does your wrist hurt when playing guitar?

hey i have been playing guitar for a yeah and a bit and i play every day. well my problum is that when ever i start to play now my wrists really hurt and its hard to play the stuff i use to be soo good at like metallica master of puppets i cant really play that as fast any more. any one know what i should do
? :confused:

Stop playing and have your wrist checked out by a doctor in case it's Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or repetitive-motion injury. Make sure they take it seriously and don't just blow you off with some pain killers or something.
You might want to Google the terms and familiarize yourself with the symptoms.

is it your strumming wrist, or your neck wrist?

I'd go with Schmange on this and say stop playing and have it checked out. It could be something simple and you will be playing again in no time flat. Good Luck!

yea my wrist hurts also. It is bumming me out.. I just picked back up on the guitar a few months ago after not playing for a long time. And with so much information available I have been getting so much better at the guitar than I have ever been, But then come the wrist. I have been living on Iburophen. I have been putting off going to see the doctor because I am affraid what he is going to say.. beisdes playing the guitar I love to sail.. your hands get abused, I am not a fair weather sailor. The rougher it get the more I like it. But I guess in the long run if I don't do any thing about it. I might just find myself sitting infront of the tube every night becase I won't be able to do any thing else.

Originally Posted by: sailorjimyea my wrist hurts also. It is bumming me out.. I just picked back up on the guitar a few months ago after not playing for a long time. And with so much information available I have been getting so much better at the guitar than I have ever been, But then come the wrist. I have been living on Iburophen. I have been putting off going to see the doctor because I am affraid what he is going to say.. beisdes playing the guitar I love to sail.. your hands get abused, I am not a fair weather sailor. The rougher it get the more I like it. But I guess in the long run if I don't do any thing about it. I might just find myself sitting infront of the tube every night becase I won't be able to do any thing else.

If it hurts, then it's bad. When warming up, practicing, and playing, if you ever feel anything that can be described as pain then it's bad. Sometimes it can be solved as easily as an altered posture or technique, other times it's more like what Schmange described and is a serious physical problem. All the same, when it hurts then it's not to be taken lightly.

How high is your guitar and whats your positioning and posture?THat could be the overal factor in it and if your paostur and position is ok then id seek medical help.

Originally Posted by: AkiraAre you warming up properly before you play? Picking up the guitar and busting out some lick at 304bpm in 64th's followed by some 12 octave arpeggios without warming up wont do your hand any good.

Jesus Christ... 304 bpm with 64th notes? 12 octave arpeggios? What the hell do you think he is? A machine with the hearing ability of a dog?

Originally Posted by: Cryptic ExcretionsJesus Christ... 304 bpm with 64th notes? 12 octave arpeggios? What the hell do you think he is? A machine with the hearing ability of a dog?

That's what I was thinking....

i've been having really similar problems myself recently. i've found that when i was out of work (ie, not typing everyday) my playing improved but now i'm working i get cramps and stuff. i'm trying chinese medicine as well as going to see a doctor cos this really isnt good. i think i might do what mark tremonti recommends and take a month off guitar (completely and utterly) and build my speed up again from scratch. atleast all the theory is already there.

i'll keep you posted on how this goes, but you've gotta give me a couple of weeks :)

Upright bass... now there's a wrist-killer if there ever was one! :eek:

I had to face up to my dreams of superstardom being wrecked due to acute tenosynivitis, a repetitive strain injury. I had large lumps on the back of both hands which were treated with steroid injections. Other failed medical "solutions" were quinine :confused: , ultra sound, a wider strap (duh), and just to pull myself together and stop whingeing. All these experts were right, however, in their insistence that resting it would make the pain go away. It took 6 years of not playing guitar, but they were right.

I put my malaise down to having too aggressive a style coupled with insufficient amplification, trying to be too clever, and band-practising with those damaging traits 3 times a week.

I'm getting back into playing now (wouldn't be on this forum else), but instead of attempting to be the greatest guitarist in the world I'm settling for attempting to be an adequate guitarist entertaining himself oo er occasionally and quietly in the house. Not a story on which Hollywood blockbusters are based.

My advice is stop when it hurts, have rest days from practice, and exhaust every route you can in the search for prevention or cure.

Oz.

sorry i have not been replying ... well i took off guitar for about 2 day and i could play for abouyt a week and then the pain came back :mad: and its really hard to get any where with every 5 min my hand hurting. the pain is not so bad that i have to suddanly have to drop the guitar its that it gives me a feeling that if i play any more i might wreack it for like. and anouther problum is that im only 13 and i have devoted my life to guitar and im not just about to quit to a wrist problum. i dont have big bumps on my wrist tho. and i dont warm up before i play because i am self taught and dont know any of that stuff like warm ups and stuff. well to answer some of your questions, its my neck arm that hurts umm i looked on the internet to see the simtomes and i dont match the carpel tonn... (how ever your spell it) thingy. if some one has some thing please tell me im dieing to know and i really badly want to get to playing back to some heavy metal metallica again soon :o

Don't know what to suggest dude.
You should get it x-rayed and get a professional opinion.

The only other thing I can think of is to give up guitar for a month.
Get yourself a wrist brace and wear it all the time, that way you're constantly reminded that you have a problem with your wrist and won't use it doing other things either. Then a month from now, try easing yourself back into playing... being sure to warm up first before every session.

are you playing with the right posture? you should always play sitting up in the chair you are playing in or just stand up while playing. i used to practice in a chair and lean back in it, almost totaly horizontal, it was comfortable for a month or so then my wrist started bothering me. i started sitting up and the pain went away after about a week. it was hard to get back in the habbit of sitting up though. i just started playing standing up.

kk ill try do do that, is it possable i could of just pulled a muslie in my wrist?

I used to get wrist pain on my fretting side when I first started whenever I played, because I had a previous injury and it was just stressing it too much to have it in that position. That injury never completely healed and probably never will, but I did adapt to hold my guitar in different ways that were comfortable so I can still play just as well, in fact I am better now than ever. Maybe you just need a new position, and then the pain will cease and you can continue to improve.

ok ive taken off 2 weeks of guitar and i picked it up again and i started to hurt after just 2 min of playing! :mad: :mad: now i can barly play any of my stuff i use to play and i cant improuve because my wrist is killing me!! i have no idea what to do and now its come to the point where im thinking about quiting guitar because im just wasting my time with it

That really sucks.
Have you been to a doctor and gotten xrays yet?
That'd be the next step just to be sure you don't have something visibly wrong. You might have to go take some physical therapy or something too.
Last but not least... Tylenol 3's work wonders.
Can't remember if anybody suggested it but do a bunch of research on carpal tunnel syndrome and see what info you can find.
Hell... last thing ya wanna do is give up guitar if you can help it.

well my dad at the beggining when this started dident want to take me to the doctor just to take a week of now that i have done that ive gotten him to bring me in to the doctor in like 2 days or so so hopefully i can find out what i wrong and fix it :)