Thank you for the suggestion, I suppose you are right. I have noticed applying more force than necessary and I will have to be more focused on increasing efficiency and reducing strain.
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Another thing to check would be how high the action is on your guitar. (distance between strings and fret board) An action that is too high requires much more effort to play. I had a guitar with the action too high, and it was a real workout! I took it to my local guitar shop and had the action lowered. It was much easier to play and required far less effort.
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Thanks and welcome to the forum!
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I’m practicing about 15 hours a week at about two years in. Occasionally I have finger pain. I press too hard on the frets so am working at that. Also when I get finger pain I spend a few days working on strumming hand stuff or Barre chords (most of my pain was in the fretting index finger). Lastly, take a few days off and work on music theory. Oh, also, do a lot of hand and finger stretches. I also like finger squeezes where one hand tightly squeezes two fingers other hand for 5-10 seconds at a time, moving through the fingers of both hands.
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Thanks, good to know. That’s what I have been mostly doing this week: strumming and things that do not stress the fingers much especially the little one.
Still practicing some songs but selectively and paying attention to any pain. Dropped for now those that feel like they stress the hand.
I finished the 4th module of the Theory course and, wait for it, started from writing a riff and ended up with a song LOL, intro, outro, verses, fills, bridge, chorus, no solo, of course 
Never thought I would write a song. Let alone a metal song, being a hard rock guy more than a metal guy. But I came across a tone I really enjoyed (while fooling around with the Boss Pocket GT, it is my tweaks off Eddie Van Halen 5150) and it was suited to metal so…
The hand is okay, not great but okay. I have been stretching a lot. Only played scales yesterday and I did feel it at night so today I spent time recording the song, which involves a lot of breaks instead of constant playing. I was recording one component at a time.
My time will be more constrained by work come Monday as I am starting a project that I want to finish by summer. This is why I was not willing to drastically reduce practice this week: I will have to do so soon anyway.
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Here is an update for future reference. My symptoms are those of carpal tunnel syndrome and using braces over the last two nights has helped a great deal. I also do exercises and massage in addition to the warm up (so a few times a day). I am now only practicing intervals and such super lights things (finding triads on neck for example) and doing ear training while letting my hands recover. I do a lit bit of song work but nothing new and with great attention to any pressure and to wrist position.
The little finger on the left hand is a mystery as I an not as sure if it is the nerve or the finger itself. I am especially careful with it only using it for a few power cords. I have stopped scales for the moment even at low BPM.
In short, two weeks later I am starting to make some progress towards healing. Practice has not been altogether eliminated but it has been reduced to minimum-effort stuff and a short duration. I hope to do 1 hr/day next week, keeping with this very light regimen.
I will reassess next Friday and see if I can gently restart scales at low BPM (100) and such.
I had no plans for new material for December and I have no problem extending the consolidation stage for months if needed. There is plenty to learn on the theory and ear training fronts.
Thanks again for all the replies.
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Hi Steve, good to hear that your hand is healing. Sometimes, it’s necessary to step back with the practice a bit. But as you’ve discovered, there is much guitar related stuff to learn without using the fretting hand.
And writing a whole song is really remarkable 
.
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Here is an update 5 months later!
It has been a lot worse than feared. But I have not stopped practicing, I have learned A TON about guitar-related health issues, yeah, first hand, and finally my nasty neck/nerve issue seems to be improving rather than worsening, for the first time since November.
I posted the update here:
Cheers and thanks for the replies. Bottom line is that you can cause a massive nerve issue very easily. I knew that could happen with minor problems like trigger finger but had no idea that wrong neck/upper body posture can result in a major nerve issue quickly.
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Sorry to hear about the neck! I can relate, with a neck problem of my own. It didn’t hurt my guitar too much, but when my shoulder went too weak to shave my bald head, I ended up getting a nerve block (TFESI). Helped a ton and hasn’t returned yet.
What I find helpful is home traction. I recommend (to my patients) starting with a gentle technique using inexpensive inflatable devices found online. They work ok, don’t cost much and are not dangerous like over the door traction.
