Tendonitus

I have it in both forearms. I blew out my tendons pushing a winter stuck truck. I wake every morning with stiff hands.
I save last nights dirty dishes for the morning wash. hot water feels great on my hands. I can't play guitar for more than a few songs before my hands cramp, burn and become too weak to form a barre chord.
daily stretching and tiny weight exercises are a part of my daily regime of keeping things from getting worse.
if I sleep funny my arms get tingling sensations. when I ride my bike after a few minutes my arm tingles and it is hard to grip the handlebars.
the inflammation is held a bay with antiinflamatories, sometimes ice. mostly exercise, stretching, guitar playing and not over doing things will be my daily thing. I hope thongs don't get worse. I am pretty sure it won't get back to normal.

my doctor says to keep up the healthy regime of weights and stretches and cognizance. move it or loose it, he says. scary.

so keep on playing. stop when it hurts and resume when the inflammation goes down. strengthening exercises is absolutely essential.

when making a F barre chord and when my hand is giving out I find myself sticking my pinky behind the neck to help with the support. weird. it wasn't conscious.

I've not it no-where near as bad as dogbite. I've got something going on in my left wrist and hand that my Dr says is due to sleep deprevation. A couple of pressure points that get inflamed. It was really bad, but has gotten better until this week. Only at it's worst do I have trouble with open chords. Normally it manifests itself when I play barre chords if it's going to do anything. Most days I can pick-up the guitar, do a small set of finger movements and then have no problems with open chords. The barres that get me the worst are the A-shaped ones.

I wonder if the playing caused the tendonitus.

I doubt it, at least in comparison to what else you do.

Injuries like this do us more damage than we realise, and this is a good time to remind everybody that properly warming up before we play guitar is the most important thing; otherwise it doesn't stop at tendonitis, but also RSI and carpal tunnel syndrome. We have been warned.

A :|

Very true, and I do try to warm up before playing, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonder if they're warming up properly...

warm up and stretching is very helpful.
long term and chronic overuse, as in our jobs, is the real cause.
learning how to use our muscles, proper methods for standing and lifting will help.
a career of jackhammering will destroy your body however.
that is the extreme. a sit down computer job can as harmful.
more insidious.

I've got something going on in my left wrist and hand that my Dr says is due to sleep deprevation. A couple of pressure points that get inflamed.

Hey rparker, I also got the same problem on my left knee. When I don't get much sleep (or a lot but bad quality sleep) it hurts really bad. I haven't found any good treatment, aside from sleeping well and enough or taking some anti-inflammatory medication.

Sometimes stretching does fix it for a short time and I can get through the day by stretching periodically, but it's not a "definitive" solution.

Have you found any good treatment that doesn't require prescriptions? (I know sleeping well is THE solution, but not always possible)

Now back on topic, I'd like to recommend this article: http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/web-exclusive-paul/jan-09/92857

Cheers!

Good artilce, props strangedata, I've bookmarked it.

Hey rparker, I also got the same problem on my left knee. When I don't get much sleep (or a lot but bad quality sleep) it hurts really bad. I haven't found any good treatment, aside from sleeping well and enough or taking some anti-inflammatory medication.

I never heard of such a thing until a few months ago. Better sleep (until this week) has helped a lot. All's I do is run up and down the first 4 frets a few times. Sort of like a scale, except that it's every string. Low E with my index finger, next fret with the middle, 3rd ring, 4th pinky, and then go to the A string. I do that a few times with very minimal pressure. Takes what, maybe two minutes? Loosens things up enough to play open chords most days without problems. I'm already taking some of those things for a different reason, but I'm sure it's helping the left hand and forearm too.

some hope: a couple years ago, I thought playing was causing or aggravating tendonitus or some RSD in my left (fretting) hand. it turned out to be my evil Blackberry Pearl. I adjusted my use of the Blackberry, and a few months later, no more pain.

rparker,

It's been almost a decade since I first learned about this condition. My father has it, I do too, and probably my offspring will as well.

After talking to some expert physicians, I learned that the pain is due to the accumulation of toxic byproducts around/in the joint/tendon/muscle. These toxic compounds are cleansed during sleep and if we don't get enough time for this "house cleaning" to happen, we might reach a too high level o toxicity and fell pain or discomfort.

Some people have a lower cleaning rate and have therefore a propensity for developing the symptoms much quicker than others.

Cheers!

yes, an interesting article. not sure the points are meant to be totally chrono. but if so, there is a possible modification that should be mentioned. trainers and coaches have made a significant, but easily overlooked change the initial warm-up/stretch routines: warm-up first, then stretch. this reduces injury during stretching -- even gentle stretching. I see no reason why the same would not apply here. do some light to moderate playing to warm up the hands, then move on to the stretching.

Being a rightie guitar player, but a leftie when it comes to writing, I noticed a marked decrease in hand/wrist discomfort when I switched from using biros to fountain pens. Before that, if I had to do lots of writing, my ability to play guitar was severely curtailed. Of course, I could have saved myself that trouble by just learning guitar left handed, but I didn't.

fountain pens have the nib with an ink resevior, correct? not sure what a biro is.
fountain pens instead of a roller ball (like a Bic) has a bit more drag. subtle as it is however, I can see how it could cause some fatigue in the hand.

it's small stuff like that that adds up over time to cause our woes.

the older I get the less I bounce back.
no one told me this. I am bummed.

the older I get the less I bounce back.
no one told me this. I am bummed.

Preach on, brother!!!!!!!!!