Tips to prevent injury

[EllaMom]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

It's all about this surely.

Good lessons for posture were developed way back when guitars were no wider than classicals, and played in the classical way.

Western style (guitar waist on the right thigh) twists us, and wider guitars hunches up our right shoulder.

This can be managed without gizmos - but , when I get back from hospital, I'll try to start another thread with some , hopefully helpful thoughts on this. stay tooned - off to get zapped again.

Stay loose.

Silly Moustache, best of luck on your 'zapping'...and I am eager for you to share more on posture when you get back here.

[frankhond]

My injury issues always came down to bent wrist in the fretting hand (numbness, tingling, pain etc). Now i adjust everything else to enable wrist to stay straight as much as possible. I use a strap at all times. Neck is parallel if song requires lots of thumb over neck fretting, otherwise more tilted. Also neck points away from body somewhat. If i feel wrist bending to much I adjust angles immediately.

Second issue has been right shoulder. Unfortunately remedy turned out to be sell my lowden O23...

[ShawnH]

Well something I will add right now is don't ignore (or in my case willfully ignore) what your body is telling you. I am suffering from some fairly serious tendinitis in my right shoulder. It's awful and for months I have been telling myself that it must be something other than the intense flatpicking practice I have been putting in. Well I'm pretty sure at this point that is exactly what it is and I'm guessing that I may be looking at a minimum of a few weeks of no playing to get this to calm down and see if I can ease back in.

Had I been smarter about it in the beginning I believe I could have avoided this situation.

[EllaMom]

Originally Posted by ShawnH

Well something I will add right now is don't ignore (or in my case willfully ignore) what your body is telling you. I am suffering from some fairly serious tendinitis in my right shoulder. It's awful and for months I have been telling myself that it must be something other than the intense flatpicking practice I have been putting in. Well I'm pretty sure at this point that is exactly what it is and I'm guessing that I may be looking at a minimum of a few weeks of no playing to get this to calm down and see if I can ease back in.

Had I been smarter about it in the beginning I believe I could have avoided this situation.

That's a bummer. At least you can not definitively pinpoint the source. I know that after about an hour of playing, I start to feel it in my shoulder, up toward the neck. Time to give it a rest!

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by SunnyDee

I was having some tingling and numbness, so I think about this a lot. I wish I could play with a strap. I tried and it works great for a while, but then it causes strain on my neck and back, even if it's very lightly hanging, like when I'm sitting. ...I want to try some stands and supports when I get back to the US.

The best place I have right now is actually sitting on the floor at the top of the stairs because it puts my back to the wall and one leg [fretting] up with the other [strumming] down out of the way.

OMG! I just, accidentally, figured out the most comfy way I've EVER held the guitar. Still on the floor at the top of the stairs, holding the guitar classical style, but now the strap is looped over my strumming-side knee, which was an accident! The guitar is now perfectly positioned and balanced with the waist curved over my fretting-side knee. The guitar is stable in the right position and I'm not holding it up with my hands at all. It's effortless! This is the best thing ever! Can you tell I'm excited? I've been struggling with getting a good position for a year.