short. This is stopping me from progressing and is very frustrating. Have you any suggestions please? Regards Andrew

@@agph251 : I am a revert after being away from the guitar after about 30 years. You might try to see if an Occupational Therapist can help.

Thank god😁

Hello friend, I would like to know more about what happened to you, how is it that due to some pills you got tendinitis, and how is it possible that it has become so chronic that you still can't play the guitar today? What type of tendinopathy is it and where is it located?

I have read stuff about that, and some of the side-effects after taking certain medications could make things worse for us... I apologize to hear you’re a fellow guitarist and music enthusiast struggling with the same thing as many of us here. (Personally) It must be improper posture and playing form, for me, as a self taught player and using too much force and attack, as he mentioned in the video. I know I never had all the correct knowledge, I was too stubborn to pay for lessons when I was between jobs a lot when I was younger and I should have been there for myself better. My fretting hand is the main one tho… it kinda feels sharp and limited in range of motion to hold a cup, or to open a door with a round knob, especially doors considered “heavy” by their intense hinged mechanisms, Anyways, it isn’t my picking hand. It seems to be common from what I’m seeing. As a righty that makes it the left hand. Some medication can also cause tendons and potentially nerves to not heal sufficiently as before, only restoring much of the potential muscle and strength up to about 40-60% of previous strength as previously. I would recommend also checking out what certain antibiotics might do in relativity to this condition, but some of it can be treated and healed with the right gentle massages and exercises that aren’t painful for getting the “shorter” under-used tendons to regain some of their strength and balance. Eventually he is right I keep seeing the wiser advice say that it will go away… potentially not always permanently though. That makes me really regret not paying attention to the “little” but most biggest things of all, our posture, and not resting enough because I was too excited to land the right technical melody of a song I like or learn a solo in “one sitting” playing it suddenly for an entire 10-12 hours on a weekend… that’s not good at all.. I feel so unintelligent for this. And some pain medications out there will also will do the adverse effects. (Look up the specific ones). I think some that are the worst are corticosteroid injections, please try to not accept that treatment, I’m not liking the things I have heard about them, or any heavy pain relievers that give lethargic and sickly symptoms. You will feel ok again temporarily from most any pain meds, but then the symptoms grow from permanent tissue scarring and loss of function over repetitive wear and tear if you continue to play a bunch. I’m not trying to say this is the proper advice, situations are unique and all very specific. My chiropractor is trying to tell me to check into what type of arthritis it is from a whole other neurologist based doctor, and I just now finally only attained a primary care doc. I skipped out on health insurance too many times and let this build up. Don’t delay it like I did! I’ll just leave on this note that I hope you take time to be patient and kind to yourself! You are important too! All caring Musicians should know. And musicians (together) united we will grow. Unlike the rest of the web, I don’t believe in “advertising” or “selling” or withholding information about the discussions that are forgotten and not talked about. I disagree with my chiropractor that it is arthritis (osteoarthritis or chronic generalized, or even rheumatoid arthritis). Because I’m still 28, I know I’ve had enough time to abuse my body but it’s wearing down rapidly and unexpectedly, I “appear” healthy but maybe I have a whole other issue, I won’t delve into it all. Autoimmune disorders or disease can also really destroy a body, even chronic stress triggers inflammatory responses. (Sifting through it all really sucks, even reading this might suck and I’m truly sorry). I just want to help if I expect that anybody will read this. But as before, take it with a grain of salt because I accept that I don’t have all the answers myself. Take it easy!

@@jfo3000 What stretches are good for guitar? I saw some of them Petrucci did on his instructional video Rock Discipline "Warm Up Exercises - Stretches e Massages"

That’s where a lot of my cramps immediately stem from, but hurts to hold cups for example, extended finger gripping postures, or bending my hand “up” when it’s vertical compared to the floor Please try it to ease back from being too excessive you might rupture something or cause it to bleed internally. Those little bumps he mentioned aren’t a joke, I had those appear on my fretting elbows. But stretching and strengthening are also really good points! I’m not trying to tell you what to do, you know your body better than anybody. Just listen to your gut feeling. Just be mindful if you go a little rough

thanks man, will try this

Of course bro. It changed my life - I'm still doing well and can use my hands as much as I need. I hope it works out well for you.

