I’m talking about the right hand here (or left hand if you’re a South Paw) and injury management and remediating a playing style that has brought about injury is something I have first hand (ahem, ‘scuse the pun) experience of. Yup, I have experienced the pain and annoyance of an injured wrist, with carpal tunnel syndrome type symptoms. I also have experience in successfully remedying the situation – phew!
What I’ve learnt and then implemented (and then helped others with subsequently) is that your seated posture with your guitar is so very important, as this then influences the position of your right arm and hand in relation to that.
Problems can begin to arise over time where the wrist is being cramped up and squished up (technical term there) frequently over time. And this tends to occur if you’re playing with your right hand more or less at 90 degrees, or a similar angle, to your forearm. There are other influencing factors, but we’ll talk about those in other blog posts.
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Some people seem to manage playing in this way without trouble. However, talking from my own personal experience, other teachers and a number of students that come my way, this is not the case for a significant number of guitarists.
One of the first steps in remedying that tingling, pins-and-needles, numb and often painful feeling in the wrist, thumb, palm and/ or fingers is to reposition yourself so that your hand and forearm are more or less in a straight line. It doesn’t have to be perfectly, ruler straight, but should be more straight than less so, most of the time.
Think about it – the wrist is not a massive space. This is the passageway that connects your forearm and your hand, with bone and connective making up its structure and a whole heap of tendons and nerves passing through it. Squishing up that area with a flexed 90 degree type playing style with your right hand is (a) going to make the fingers more difficult to move in the first instance as the tendons are not able to move as freely as they might otherwise, and (b) impinging on these tendons and nerves in this way over time – frequently, regularly and consistently (and with tension involved – but we’ll talk about that later) is going to increase the likelihood of inflammation, entrapment and compression. This can then lead to pain, pins-and-needles and weakness in the wrist, hand and fingers, which can then lead to reduced playing ability and in the severest cases may mean you need to stop playing altogether – not good!
A Guitarist Playing With Support And With Bent Position Of The Wrist.
Playing with a more open right wrist, facilitated by keeping a straighter line between hand and forearm, will set you on the path to remedying an existing situation (as it did with myself). Even better, if you’re just setting out on the path of learning to play the guitar or picking it up again after a hiatus, instil this as your “situation normal” way of playing from the outset. It will make things a heck of a lot easier and a lot less painful instilling this as a new hair rather than undoing the painful and potentially debilitating alternative.
* NB – this blog post doesn’t in any way represent any medical advice and if you have pain you should always seek medical attention.Yes, guitar playing can cause carpal tunnel syndrome if you’re not careful. Extended hours of practice, bad posture, repetitive wrist movements, and a lack of proper hand and wrist exercises can cause tingling and numbness in your fingers, which can develop into carpal tunnel before you know it.
Two-thirds of guitar players are prone to carpal tunnel, so this is definitely not something you should take lightly. Many of them stop being able to play their instrument.
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If you’re questioning whether you might have carpal tunnel due to guitar playing, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll help you identify, prevent, and solve this terrible medical condition, and get you back to playing the songs you love.
However, you should note that we cannot offer you medical advice, and getting a proper check-up by a qualified doctor is recommended if you suspect you have these symptoms.
All we can do is point you in the right direction, and that’s what this article will do, once you read on.
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Carpal tunnel syndrome affects those who use their wrists in a repetitive motion for long periods. Since playing the guitar counts as a repetitive motion, it could cause this debilitating problem.
Inside your wrist joint, the flexor tendons travel through a passage called the carpal tunnel. The median nerve is also present along with these tendons. The median nerve is the main highway for your brain’s signals to travel to your fingers. This can particularly affect the index finger and middle finger.
When performing repetitive movements of the kind that guitar playing requires, you can overwork your flexors. This makes their coverings fill up with fluid and swell. Problems happen when this swelling occurs in the wrist joint and compress the median nerve.
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The squeezed median nerve creates a neuropathy or compression injury, also called carpal tunnel syndrome. The nerve cannot process the brain’s signals the way it used to, and this can cause pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness of the hand.
Carpal tunnel is actually quite common in guitar players. Exact statistics are hard to obtain because there are no excellent clinical surveys. Still, one study shows that 62.5% of classical guitarists and 87.5% of flamenco guitarists have some kind of overuse disorder. This includes carpal tunnel syndrome.
So to tell you just why you should address this issue ASAP, the same study shows that the ability to play the guitar declined severely in 50% of classical guitarists and 82.1% of flamenco guitarists.
Can Guitar Playing Cause Carpal Tunnel?
If you think you might have carpal tunnel syndrome, don’t delay an appointment with your doctor. If you do, you might just lose your ability to play your instrument.
The mild stage is when symptoms begin to show up. This is also when you should do something about it. Arresting the problem in the mild stage makes sure that you can continue playing the guitar without much difficulty.
50% of cases caught and resolved at this stage get back to work with simple rest and some night bracing. If you overlook your symptoms during this stage, they will definitely get worse.
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This stage is when pain, numbness, and tingling are only just beginning. Often there is a “stress delay”, where your symptoms might show up either immediately or sometime after playing.
In almost all cases, symptoms creep up slowly, and many guitar players do not notice a problem unless they think about it. A surefire way to tell that you have carpal tunnel in this stage is if the symptoms happen at night while you’re trying to sleep.
The moderate stage is when your problems start worsening fast. If you leave your stress injury untreated in this stage, you might have to put your guitar down for the remainder of your life.
Fingers And Thumbs, Or Getting Your Digits Sorted For Playing
In the moderate stage, your fingers will always be numb, and hand clumsiness might set in. The severe pain might even lead to insomnia.
The loss of strength and agility in the hands poses a problem for most guitarists in this stage. Your hand strength may decrease by about 50%, to the point where opening a jar will prove difficult. At this stage of carpal tunnel, guitar players tend to lose agility and dexterity.
The moderate stage of carpal tunnel coincides with losing the sensation of delicate touch in your fingertips. This lack of sensation will affect your daily life as well as your guitar playing.
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Do not stall your doctor’s appointment if you find yourself identifying with these symptoms. Talk to a professional immediately and get appropriate treatment to prevent it from worsening.
This stage is when your carpal tunnel will become irreversible. There is muscle degeneration, and patients lose all hand and finger strength.
The numbness or pain is constant, and there is no respite during either the day or the night. Patients usually describe the numbness as “crushing” and ”relentless” and often need prescription pain medication to deal with it.
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Eventually, patients will lose all hot and cold sensations from their hands. We don’t think it’s necessary to say that you won’t even be able to pick up a guitar if you let your carpal tunnel progress to this stage, let alone play as well as you used to.
The general rule of thumb is to get your symptoms checked out when you think something’s up. You could risk altogether losing the ability to play your guitar otherwise.
The more severe your symptoms get, the more invasive the treatment will be. This will drastically reduce your chances of ever getting back to your guitar.
Classical Guitar Practice Techniques
As we’ve already mentioned in the article, carpal tunnel syndrome develops when you use your hands and your wrist joints to perform repetitive movements over a long period. Playing the guitar can mean very repetitive motion for your wrists.
We speak from personal experience when we say that you need to fix your
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