Originally Posted by: kjpro
Presently I'm trying to up my speed with hammer ons and pull offs using a metronome, and it's coming nicely.[/quote]
Good for you. :) What exercises are you doing?
[QUOTE=kjpro]
Is the pain normal when hammering and pulling or am i doing something wrong?

Some pain is a normal part of any exercise regimine in which you are building endurance & dexterity in a body part that is not yet used to it. Also, after a layoff, you will need to build back up to a certain endurance level. I've noticed that after playing blues licks for a week (for a gig or filming a lesson tutorial, for example), my hands are well adapted to that specific skill set.

But if I try to shift right to a couple hours of jazz or classical without working up to it, I have problems. This is because the fine motors skills required for different styles are, quite obviously, different! It's still guitar playing, but it requires different hand positions and motions.

You ought to view pain as an indicator that your body is not yet completely ready to deal with that specific activity. So, you can play through it a bit, but don't push it too hard or you are risking repetitive motion injuries.