@@LightningStrat thanks man it's definitely a scary time not being able to play. I think collagen has been helping. Hope to be better in a few months time and will try to remember to update!

It was like that for me, I feel ya. I thought I wasn't going to make it through that period and have my hand come out intact but now it's better than even before. Remember to massage as well and stretch lightly for a short time every day until they get stronger and you can do fuller stretches (could take a few weeks for the initial strengthening). I wrote a few replies in more detail to some reddit posts people made if you want to check them out: www.reddit.com/user/Lightning_Strat/ I think there's a lot of hope and prospect for recovery, just keep at it and doing the right things, you should get there. Good luck and it's always interesting to see how people are progressing in recovery so I can pass it on to others so I'd be happy to hear how you're getting on

And just a quick side note, it's collagen type I that is more for the tendons than the other types you can get (sometimes they are mixed, but type II and type III themselves are also common on the market just to put that out there)

i would recommend watching bernth more

Quodge that’s rough bro

How are you doing now? I felt the same and couldn't go half an hour of playing before the pain came back, but now a year later I can do 7/8 hours in a day easy, no problems, with plenty of speed work in there. Two things really worked for me: collagen (take in 15g doses and with vitamin C foods), and stretching which should be done 1 hour after you take the dose of collagen as that helps build the tendons even stronger. Go easy on the stretches if there's still pain. After about a year of doing this all pain subsided and I built the strength needed through stretching to go as long as I need. Be patient - it paid off in the end, and this is coming from a severe case of it where I thought it was all over. Good luck bro.

Quodge: I´ve heard that many (many) famous guitar players had/have tendinitis. Kiko Loureiro (Megadeth) told in his channel that he´s with that problem. As we love guitar, we must do everything to get rid of tendinitis: stretches, nerve (radial, ulnar, median, carpathian) glide, accupressure, accupunture, fisio-therapy, fisio-taping, REST, ICE, HEAT, praying (it works for me!), being happy, being possitive, meditation, work with elastic bands, thera-bar, Graston technique, Cyriax technique, PATIENCE, MASSAGES, WARMING UP, etc.... Consider that when elbow hurts (example) the cause is frecuently in other part: wrist, shoulder, back, etc... One thing. Don´t do it all at once: slow, continous recovering (time heals). Cheers!

That's interesting... didn't know about Kiko. I know John Petrucci had it in his early days and let it rest and didn't have a problem since after he started stretching. It's the same for me - rest, collagen and stretching will be all most people need. I think the ice and heat thing has been a bit overstated generally, and if I recall that part of the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) mnemonic has been withdrawn, at least for after the initial 24hrs. Do you know of any other names who had this issue? To also add to the list: Larry Carlton, Adrian Vandenberg, Troy Stetina (who swears by glucosamine - I tried it but didn't get much passed the loading phase and collagen was giving the relief I needed) had it. There was also a suggestion that Yngwie and Ritchie Blackmore dealt with it from a guy who allegedly asked Yngwie at a clinic, but I haven't heard anything else on that. I'm still doing good myself but I start to notice it creeping in at low levels when I miss days of stretching and collagen. Pretty crazy what we put our hands through when you think about it - and I don't think a professional athlete training for hours a day would go without stretching, so neither should we!

@@LightningStrat : I know Jimmy Page had a severe tendonitis problem that affected his playing around 1977, and it was because he used his Les Paul so low. Demonaz from Immortal also had the issue for 8 years aprox. Gil Moore, drummer and singer of canadian band Thriumph, had a one year calendar tennis elbow problem. That year the band hired a temporary drummer, while Gil sang with a bandage in his arm. After that, Moore named his drums solo in their live album "Stages" as: "Druh Mer Selbo".

