That’s an interesting idea. Changing the chair as described above has helped a lot but I have made a significant change to my gear. Simple really, I bought a strap. It lifts the weight of the guitar off my legs and stabilizes everything really well. The best bit is that when I start to slouch, the guitar gently lands on my leg ad reminds me to “sit up straight, young man!” just like those old dragon teachers used to. 
The postural chances have also improved my breathing, making me more relaxed and vastly improving my singing. Out of the pain came unexpected growth. 
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I saw the doc for a check up yesterday and told hom about the probable guitar connection. He concurred and examined my abdomen just in case. No problems with my guts at all, it’s all muscular he says.
I’ve been retired nine years so it’s no wonder that my core muscles are a bit on the soft side. When I learned the F chord, odd little muscles all over me (even my back!) protested at first.
I took ten days off and after seven of them the side pains had gone away. I restarted carefully, avoiding twisting by using a mirror to look at my fretting hand - then discovered that I hardly ever use it. The inconvenience of the mirror image made me more or less stop looking while still giving me the feeling that I can if I wish.
Changing the chair, adding a strap, adjusting posture and not looking has made my playing a bit ropey but not as much as expected and my brain is quickly making the required changes. So, all in all, things are looking good. Thanks Lady and also @jvlynch and @mattswain for your advices.
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What you say about twisting reminds me of an issue I had in the past, not related to guitar, but amounts to the same thing.
At work I got myself a second monitor and put them side by side, and sat in the middle of them. Two screens are obviously better than one, right? What that actually meant was I spent most of my day slightly twisted in one direction or the other and it started to cause me pain. We’re not talking about a big twist but it shows over time how poor posture can affect us. Nowadays I use 1 external screen with my laptop screen directly under it so everything is in line and the problem is gone. I’ve got slightly less screen space this way but at least my body is happy
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DonUK61, sounds like you’re on the path to a full recovery, both physically and with the guitar. Thanks for taking the time to write back and say raising your feet/lowering the chair helped. Glad it’s working for you.
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Great work finding a more ergonomic way to ply guitar and avoid pain and injury! It often does take thinking about it.
In my neurology practice, I see headaches, neck pain and arm, wrist pain frequently. The common culprit is quit often poor ergonomics at a computer work station, but can include couch slouching, guitar playing and any other sustained posture that isn’t well aligned.
A google search on ergonomics and a reasonable effort to apply those principles to a given situation is well worth it. It is best done before injuring yourself, if you remember to think of it.
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Yes! Feeling well=playing well too.
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I have yet to be able to correlate to two, myself…