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Wrist tendonitis (guitar player, fretting hand)
by Guillaume
Joshua Comments: You're welcome! I have a wrist tendonitis on my left hand (guitar fretting hand) that keeps coming back, sometimes it takes 3 months but sometimes it comes back after 2 weeks and it can take a lot of time to go away sometimes. Joshua Comments: Yep. That's exactly how the Tendonitis works. I had tendinitis in my other wrist in the first and second years I've been playing guitar but now it doesn't come back at all. I think this is because I make a lot less effort in my wrist than before so my muscles dont get too tight even tho I play a lot faster and use it a lot (I mostly play metal so a lot of constant fast picking). That gives me hope that my other hand will one day stop bothering me with tendonitis. Joshua Comments: It's certainly possible. My first question is about ice dipping: "3. Repeatedly over a two hour period, dip your entire hand and forearms into an Ice Dip in your sink for 5-10 seconds. 5-10 seconds ONLY. Repeat this a minimum of 10 times, while you're making dinner, when a commercial comes on, between chores, etc. You want the CUMULATIVE effect of Ice Dipping over and over." where you say "repeat a minimum of 10 times" do you mean dipping 10 times for a period of 2h or dipping 10 times every tv commercials (like 10x every 15 minutes)?? I guess you meant the first but I want it to be clear so I do it correctly. Joshua Comments: A minimum of 10 dips within a 2 hour period. also can I do it for a longer period to get better results ?? Joshua Comments: Up to 20-30 seconds, but anything more is diminishing returns. You just want the 'shock' that cold causes. also would you recommend to do some "stretching" when actually having pain ? for example, right now I start to feel pain when I bend my wrist at a 30degree angle, would you recommend to make some very light stretch of like 20-25degrees ? Joshua Comments: Absolutely. Anything lengthening is good. I heard that keeping it straight all the time is bad for recovery. I also noticed that after doing this my wrist can move a bit further without causing pain. Joshua Comments: Immobility is BAD! Connective tissue shrinkwraps and leaves things tighter, literally, than they were before. I also find something strange with my pain : I feel pain on the back of my wrist (on the side where the finger tendons are) but I feel this pain when moving my wrist upward (like if my palm is resting on a table and I try to move my wrist up). The tendons are not stretching they are more like "compressing", how can it hurt a lot more when compressing than stretching ? Joshua Comments: The tendons are responding to muscle contraction, which adds tension. So they aren't stretching long, they're stretching short. Gotta think about that one for a minute. When playing guitar I always focus on being relaxed and using only the strength necessary so until recently I thought my technique was correct and that the inflammation came only because of overuse. I found out just recently that my guitar was always at a 30-45 angle (so that I can easily see what fret I am pressing with my left hand) and that was causing my wrist to be bent a lot when playing (60-80 degree). I try hard to re-learn my posture so that my wrist is as straight as possible when fretting. I found out that even now (while having a tendinitis) I can play without feeling pain this way (I'll still wait for it to go away completely before playing for real tho..) while I cant even push a string with my old posture without being hurt... my question about this is : do you think having the wrist as straight as possible will lower the "overuse" ? Joshua Comments: Yes and no. Go with 'yes' for now. prevention : when not having any pain, can doing some ice-dipping after playing keep it from developing tendonitis ? or do you have another tricks for this ? My main problem is that the pain keeps coming back... Joshua Comments: Absolutely! Even if you don't feel pain, that doesn't mean there isn't a lot going on under the surface of your skin. We're always in a Downward Spiral, or an Upward Spiral, due to the Pain Causing Dynamic. and a last one : I realized that my fingers are not very flexible when moving up (I cannot move them so they are straight in line with my hand without effort) could having better flexiblity in my fingers help prevent damages to my wrist tendons ?? Joshua Comments: ABSOLUTELY!!!! btw , thx for helping ppl like this, I like how your site has a lot on information not just on how to heal but also on why it hurts (other sites just say "it is an inflammation of the wrist") I also like how your site gives me hope that my problems can be solved :P Joshua Comments: You're very welcome. Thanks for showing up and being motivated. ---- Joshua Answers: I usually answer in a section below the original submission, but this time I'm answering in bold, up above. ---------------------- Please reply using the comment link below. Do not submit a new submission to answer/reply, it's too hard for me to find where it's supposed to go. And, comments have a 3,000 character limit so you may have to comment twice. -----------------------  Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T. The Tendonitis Expert www.TendonitisExpert.com
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