Had my appointment at the orthopaedist on Tuesday last week and got an orthosis prescribed for my hand/wrist which I have worn almost 24/7 since then. I'm off sick from work until next Monday since then as well. Also had an appointment at the neurologist two days later (thank god I didn't have to wait weeks for it) for a nerve conduction velocity measurement, I will know the results on my next appointment on Monday. All hints point towards a temporary inflammation / entrapment of my ulnar nerve (aka "funny bone") in my elbow, which I bumped fairly heavy some time before the issues began. Things are finally getting better day by day, and I started doing some (yet very careful) stretch and gripping exercises yesterday to hinder any kind of atrophy in my hand. I'm taking 400mg of magnesium and 3x100mg vitamin B6 every day for over a week now, too, as it's supposed to help with neurogenesis. I was also able to stop the opioids since I have the orthosis; was already worried about building up a dependency. Today is the first day I could dare to handle a guitar again, and I'm really happy about it. From now on I will be extra careful, and always do sufficient stretches and warm ups, and take injuries serious from the beginning. I also want to start exercising at least a little bit soon, maybe some yoga and pilates to begin with. Will probably help my body and mind a lot. So yeah, what do I say... be careful with your elbows as well! The human body is such a weird complex apparatus.

Its been a year. Has the pain gone? If yes, how long did it take to heal? I have stopped playing for abt 2 weeks now. The most boring 2 weeks in my life.

How does your hand feel now?

@@zacharystein3354 It's getting there. I warm up now for at least 5mins before playing. When I play I take it slow and I tend to steer clear of complicated runs. I still get pins and needles and the occasional twinge on the inside of my forearm at the base of my wrist, (on the inside behind the palm). I am 50! so I guess some of this is age, however I do put this down to poor technique over the years. It hasn't put me off recently buying a Les Paul Gold Top 50s Standard with P90s 😁. Thanks for asking about the tendonitis. I may upload an unboxing video on the Les Paul and talk a little about the tendonitis, showing the exercises I use to alleviate the pain.

@@stevel6943 how did this get diagnosed? Any imaging tests? Just wondering how they differentiate this from nerve issues

@@jonnymosco no imaging just a consultation with my doctor.

How do u feel now? same thing happened to me.

How's you going today? Is it better? I started recently too and worrying about possibly causing it too.

Vielen Dank! Finde ich auch, ich hoffe dass ich damit weiter helfen kann!

@Sleeping Ronald good actually. Every once in a while I get some pain in my wrist, or base of my thumb, but with certain stretches and exercises, including staying hydrated, I'm mostly pain free. Was totally pain free for a few years after the shot. I might get another one before touring next year to be safe, but I can't complain. Those new grip wrist wraps are irreplaceable. I wear them still. It helps so much with finger independence and strength, and will allow you to play mostly pain free, depending on each different person's situation.

Dude i'm in a similar place close to 8 hours a day, from constantly flicking my wrist back and forth b/w broomstick grip and regular barrre grip, my wrist tendon at the pinky side is x2 thickness and hurts to play. I'm looking at at least a month off.. how are you getting along?

@@DrUBashirDamn 8 hours a day, I can imagine your wrist getting sore, I took a week off using my left hand and just did some right hand excercises, then my left wrist was significantly better but still easy to aggravate if I put to much stain on it, had to adjust my barre technique to take the pressure of my wrist and I haven't had any more problems, my wrist is fine again! Hope yours heals quickly

Thanks a lot for the tip & request!

That sounds more like carpal tunnel. The affected nerve on the wrist is the reason for the electric shock feeling.

Can you tell the update?

Same here this covid lockdown made it so I didnt really realize how much I was actually playing. Shoulder and elbow on fretting side have been killing me.

Bro make sure to stretch for upper body for at least 10 minutes before and after playing guitar. Especially your forearms, triceps and shoulders.

