For about the last 7 or 8 years, I’ve suffered with an increasing amount of tendonitis in my picking arm and tendons & muscles in my forearm. I’d like to offer some information to fellow pickers who struggle with “Picking tendonitis” or problems associated with discomfort or muscle-pain during practice and what I did that eliminated it almost overnight.
My problem with tendonitis/muscle pain and stiffness gradually increased with an increase in practice-time. At times over the past few years, I was filled with nightmares that I might have to curtail or even quit picking. Then, I happened across these two short videos that really had an amazing impact in removing all traces of my soreness. In short, I can now practice as long as I want without any discomfort at all.
While most banjo or guitar players don’t consider themselves “athletes”, to your fingers, hands and arms, picking is most certainly an athletic event! Initially, I was very skeptical of the stretching exercises and relaxation techniques until I began to actually do them. To be honest, the opening and closing of my right hand while finding and squeezing my sore forearm muscles & tendons with my left-hand to remove the Tendinitis was very painful at first and gave a burning sensation, but within a day, I could feel my tendons and muscles releasing and pain-free movement of my picking hand was restored in short order. What I can tell you is this: I now treat my hands and arms like the athletes they are and begin every practice session and warm-up with a routine of finger tendon stretching and forearm muscle relaxation techniques. After suffering with discomfort for so long, praise God I’ve been practicing about 4X more than ever with no discomfort for the last year. I begin and end each practice session with these stretches and my hands and arms love it. Happy picking!
Removing Banjo/Guitar tendonitis:
Part-1
Part-2
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