Drink plenty of water mate. Water is really good to being cramp free.

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No no and no

Yes, that's what athletes do . . . but it may cut into my beer time. Juuust kidding!

Thanks.

SSS

ah mate if you find a good way round cramps then please let us lot know. Its a pain everyone suffers atleast once.

Hey I always tried to numb that pain, but could never get to the bar quick enough.

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No no and no

Believe me if anyone knows what you are going through it is me. It has been 22 months since I last played the guitar. I feel like smashing everything in the house at times. I finaly have a new doctor I am going to see and I dont want to hear anything except we are operating on the-----. If it works it works if not me teaching my son has somewhat eased the blow.

In your case anti inflamitory medicine , icing down and rest should get you some good days. I would also try and read as much as I could on what Les did.

I could remember being about 30 and taking a cab with my guitar and the driver who looked about 70 was asking me about playing. It turns out he worked in the orchestra pits on Broadway for over 40 years and played on over 500 recording sessions. When we pulled up to my place I actually asked him if he wanted to come in and jam and then he showed me his hands and it looked like someone took everyone of his fingers and broke them at the joint and that is why he was driving a cab. Severe Arthritis. Scared the $@!& out of me but now I know how he felt. I just pray to God I get to play again. And not to sound really twisted but I dont want to play slide or learn left handed or my brother hit me with the best Keyboards. I hust want to play like I always played and to just bend a string again.

Anyway this is about you Guitslinger, Les should be an inspiration and I think a good doctor and regimen can get you up and going and even if you have to take a long break ( I never thought I would make 22 days) I think you will be OK. i PUT YOU ON MY PRAYER LIST.

One thing I did to try to forestall arthritis was change to lighter strings. All of my guitars have .010s or .009s. A friend of a friend of mine plays a lot of guitar in the SRV style and has for many years. He still uses heavy strings and they have taken their toll on his hands.

I'd hate to go into retirement and have all the time in the world to spend with my guitars only to find that my hands won't allow me to play anymore.

Thanks for all the support guys,I didn't realize that there were so many in the same boat.I use D'Addario 8-38 on all my electrics and 10-46 on acoustics that helps.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

As a person who suffers from arthritis and has a long family history of the same as well as some background in natural/alternative healing, I'm going to drop my own $.02 worth in here...please use it only for what you feel it's worth. Also, considering the nature of this thread I'm going to add an addition disclaimer...while I have read and studied a great deal on this subject, please know that I am -NOT- a licensed physician...these are solely my own personal opinions based on my own experience and knowledge.

Whew...ok...I'm not going to dispute the wisdom of any of the other posters here...there are some very good suggestions there worth considering. Personally as a chronic pain sufferer myself, I too am a big fan of pot...if nothing else it helps me get to sleep at night. I'm also a really big fan of Flexall 454...it's one of those "stinky rubs". Smells just awful, but works well on those occasional tension cramps (even if it does send my drummer running for "fresh air", LOL!). I know that hematite/copper/magnetic bracelets certainly do help some folks as well (although personally I still think this is more psychosomatic more than anything). Personally I'm -not- a big fan of "pill popping" though for one simple reason...while various pain meds and even anti-inflammatorys will address the pain, even most of the newer ones don't really address the cause of the pain. Pills and rubs are ok for the occasional really bad pain...they get you thru the rough spots...but if you're taking them every day, you're not really addressing the actual cause of the pain and there is a VERY big difference.

Now please...bear with me here...
Both my mother and my grandmother had severe rheumatoid arthritis and I'm starting to feel it myself as I get older. The truth of the matter is that my grandmother became heavily addicted to Darvon because of it and my mother was infamous for the "pill of the week". Both of them spent most of their time waiting for a miracle cure...and obviously no such thing really exists. By the time my grandmother passed away, her fingers were badly "bent" and her hands were basically useless. Now I have to say here that neither of them were ever "weight lifters", neither of them ever worked on a farm or did anything that was terribly extraordinary...this is a family heredity thing. With my mother and my grandmother, they both just sat there and allowed their bodies to go to waste to the point that it was nearly impossible for either of them to really do anything about it. What's worse, is because of the pain they both "gave up on life"...they allowed their respective pain to control them and for all intensive purposes, stopped "living" long before either of them actually passed away.