Problem is you could be in it for thousands of dollars just to diagnose it it’s not one simple trip to the doctors office. Testing, injections, surgery...it adds up

doctor i went to was ignorant as fuck its been weeks and i have a lumb under my index ( not hurting ) and sore/numb fingers and a bit of arm not significant pain soreness and kind of numb feeling. cant play classical or electric. At all. i say if you sohuld bust his head open to see if anything is there thiugh i am sure there isnt. heartless and ignorant those doctors and my guuitar teacher who made me burn my hand out. i know his family and i cant break his car or bust his knees. And most people i am sure that show you as well that it doesnt seem like a big deal if u never play again or the fact that you are not playing for weeks right ? these people dont have gods,nothing to devote their lives into, nothing to love so much as to make this hellhole of a life worth living.

i'm dealing with it in my index finger too. seems to have cooled off a bit in the past few days and now it just feels stiff. lots of knuckle cracking happening. how are you doing now?

@@VivalaCorbo how are you now guys?

im in the same boat ..it just started last week ..please tell me your finger is better and never hurt again

How is you going today? I hope you're doing better...

@Mark Seymour thanks, makes sense to stretch it out yea. May try it if I can sleep like that 👍🏻I'm doing daily stretching, and it's better than it was, but that's currently with no playing 🎸 😬

I had it last year and the therapist advised me to keep playing just a little everyday and try to work on keeping everything as relaxed as possible to reduce strain. However if you have to much pain just stop.

Forgot to mention, but one things that helps for me is a TENS machine, kind of like electro-shock massage. Something I did during post surgery Physical Therapy, you can find TENS units on Amazon for anywhere from 20-40 dollars and up. Definitely worth the small investment for short term muscle pain relief.

Carpal or tendonitis?

@@evilpie8130 Tendonitis! I've managed to heal it and am back to playing guitar again thankfully!

@@CHOEYGMUSIC help me Bro...i' m passing through this right now doing PT

@@Davi-jq2lj Yo bro, sorry to hear. Mine has taken about 1 month to heal, and I had to come back into playing really slowly.. it sucks. But man it can and will get better. My advice is to continue with you PT, I went to a hand specialist which would use heat and give a deep massage. I continued to stretch, use a hot pack and massage my forearm (even though pain was focused in my hand) and for 2 weeks it was still bad and I was worried. I also took some supplements like collagen and selenium as I read it can help strengthen tendons. Best of luck dude, let me know if you need any other advice I'm happy to share

@@CHOEYGMUSIC Thank so much for the advices Man. I was really scared too. I stoped playing guitar for 2 weeks, trying to rest u'know. Your comment gives me hope to get better! Tnx again! I' ll do regular uptades here to help other people too. See ya

now where do i look for this valuable person 🤔

@@zingkhe it's on the top comment, he said something about taking collagen type I (not II or III) and warming up first , then stretching. Lots of good videos out there that teach stretches.

How is you going today?

My wrist issues for the last six or seven years have caused me many bouts of depression trust me I get it. I’ve been playing the guitar since I was 8 years old And played professionally for about 30 years I’m 51 years old now and my wrists and hands are a fucking mess. Playing is my life as sick as that may sound but just hang in there brother. My son is 14 years old and he’s a smoking guitar player and when I have to hear him practicing his room it kills me not to be able to pick up my guitar, especially since I have a brand new Ernie Ball/ Music Man Guitar.

How are you now?

@@thinginground5179 MRT revealed that the tendon channel has a slight scar, making it a bit tighter than normal. Strength training helped me tho, the pain was completely gone after about half a year of training.

Picking hand for me

Any update?

Please?

So he disappeared

I saw the part that I had to stop using that arm, and fingers. But how long? Is it the visit to the doctor inevitable or goes away if I stop playing for a while?

@@relytheone853 Idk man, I'm on the same boat as you was. How are you doing today?

@@Haise-san I'm not playing at all. I sold my guitar but I want to get it back. Hopefully I'll buy it soon.

@@relytheone853 I agree that you should start playing again, it's well worth it! Thanks for the input

Hey, I have a similar problem at the moment. Did it ever heal up?

@@JDGuitar82 It got better after a few months, still comes and goes but right now its good, hope yours gets better.

@@sheriff9396 same here,,,any tips on how to fix this? The pain is not too much,but a bit uncomfortable.I Don't know if I should change my technique or take a break

You’re not relaxed

I hope you stopped! That sounds really bad.