Ice bath after intense practice?

SpiderWars

Well-known member
As I get older my hands just don't cooperate some days so I was trying to think of ways to help. Athletes take ice baths after intense practice so I was wondering if that might help. Anybody heard of guitar players doing anything like this? Warm soak beforehand? Mr Bubble or no?

I used to jam with a guy named Dave Munkhoff (sp?) and he had serious carpal tunnel-ish issues and would always bring a hair dryer to gigs so he could heat up his left wrist/hand (I believe this was post-surgery). Good player too.
 
Some type of recovery routine sounds reasonable. Stretching and such seems like it would help. Icing would help reduce inflammation I think. A warm soak would help circulation and loosen it up.
 
I have a twisted spine left me paralyzed on my left side. Missed 6 weeks work. Went to a chiropractor and he ices my back after every adjusting on the roller table.
so I think ice does wonders. Never took a ice bath though. :LOL: :LOL:
 
Mailman1971":23pxjwvf said:
I have a twisted spine left me paralyzed on my left side. Missed 6 weeks work. Went to a chiropractor and he ices my back after every adjusting on the roller table.
so I think ice does wonders. Never took a ice bath though. :LOL: :LOL:
Wow. Goodspeed to you.

I just realized the wording of my post looks vague, I meant just ice bath/warm soak your hand(s). :LOL: :LOL:
 
A hand soak in ice would help reduce any swelling or inflammation, it wouldn’t hurt.
Stretching before and after and sometimes in between playing helps me the most. Also, if your hand or arm starts hurting while playing, stop, stretch and rest it a couple minutes before continuing to play.

Playing style has a big impact. Try to play relaxed, don’t tense up the hand or arm, 9 times out of 10 my hand/arm starts hurting I realize I’m tensing up.

I always stretch from my shoulders to fingers and try to play relaxed. That’s helped me the most.
 
Massaging my arm almost daily now for a few years from the elbow down has provided tremendous relief for me.
There are some videos on YouTube specifically for guitarists and honestly, the techniques in them saved me a lot of pain and help keep me playing. Kudos to Gary Crowley. I also use a spike ball stick and a soft hockey ball to massage my forearms and hands daily and they work wonders! Best luck.
Ice never really helped me and heat made mine worse.
Massage those muscles and tendons. Itll help. Especially the underside of your forearm right under the elbow at your "arm belly"

 
As an aside..i also found for me, stretching before warming up made my pain worse after playing was done. So I switched to just "warming up" and gradually gearing up to "light speed" after about ten or so mins of slow syncopated playing without stretches etc, aside from stretching my back and upper body.

The massaging by far has given me the most relief when that pain/burning discomfort sets in. Its almost instant relief after about 5 mins.
 
I had a massage therapist start doing a treatment to my forearms years ago. Similar to Dopethrone's youtube video. She took her forearm bone and rub really hard from my elbom to my hands to flush to toxins out, check out his video at 5:20 ish give or take. Hurt like a bitch but worked great. She also recommended a ice bath/warm bath treatment. I don't remember the time line but I had a ice bath and a warm bath next to each other, 5 mins ice then into the warm water till you arm reached water tempt I think. Stretching also does wonders if you do it right and your injury isn't too far gone.
 
I’ve had tendon/wrist/forearm issues for years and a couple/few times a year got to see a friend who does sport massage to get me out of a bind when it gets so bad I can’t play. The video shown is pretty spot on and will help a lot, but what I didn’t see was working on the other side of the forearm where you can see the finger muscles move. You have to get into those pretty good as well, and it’s pretty easy to find the hot spots. Keeps me going.
 
I’ve had wrist issues from guitar (even had surgery).

My rules put simply: heat/stretch before playing, ice after.

I’ve done ice baths, both full body and just wrist, but for most people, I’d think a simple ice pack on the wrist for 15 minutes at a time should do it.
 
mchn13":215ntw6j said:
I’ve had tendon/wrist/forearm issues for years and a couple/few times a year got to see a friend who does sport massage to get me out of a bind when it gets so bad I can’t play. The video shown is pretty spot on and will help a lot, but what I didn’t see was working on the other side of the forearm where you can see the finger muscles move. You have to get into those pretty good as well, and it’s pretty easy to find the hot spots. Keeps me going.

The other videos in the series cover it. These massage techniques would work for any player of any level imho.
 
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