With that, the single best piece of advice I can offer you is to seek out a good physical therapist. Have him/her show you some good low impact hand exercises and stretches and do those exercises RELIGIOUSLY. They -are- going to hurt like hell for the first few weeks...I guarantee it. This was the part my mother and grandmother never seemed to get...they'd do the exercises for a few days...it would hurt like hell...they wouldn't see any immediate improvement, so they would stop. It usually went something like this; "Oh...it just hurts too much...oh...I'm too tired...". All I could ever think was GET OVER IT! If you're going to have to deal with the pain either way, then you can either sit around wasting your life in your pain or you can at least be functional! It -really- drove me nuts to see two people I loved simply "give up".

As with Glucosamine or virtually any other homeopathic treatment, exercise takes TIME. Think of it this way...doing situps or crunchs for a week or two is -NOT- going to get rid of a beer gut let alone give you those 6 pack abs! The same is true of -ANY- exercise...you have to do them regularly and continuously to achieve any goal and you have to KEEP DOING THEM to maintain that goal. Depending on how bad your hands are, you may not notice much improvement for as much as 2 - 3 months but please believe me when I say that proper low impact exercises and stretches -DO- make a difference. Until someone does finally come up with that magic pill that makes things like arthritis and joint pain just "go away for good", exercise...proper exercise...is still the single best way to maintain your body including your hands and fingers.

On that specific note, I too am a big fan of the Chinese Meditation Balls...if nothing else they are really wonderful for teaching you finger coordination. Like any other exercise however again they must be done regularly if not religiously. I would however still seek out a good physical therapist for additional proper low impact hand/finger exercises.

Second to that, I also have to add that you may need to address your playing technique as well. Honestly, this is something that's probably even harder for...err...let's say "more seasoned players". I really don't know if this applies to you or not but a lot of guitar players in general really have very poor technique and some very bad habits. Playing something like guitar isn't exactly "ergonomically correct" to begin with...like people who type/use computers, it's not exactly a "natural" way to use your hands. I won't speak for everyone but I know that a great many of us (myself included) tend to have some very bad habits when we're playing...cocking our wrists at the wrong angle, wrapping the ol' thumb all the way around the neck, using -way- too much pressure on the frets/strings, etc., etc.. If you have bad habits such as these and you've been playing for a while, they can be -VERY- hard to break...to this day I still have to keep reminding myself to plant my thumb on the back of the neck! These types of issues will not only cause problems on their own such as carpel tunnel, they certainly exacerbate other existing issues such as arthritis as well.

Third...diet -IS- important...even for a guitar player! The old saying is quite true; you are what you eat. There are in fact a number of foods that will contribute to arthritis and joint pain. For example, calcium rich foods...a glass of milk does do a body good but if you're living on milk shakes, ice cream, hords of cheese, etc., etc., all of that WILL contribute to joint related pain. I hate to have to say this...and I'm sure most folks really do know this on some level but...proper diet and proper exercise will do your body more good than all of the miracle pills EVER will. Your body (including your hands) are only as good as you take care of it.

Last but not least, while I hate to say this, be prepared to deal with some degree of pain. As my physical therapist told me a few years back, "Welcome to your 40's!", LOL!!! The very sad truth of the matter is that for many people, some degree of physical pain is simply a part of getting older. The trick is learning to deal with it. Some folks...like my mother...just decide it's too hard and simply give up. My mother spend the last 10 years of her life parked in front of her TV (again waiting for that miracle cure) and pretty much just gave up on everything she ever really loved or cared about. In my own case, I -LOVE- playing guitar...it's part of who I am and I have no intentions of -EVER- quitting...no matter how much it hurts. I guess from this perspective you simply need to decide for yourself how important playing is to you...if you love playing, KEEP PLAYING. Don't ever stop. Just allow the pain to remind you that you -are- still alive.



Ok...I know there's some terribly rhetorical stuff there but sometimes it helps to hear it from another person. Either way I hope this helps you and I wish you the greatest of luck!

Peace,
Jim