(PM me if you want a link)
Chiropractic adjustments are ok, IF they are not doing high amplitude neck adjustments. There is a host of literature on strokes caused by high amplitude adjustments of the neck (dissection of arteries) in neurology literature.
Good luck on the recovery!
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What’s the chiropractic treatment that is helping?
Standard chiropractic adjustment i.e. “cracking your back” or similar?
As Justin says, if you experience pain while playing, STOP. Should you not, you could end up with not playing guitar for a long time.
Yes, standard adjustment.
About the other comment:
Obviously, I would not have bothered writing anything if it were obvious. My post is for adult beginners, primarily. When I was 20 yo I could do all sorts of crap and be just fine. Those days are eventually over.
My point is THAT ONE CAN CAUSE MASSIVE ISSUES WITH ABSOLUTELY NO PAIN WHATSOEVER, JUST BY STAYING IN A WRONG POSTURE FOR ANY EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME, ONCE (while presumably being tense and applying excess pressure being a novice).
When I did the car repair and got so much worse, it was also painless in the neck or elsewhere and it was a single application of force from an awkward position (that would have likely caused no issues had I not developed an issue already; this was not my first cv axle replacement).
Stop if pain, keep going if sore really does not begin to cover the various scenarios.
Absolutely correct. I suffered through a year of pain with tennis elbow because I practiced barre chords with bad technique and too much tension.
In my case, the solution was Trigger Point therapy - deep massage of specific arm muscles with a hard rubber ball.
Glad to hear the chiropractor is helping you!
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Thanks for the reply and for sharing your experience!
Incidentally, I had no further adjustments today but I did have a deep massage!
Well, my forearms and the triceps areas were prefect. I had worked on them for months using a tennis ball as one of the ways.
BUT my neck, the areas on my back, some spots in the armpit, Oh My, were those TIGHT.
Apparently, my main exercises 1 set of 50 pushups 2-3 times per week over 10+ years was very lopsided (same as guitar playing) and without coupling it with something like rowing it caused over time a lot of tightness in various places.
Add all the countless hours of work on a desk and…even more tight muscles.
I keep practicing without looking and maintaining close to perfect posture and yeah Justin is of course right: it is not as scary as it seems to play without looking, at least the things I know.
I found a video offering an extremely effective way of releasing tight muscles, but I do not know if we are allowed to post such links.
Are we?
Absolutely! As long as it does not directly compete with one of Justin;s videos it should be fine.
IME, tennis balls are good for really sore muscles, but too soft to really dig in deep…especially for bigger muscles.
Here’s my self treatment kit:
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Trigger Point workbook. Tells you where to massage…which is sometimes quite far from where the pain is felt.
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Backknobber for difficult to reach places like the back
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Lacrosse ball and small hard toy store ball
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Sharper Image massage gun from Costco. My latest purchase, only $100 Cdn. I’m using it in preference to the rubber balls more and more.
With these, I can get almost instant pain reduction whenever I need it.
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That’s great! Yeah the tennis ball is light duty.
Here is what helped me fix the left elbow, the tight spot was on the triceps (two of them):
I don’t think this is the elbow video but same principles:
Interesting. He calls it tendinitis, but he’s basically describing trigger point massage, which treats the muscles, not the tendons.
The “press-hold-move” technique was new to me, however.
Yeah, that’s a good one. My massagist today also said it is really helpful.
One thing I am happy about is that regular guitar practice with good posture does not aggravate the problem. It took me 6 months to be sure.
But now, I can keep going with a decent routine. Except we are going to British Columbia for a month on vacation and then I am off to Italy for work/family reunion and so it will be August before I set into hopefully a long-term routine.
I will take my 23.5" travel guitar to Invermere, BC though I have the Justin metronome on my phone
Whether the morning stiffness remains with me or eventually goes way, things are looking up for a change.
This is important. More than how to work out injuries, prevention is key.
If you are developing pain from playing, then you are either playing too much for your endurance level (overuse), or using incorrect mechanics (posture and hand position).
Paying close attention to these things and, most importantly, being willing and able to make changes, is the best option.
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