A very important attitude to have as a guitarist is to be relaxed when you play the guitar. It really takes a good warm up to get relaxed and to stretch your muscles. When we learn something new on guitar, we either tense up the right hand, left hand, or both hands. You really only learn new things at your best when you are entirely relaxed. This is definitely something that should be considered important, because you really need to feel it to learn it. One may have played their instrument for 25 years or so and never have a problem with any stress in the wrist, and all of a sudden they over did something, and it flairs up. It is good to be prepared.

Tension you may have while playing guitar is normal for beginners, but it happens to advanced players, too. The goal is to be able to recognize it before it gets bad, and causes bad habits; tightening of muscles, or even carpal tunnel problems from just simply playing professionally, and so often.

Having a guitar teacher/coach is beneficial to you in many ways. A good teacher is always looking at your body posture; hands, arms, wrist, neck and shoulders, as well as observing how you take to the new lesson. They will point out the tension as soon as they see it in you, and will advise how you can release it so that you learn to play it with different posture.

The Wrist and Hands have a Median Nerve

If your hands and wrists become tight for a long period of time from doing several tasks on the guitar, you will be over exerting the shoulders, arm, and wrist. There is a nerve running through a narrow channel just below the wrist muscle. If this nerve starts to shrink and gets tight, you have to learn how to stop playing and stretch before it gets chronic. Results include hand pain, numbness, and weakness in the wrist and thumb.

When you pick up that guitar, be sure to relax your neck and shoulders, and sit up straight on the edge of the chair. If you need more support, you can put your left foot on a box or a proper foot stand, or what ever you can rig up. First, play a scale and one octave arpeggios’ very slow. If you feel any tension at the base of the head or neck, stop and stretch your back by lying on the floor and forcing your pelvic bone to be straight and your back straight, touching all areas of the floor. Sit like this first and relax, and then while keeping your waist and lower back glued to the ground, lift your head, neck, and chest up around 7 inches in order to feel the stretch. Hold the stretch for 10 seconds, rest, and do it again. You may feel strain, but don’t over do it. You will find your way.

Taking a hot bath or shower before practicing is also a great way to get the most out of your daily practice time. You will feel clean, refreshed, and the hot water soaking your skin will relax the muscles throughout your body.

As soon as you identify tension in your body when playing, stop immediately and figure out how to change your body posture when practicing to get rid of the tension. Do not, under any circumstances, grab the neck like it’s a baseball bat…

Finally, I have included a link to teach you how to stretch, and how to release tension in your wrist and hands. It is good exercise to do as a daily warm up, weather or not you have carpal tunnel in your wrist. I think it is a great video posted by Richard Metzger.

By: Rick Washbrook
July 27, 2011

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Exercises that really work
Posted by Richard Metzger on Tuesday, Mar 31st at 6:58pm

http://boingboing.net/2009/03/31/carpal-tunnel-syndro.html

Guitar Lessons Newmarket A New TESTIMONIAL for Rick Washbrook Guitarist

http://www.prlog.org/11596391-guitar-lessons-newmarket-new-testimonial-for-rick-washbrook-guitarist.html

Guitar Lesson Newmarket Topics on Carpal Tunnel and Correcting Stress