Originally Posted by: mja155Yeah as others have said. Your action may be too high so you have to press down harder and also you may want to get some lighter strings? On my electric the strings are so light that playing a bar chord barely feels like anything.

Try out some finger strengthening exercises. Playing the guitar will help strengthen your fingers over time. If they hurt stop playing because if you play with sore wrists and fingers they will get weaker.

I used to have the url for a really good video on youtube about this. Try stretching your wrists and fingers before each session, this video may help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I63ld7wZCs

Good advice but those hand exercises on the video look brutal!! Good principle but to me it looks like excessive force. I would suggest to stop applying force before the tendons look like they might pop!