Hand cramp - you guys ever run into this?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tallcoolone
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gibson08 said:
Yep, like some others have said, I would be curious of the neck profile and string gauge. For me, a thinner neck is a cramp waiting to happen, I dont play out or anything like you and that sounds like a long set, so yes on the hydration as well.
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Skinny necks make my hand cramp too—those LPs are R8s, just about all my guitars have necks at or just below 1” thick. .010 gauge Burnished Nickel strings on all electrics
 
tallcoolone said:
Skinny necks make my hand cramp too—those LPs are R8s, just about all my guitars have necks at or just below 1” thick. .010 gauge Burnished Nickel strings on all electrics
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Maybe a combo of hand conditioning exercises and stretching could help if you foresee these marathon sets continuing. With stretches you could learn some that you could quickly do at some points during the set to just try and keep things loose and limber. That and concentrating on relaxing the fretting hand, which may be difficult if you like to have a more intense stage presence, but not impossible.
 
Your band sounds great.

Maybe it’s in the forearm?

I injured myself with an over abundance of hedge trimming eight years ago. It fucked my forearm up really bad. It got to the point where I could not hold a guitar let alone play a guitar.

It also caused hand cramping. My physical therapist was awesome and when I was done, I purchased one of these.

I’m not 100% but if I use this once in a while on the forearms, I play a lot better and my hands are more relaxed. I also have always used too much pressure on my fretting hand and this helps a little bit with that:

https://www.amazon.com/TheraGun-Rel...-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
 
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My left hand started giving me issues a few years ago. Usually playing barre chords, while standing, 5th fret or lower is when it's the worst.

Thankfully it doesn't affect most of what I play, but there's a few chord shapes and positions that I try my best to avoid now. I work in industrial maintenance, so I use my hands on a daily basis in a way that has me prone to ergonomic injury.
 
This used to happen to me live.. and only live.. not during rehearsals, not at home.. it was because i was a lot more intentional and focused with my performance and simply overdid it... you get an adrenaline rush, you want everything to be precise and perfect and sometimes.. it's also due to poorer live stage sound conditions where you may not be able to properly hear yourself ..you have to go lower with your onstage volume...which you are not used to compared to a cranked rehearsal space/volume... so you overcompensate with your playing to stay on the beat thinking that if i can't properly hear myself, the audience cannot either.. :) IEMs fixed this for me
 
tallcoolone said:
Skinny necks make my hand cramp too—those LPs are R8s, just about all my guitars have necks at or just below 1” thick. .010 gauge Burnished Nickel strings on all electrics
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Yep, we are all different though, I am usually good with R7s or R8s, 10s and I do a top wrap. K-Roll brings up a good point to with just over doing it, I am guilty of that on bends (why I started top wrapping) and just gripping it like I am hanging from it, haha.
 
What kind of venue is cool but says no break for 2.5 hours?
That there is some bullsh*t

I too got the live-show- only cramps that impacted chord playing but not single note leads.
I think it was due to jumping around and not paying attention to my breathing. In through the nose out through the mouth, just like exercising.
Also tried not to jump around as much (sadly)
 
tallcoolone said:
Played last weekend--cool venue but they want 2.5hrs no break which is stretching my stamina at 55 lol. Next to last song right at the end my hand just 'pings' and tightens up into essentially a claw. As you can see below, I literally couldn't play the last chord. Shook it off for the last song--Kashmir is cool but pretty low effort.

I take a good multivitamin every day, any other suggestions? Stretching techniques?

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You probably need to drink a decent amount of water especially towards the end of the set.

I was experiencing major hand cramps during rehearsals where my left hand looked like a twisted claw.

A few things that I had noticed:

1) I had a large cup of coffee before we started practice

2) The room was hot and we would be sweating in there

3) The cramps would go away right after I downed a full bottle of water

4) It never happened at home (only at rehearsals in the drummer's studio)
 
I have ms and it causes severe cramping. I usually have to take muscle relaxers every day because of it. Literally any repetitive motion will cause cramping. Totally unrelated to what you’re dealing with. I did see a video on YouTube where a guy suggested a bunch of different warm ups and stretches before playing. I can try and find it if you want me too.
 
My brother in law is a contractor who does everything. Usually hot, sweaty, physical work. He swears by drinking some pickle juice. Sounds crazy but he swears by it. Says it will absolutely kill the cramps. I will keep dropping flexorills myself….
 
JackBootedThug said:
My brother in law is a contractor who does everything. Usually hot, sweaty, physical work. He swears by drinking some pickle juice. Sounds crazy but he swears by it. Says it will absolutely kill the cramps. I will keep dropping flexorills myself….
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Electrolytes, your brother in law says absolutely reasonable thing.

Salt is electrolyte too but there are better sources of them.

Low levels of calcium might lead to cramps.

Magnesium helps with cramps. Other minerals in general, so might want to check up.
 
JackBootedThug said:
My brother in law is a contractor who does everything. Usually hot, sweaty, physical work. He swears by drinking some pickle juice. Sounds crazy but he swears by it. Says it will absolutely kill the cramps. I will keep dropping flexorills myself….
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That's a matter of routine over here. I save all mine for that reason. They even sell shots of it at the gas station. It does help. But if you are sweating multiple outdoor gigs asides just salt you still want zinc, potassium, and magnesium vitamins in quantities because the fluids are washing everything out. Over did it two summers ago and my mind was in a haze and my internal temp control was completely off kilter for a couple days until I hit those vitamins. I did two gigs last saturday, left at 9 a.m for the first one. It was 95 degrees out during that show and low 90's for the evening show. I pissed three times between then 9 am and midnight. It's all you can do to stay on top of hydration in those conditions.
 
grab the fleshy bits in your forearm, stick your fingers in and massage it.. hit the muscle-y bit near your elbow with a massage gun. every few massage squeezes, do some stretches.
do the same with your upper traps- neck muscles.
basically, start from neck down to wrist and everywhere you find a trigger point, work it.
do that regularly and after gigs.
warm up A LOT!
try to keep your chest out- don’t need to squeeze your shoulder blades or anything tensing you up- just good posture however you can.
drink water as others said.
 
Yep, this is easy. Drop the vitamins.

Fix ya diet. More greens, fruits. Raw as much as possible. Snack on berries and NUTS. Don't drink soda or energy drinks. Spoon full of honey every morning and night.

Each day blend up 1 banana, 1 apple, frosen blueberries, frozen mango, honey, 1 cup of yogurt. Drink it. You'll feel full and you have just killed the need for a vitamin but way better.

That with the other things, like some volume workout.. for you.. light weights and more reps targeting the pain areas. Get a hand gripper, a light one.... that will rehabilitate the hand. It has to be light stress with more rep. That's rehab.

Do that for 2 months you won't have anymore hand pain and shit like that. It'll be a thing of the past.

Goodluck🤘
 
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