Guitar Tendonitis
I've been asked if I have ever suffered from this. The answer is yes.
For me the experience was simply a dull aching after a practice session.
What followed was very stiff and painful fingers. I did suffer from
limited movement for a while after. The cause surprising was too much typing.
Then excessive practice on the guitar. I was basically doing too much.
For me the answer was simply to change what I was doing, and how I was doing it
However for many people, the experience will vary.
what is it?
Our joints are made up of bone, muscle, and other soft tissues such as tendons,
ligaments, and cartilage. Ligaments connect bones to other bones.
Tendons connect muscles to bones. The tendons are anchors that deal
with the tension muscles create when flexed.
The muscles tighten, and the tendon pulls the bone along.
Joints often hurt when the muscle becomes overly tight, and pulls too
much on the tendon. While there can be real damage to tendons,
most joint pain is caused by inflammation. Which is the body’s
natural response to injury.
The tight muscle pulls on the tendon and creates a small injury.
The body creates inflammation to help heal the injury.
This is what creates the pain.
The answer is to try and reduce or avoid the tightness
by releasing the tendons slowly
In many cases it can be a simple twinge, in worse examples the pain can
become so severe there could be long term complications.
The ways to avoid it from a guitarists point of view work thus.
Firstly always warm up, don’t try to get quick or complicated until the
hands are ready, never force it.
Vary your practice routine, one of the things I discovered as a blues player
is that whilst playing twelve bar progressions can be fun.
It can play havoc with your fretting hand.
Try to have a loose relaxed comfortable posture when your playing.
Vary the length of your practice sessions.
Above all if you start to feel any pain when playing. Stop, take a break
and come back to it later. Listen to what your body tells you.
Hope that helps.
All the best
I've been asked if I have ever suffered from this. The answer is yes.
For me the experience was simply a dull aching after a practice session.
What followed was very stiff and painful fingers. I did suffer from
limited movement for a while after. The cause surprising was too much typing.
Then excessive practice on the guitar. I was basically doing too much.
For me the answer was simply to change what I was doing, and how I was doing it
However for many people, the experience will vary.
what is it?
Our joints are made up of bone, muscle, and other soft tissues such as tendons,
ligaments, and cartilage. Ligaments connect bones to other bones.
Tendons connect muscles to bones. The tendons are anchors that deal
with the tension muscles create when flexed.
The muscles tighten, and the tendon pulls the bone along.
Joints often hurt when the muscle becomes overly tight, and pulls too
much on the tendon. While there can be real damage to tendons,
most joint pain is caused by inflammation. Which is the body’s
natural response to injury.
The tight muscle pulls on the tendon and creates a small injury.
The body creates inflammation to help heal the injury.
This is what creates the pain.
The answer is to try and reduce or avoid the tightness
by releasing the tendons slowly
In many cases it can be a simple twinge, in worse examples the pain can
become so severe there could be long term complications.
The ways to avoid it from a guitarists point of view work thus.
Firstly always warm up, don’t try to get quick or complicated until the
hands are ready, never force it.
Vary your practice routine, one of the things I discovered as a blues player
is that whilst playing twelve bar progressions can be fun.
It can play havoc with your fretting hand.
Try to have a loose relaxed comfortable posture when your playing.
Vary the length of your practice sessions.
Above all if you start to feel any pain when playing. Stop, take a break
and come back to it later. Listen to what your body tells you.
Hope that helps.
All the best
