All playing and no work make's Bob's right hand sore?

Bob-Dubery

Over the last week or so I have been my practice has been predominantly fast claw-hammer. This for a song I plan to play at TJs at the end of the month.

Anyhoo... after yesterday evening's practice and then maybe another 30 minutes or so repeating the little riff in the song whilst watching an Indiana Jones movie my right hand was getting pretty painful - round about the base of the pinky. Not pins and needles or tingly hard to locate things that may signal a pinched nerve, but actual muscle or joint strain. I iced the hand for a while. Went to bed and it was still sore. Woke up this morning and it was still sore.

Then I went to do a spot of early morning gardening (popping into this forum during tea breaks). I was working with secateurs in my right hand, opening and closing it all the time. Presto! Pain gone.

So this interests me. Icing and A night's sleep didn't seem to do very much for the discomfort. A spell of vigorous pruning did. Is it just movement, but a DIFFERENT movement that has made the difference here.

So should guitarists be looking to embrace non-guitaring activities that still involve the hands? Is it possible that squeezing tennis balls or using those old-fashioned spring loaded hand exercising devices does benefit us - if not our actual playing?

Riaan

Bob that's interesting and I can only speculate... A likely cause of pain would be a repetetive strain injury, for which rest is supposed to help. But since your hand actually felt better afterwards, it couldn't have been that. It's well known however that one cause of backache for instance, is weakness in the opposing muscles - the abdominal muscles - and that excercising and strengthening the opposing muscles improves posture so that the backache improves. My guess would be that something similar happens in the hand. It's a highly complex structure with lots of muscles all working in many directions, and influencing one another, and it may well be that pruning relieved some spasms in opposing muscles. Just a guess!

In that sense tennis balls and such is probably good in the sense that it improves general muscle tone and "fitness" of the hand muscles, perhaps preventing problems such as you're describing. It won't make one a better player - for that you have to play the guitar - but it will lead to stronger hand muscles. I.e., it would make one a better squeezer of tennis balls but one who is less likely to suffer injury when practising guitar... ?

However, in the case of a true repetetive strain injury, one should rest the injured muscle until the inflammation has settled.

Bob-Dubery

Riaan wrote: Bob that's interesting and I can only speculate... A likely cause of pain would be a repetetive strain injury, for which rest is supposed to help. But since your hand actually felt better afterwards, it couldn't have been that. It's well known however that one cause of backache for instance, is weakness in the opposing muscles - the abdominal muscles - and that excercising and strengthening the opposing muscles improves posture so that the backache improves. My guess would be that something similar happens in the hand. It's a highly complex structure with lots of muscles all working in many directions, and influencing one another, and it may well be that pruning relieved some spasms in opposing muscles. Just a guess!

I have even less of an idea than you do ? I don't think it's an RSI. I've dealt with two of those already (left hand, right elbow). I think it's just that I'm tensing up when practicing what is a challenging piece for me. That the pain is around the base of the pinky seems odd because I don't use the right pinky at all when playing.

Anyway.... pain is all gone now. I was just struck by how one different activity seemed to clear up the pain that another had left.

Jack-Flash-Jr

If it was the latest Indiana Jones, then that's likely the cause of the pain.

Bob-Dubery

Jack Flash Jr wrote: If it was the latest Indiana Jones, then that's likely the cause of the pain.

I can assure you, Sir, that I am not THAT fond of Harrison Ford.

baseline

I have been getting pins a needles in my left hand, when I first start off , and it seems to diminish the longer you play , I put this down to cold hands, that have not warmed up yet. But when I wake up in the morning a have the same pins and needles in the left hand, I went to the doc he tells me it’s a carpal tunnel problem and I will need a small op. now I am not fond of the knife so I bought a “power ball” it a centrifugal ball that spins up when you move it a certain way. I have found this very beneficial as a warm up tool as the movement required gives the hand a and wrist a good work out. I still get pins a and needles , but nowhere like is was getting before.

Bob-Dubery

The procedure for CTS is straightforward, quick and very succesful if the diagnosis is accurate. The nerve that is involved in CTS can also be trapped in the neck, so it's important to find out WHERE the entrapment is taking place. There are three main nerves supplying the hand, and they effect different areas. So WHAT is tingling? If your pinky is involved then it's not CTS (wrong nerve), if the back of the hand is tingling then it's not CTS (different wrong nerve).

I had tingles and occasional numbness in the left hand for years, but then it started getting worse with lots of "pain" in the knuckles. But not real pain. It was very weird. My knuckles felt very tender and very swollen. Often I couldn't close the left hand into a fist. Yet there was nothing wrong with those joints. My physio actually measured each one with a pair of calipers and showed that they were the same size as those on the right hand. Even when I knew that there was no swelling, no damage, no inflamation they still hurt like heck. Icing did nothing. Acupuncture did nothing.

Hopefully you don't get that far. With CTS the nerve is trapped in the wrist, so it seems your powerballing is doing enough to loosen things up.

Jack-Flash-Jr

X-rated Bob wrote:
Jack Flash Jr wrote: If it was the latest Indiana Jones, then that's likely the cause of the pain.
I can assure you, Sir, that I am not THAT fond of Harrison Ford.

*Falls off chair from canning*

Renesongs

I strained my right elbow a few week ago hoisting my @#$!! guitar amp onto the stage with one arm. It was a little sore in the first week but I wrote it down to old age and decided to power through the pain. Bad mistake ! I eventually went to see the Doc. Severe Tendinitis and an inflamed elbow joint. I have been on anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxant meds but it still sore as hell cant play guitar much at the moment. My lesson here is look after your equipment. If it is sore when you play guitar there is something wrong have it checked out. Those last two sentences remimds me of a Zappa song "Why does it hurt when I..." Ill leave the rest to your imagination.